Does smoking affect my property insurance premiums?
When you shop for home insurance, you’ll be asked a handful of questions-the answers to which determine the amount you pay for your policy. Some of the questions will be about your home; others will be about the residents who inhabit it.
Among the latter category, you may be asked whether you or any member of the household is a smoker. Your smoking status is more than just an inquiry into your health; insurance providers actually consider smokers to be high-risk homeowners.
Improperly extinguished cigarettes are one of the leading causes of structural fires in North America. Between 2006 and 2016, cigarettes and pipes accounted for 25% of all fatal fires in Ontario, making them the leading cause of fatal fire ignition, above cooking equipment, matches and lighters, and electrical fires.
Fires are also incredibly destructive, leaving costly property damage, fatalities, and injuries in their wake. In 2011, over 17,000 smoking-related fires were responsible for $516 million in property damage, 490 civilian deaths, and 1,370 injuries in the United States.
It’s not just mislaid cigarettes that worry insurers. Insurance companies also assume that smokers are more likely to have matchbooks and lighters on the property – tools that, in the wrong hands, can prove to be deadly.
It’s little wonder, then, that insurance providers are cagey about insuring smokers. It’s difficult to estimate just how much smoking will affect your rate, but some experts estimate that it can inflate your premium by as much as 20%.
Some insurance providers even offer non-smokers discounted rates – an incentive they hope will keep insured homes smoke-free.
If you are a smoker, honesty is the best policy. Misrepresenting your smoking habits to your insurer can give them grounds to invalidate your policy in the case of a fire. It’s always better to be transparent about your lifestyle, even if it means paying a higher premium. Of course, you could look at this as just one more reason to kick the habit.