General information about how home insurance claims commonly work in Alberta. Your own policy wording decides what's covered, so read it and ask your insurer or broker to confirm anything that matters to you.
If you and your insurer agree the loss is covered but disagree about how much it costs to fix, Alberta has a process for settling that without going to court. The statutory conditions in Alberta’s Insurance Act are deemed part of every property policy in force in the province, and Statutory Condition 11 says disagreements about the value of the property, the nature and extent of the repairs, or the amount of the loss must be settled through the Act’s dispute resolution process. Policies and people usually still call it appraisal.
It is useful and widely unknown. It is also often the wrong tool, and knowing which situation you’re in matters more than knowing the process.
What it resolves, and what it doesn’t
This is the distinction that decides whether appraisal helps you.
- It resolves the amount of the loss: disagreements about value, the repairs required and their cost.
- It does not decide coverage: whether the policy responds at all, whether an exclusion applies, whether the damage is hail or wear. The Act has the amount settled independently of any other question, so a denial on those grounds needs a different route.
- So: “we agree your roof is hail damaged but we say $9,000 and you say $16,000” is an appraisal matter. “we say this is wear, not hail” is not.
Roughly how the process runs
The mechanics are in section 519 of the Insurance Act, which calls the appraisers dispute resolution representatives.
- Either side demands it in writing, once the proof of loss has been delivered to the insurer.
- Within 7 days of the demand, each side appoints its own representative. It can’t be the insured, the insurer, or an employee of either. If a side fails to appoint one, the Court can appoint one on application.
- Within 15 days of being appointed, the two representatives appoint an umpire. If they don’t, either representative can apply to Alberta’s Superintendent of Insurance, who appoints an umpire from the names put forward.
- The representatives try to settle the disputed matters by agreement.
- Anything they can’t agree on goes to the umpire, and a written determination by any two of the three decides it.
- Each side pays its own representative, and the two sides share equally the cost of the process and the umpire.
Before you invoke it
Appraisal costs money and takes time, and it is not free leverage. Work through the cheaper steps first. They resolve many disputes.
- Ask for the adjuster’s written scope and read it line by line against your contractor’s. Most gaps are omissions, not disagreements.
- Submit a supplement with documentation for anything missing. Undocumented items aren’t denied so much as unconsidered.
- Request a reinspection, ideally with your contractor present so the scope is agreed on the roof.
- Escalate within the insurer: the claims supervisor, then its complaint officer.
- Then, if the gap is genuinely about amount and remains material, appraisal.
When it’s the wrong tool
If the dispute is coverage (a denial, an exclusion, a date-of-loss argument, an allegation of pre-existing damage), appraisal cannot help you and invoking it wastes months. That’s the insurer’s complaint process, then the General Insurance OmbudService, and potentially a legal question. Mixing up amount and coverage is a common and costly mistake.
Where a roofing contractor fits
A roofing contractor’s part is the evidence: documenting the damage and producing the itemised scope that either resolves the dispute or forms the basis of your position. Often that’s what settles it. Whether to invoke a statutory process is a legal and financial decision, so read your policy and, if the amount at stake justifies it, get advice from a lawyer.
Does my policy definitely have an appraisal clause?
Alberta’s statutory conditions are deemed part of every property policy in force in the province, including the one that sends disagreements about the amount of a loss to dispute resolution. Your wording may call it appraisal or dispute resolution. Search for either, or ask your broker to point you at it.
What does it cost?
Each side pays its own representative, and the umpire and the cost of the process are shared equally, as section 519 of the Insurance Act sets out. That makes it disproportionate for a small gap and reasonable for a large one. Weigh it against the amount actually in dispute.
Will invoking it damage my relationship with my insurer?
It’s a mechanism written into your own policy, so using it is not adversarial in itself. In practice many disputes resolve before it gets that far, often because a properly documented supplement makes the gap disappear.
My claim was denied outright. Can I use appraisal?
Generally no. A denial is a coverage question and this process addresses amount. Your routes there are the insurer’s internal complaint process, then the General Insurance OmbudService. The Alberta Insurance Council handles the conduct of agents, brokers and independent adjusters.
Where the facts on this page come from. If a source has changed since we last checked, tell us and we'll fix the page.
- Insurance Act, RSA 2000, c I-3 (ss. 519, 526 and 540, Statutory Conditions 11 and 12) · Alberta King's Printer
- Insurance consumer complaints · Government of Alberta
- How the process works · General Insurance OmbudService