Struck by lightning, a not-so-stolen car, lost treasure and more – Aviva Canada shares most quirky and unusual claims from the last year

December 16, 2020 (TORONTO, ON) - Insurance companies were created to help people get back on their feet after a rough time. In the last year, Aviva Canada has handled thousands of property and auto claims – including a few quirky and unusual ones:

• A sight for sore eyes: After having eye surgery, a customer returned to the parking lot of the hospital to drive home but her car was nowhere in sight. Assuming it was stolen, the customer reported the theft to the police and called us to start her claim, then took a taxi home. The next morning, the police found the vehicle in the exact spot where she’d parked it before her procedure - she just didn’t see it because of her eye surgery! Her claim was closed after she got her car back.
• Hopefully lightning doesn’t strike twice: While camping this summer, a customer was sitting outside by his tent trailer under a large tree watching a thunderstorm. All of a sudden, lightning struck his foot, exited from his arm and struck the tree, causing a branch to break and fall on his trailer. Thankfully, our customer was unharmed, but the trailer was damaged beyond repair and the electricity fried some of the contents. We replaced the trailer and the contents so now he’s all set to go camping again.
• Two fast, two furious: A customer purchased a new car and a few weeks later had a flat tire. They took it into the dealership to be serviced. However, before they could make the repair, another driver reversing in the parking lot backed into our customer's vehicle, smashing it into a pole. The damage was so extensive that the car was deemed a total loss. So our customer ended up buying the exact same car for the second time in less than three months.
• Buyer beware! Treasure to trash: A customer filed a claim for several missing pieces of jewelry and an “original” Atocha coin, supposedly recovered from a Spanish shipwreck. Upon investigation, we determined the certificate of authenticity for the coin provided to our customer was fake. Due to the unusual circumstances of this particular claim and because there was no way for us to verify the authenticity of the missing coin, we decided, in good faith to honour the claim. We paid for the replacement cost of the coin at its original purchase price, as part of the larger jewelry claim.
• Not this time, Mr. Grinch! A few weeks ago, a customer had wrapped up some toys worth over $250 and left them sitting in the back seat of her car, meant for a charity organization that helps mothers and children fleeing domestic violence. To her shock, someone smashed the window of the vehicle and stole all the presents – without even knowing what the gifts were! In the spirit of giving over the holidays, Aviva claims employees raised a donation of over $2,000 for the charity. We also honoured the claim and got the car repaired.

Aviva Canada honoured* 98% of claims in 2019, which was 266K claims amounting to more than $3B paid out to customers. This works out to paying out almost $8.5M every day of the year or $5,896 every minute.

About Aviva Canada

Aviva Canada is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country, providing home, automobile, lifestyle and business insurance to 2.4 million customers. A subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, Aviva Canada has more than 4,000 employees focused on creating a bright and sustainable future for their customers and our communities. Aviva Canada invests in safer Canadian communities through Aviva Take Back Our Roads. Launched in 2019, Aviva Canada is investing in data driven solutions and strategic collaborations to make safer roads a reality for all. 

For more information, visit aviva.ca or Aviva Canada’s blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

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Media Contact:

Janis McCulloch
PR Specialist
Aviva Canada
Janis.mcculloch@aviva.com

M: 437-236-4335

*Honoured refers to all claims that were opened, processed and resolved, with or without payout in 2019. Data calculated by dividing all paid and processed claims by the total number of claims received between January 1 and December 31, 2019. The figure includes property and auto claims.