Aviva Canada’s quirkiest claims of 2019

In the last year, Aviva Canada has handled thousands of property and auto claims, including a few quirky and unusual ones.

Here are some of the quirkiest:

• Chaotic kitchen kitties: Two home alone kittens accidentally turned on the kitchen faucet, causing the sink to overflow and flood the kitchen while Aviva’s customer was at work. In the hours before the customer returned home, significant damage was caused to the floor tile and cupboards, but Aviva connected the customer with a contractor and her kitchen and cats are now back to normal.

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  Frisky kittens, sneaky snakes, crime fighting and more – Aviva Canada shares most quirky and unusual claims from the last year (CNW Group/Aviva Canada Inc.)

  Just passing through: A customer’s truck was stolen from a local hotel. He asked a friend to pick him up and called Aviva while in the car. While sharing the details to start the claim, the customer spotted his stolen truck passing him on the highway. The customer stayed on the phone with the insurer while his friend called 911. The police arrested the driver and Aviva arranged to have the vehicle inspected. The customer ultimately got his truck back undamaged.

• Rising out of the ashes: A fire caused the loss of the customer’s entire collection of 36 antique collector cars. Aviva paid out his claim, which included the value of the 36 cars and he’s already started rebuilding his collection. But he also asked to keep all 36 of the burnt vehicles, telling the insurer he had plans to create a museum on his property.

• Friendly neighbourhood drywaller: A drywall contractor showed up at a customer’s house to make necessary repairs to the basement, but when he got downstairs, all of the walls had already been dry walled. As it turns out, a house up the street was being rebuilt and their tradesperson went to the wrong home by accident. Aviva’s contractor got the day off and the additional repairs to the basement are still ongoing.

• Sneaky serpentine stowaway: A customer rented a vehicle in Mexico and got into a minor accident while leaving a parking lot. He pulled over to check the damages and when he checked under the hood, he was surprised to find a large snake wrapped around the engine. Although the snake didn’t cause any damage, Aviva paid out the body damage and the customer went safely (sans snake) on his way.

Aviva Canada reported that it paid 99% of its claims in 2018, meaning that in 2018 it paid 256,367 customer claims worth more than $2.7 billion (data calculated by dividing all paid and rejected claims by the total number of claims received between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2018. The figure includes home and auto claims).