1. A Buried Oil Tank
This is the big one on the Island, and it's the one with the worst downside.Plenty of older homes here were heated with furnace oil before natural gas and electric took over. When people converted, the underground tanks were often just capped, filled with sand, or simply left in the ground and forgotten. Several owners later, nobody remembers it's there.Then it rusts and leaks.Here's the part that catches people: under BC's contaminated sites rules, liability can land on the current owner, regardless of who put the tank in or who let it leak. You inherit the problem when you buy the property.A straightforward removal with clean soil generally runs a couple of thousand dollars plus permits. But if there's contamination, the numbers get ugly fast. There are documented BC cases where owners paid $85,000, and one where remediation ran past $150,000. Those are worst-case Lower Mainland examples and they're not typical, but they're real, and they show you the shape of the risk.What to do: If the home predates the 1960s, or you see a capped filler pipe in the yard, a vent pipe on the side of the house, or old copper lines near where a furnace used to be, get a tank scan. It's not expensive. Make it a subject condition. If a tank is found, removal and a clean closure report should be the seller's problem, not yours.2. Poly-B Plumbing
If the home was built roughly between 1985 and 1997, check the plumbing.Poly-B is a grey plastic water pipe, usually stamped PB2110. It was popular, cheap, and it has turned out to degrade from the inside over time, particularly around fittings and near hot water tanks. When it fails, it tends to fail suddenly and expensively.Insurers have run the numbers on this and their appetite has collapsed. Depending on the company you'll see higher premiums, water damage exclusions written into the policy, very large deductibles specifically for water claims, or a flat refusal to write a new policy until the system is replaced.There's a second trap here. Even where a policy appears to cover water damage, Poly-B claims get denied on the argument that gradual deterioration is wear and tear rather than sudden and accidental damage.What to do: Take a flashlight to the hot water tank and look under the sinks. Look for grey plastic pipe with PB2110 on it. It takes five minutes. If it's there, get a repiping quote and get an insurance quote before you remove subjects, because the two numbers together change what the house is worth to you.3. Wood Stoves and Fireplace Inserts
Wood heat is common out here and there's nothing wrong with it. But it comes with paperwork.Most insurers will want a WETT inspection report before they'll write the policy. WETT stands for Wood Energy Technology Transfer, and the inspector confirms that the appliance, the venting and the chimney comply with the installation code and the manufacturer's instructions.The usual failure points are clearance to combustibles, chimney height, and uncertified older stoves. An appliance that was never listed by a testing agency defaults to a 48 inch clearance requirement, which a lot of older installations don't come close to meeting.Most of what gets flagged is fixable for a few hundred dollars. The problem is timing, not cost.What to do: Make a WETT inspection a condition of your offer, and get a fresh report in your own name rather than relying on a certificate the seller had done years ago. Your insurer will want current paperwork. Also, tell your broker about the stove. Not disclosing it is a good way to have a claim denied later.4. Old Wiring and Panels
Knob and tube wiring turns up in pre-1950s homes. There's no ground wire, the insulation is long past its design life, and insurers treat it as a fire risk. Many will require replacement of exposed knob and tube before they'll issue a policy at all.Aluminum wiring from the 1960s and 70s is a softer version of the same problem. It's usually insurable, but often only with documentation that the connections have been properly remediated by an electrician.What to do: Your home inspector will identify the wiring type. If it's either of these, get a quote from an electrician and an insurance quote before your subject removal date.5. Roof Age
This one is simple and it surprises people.Insurers care a lot about roof age, because roofs are what stand between them and a water damage claim. On the wet side of the Island, that matters more than it does in a dry climate. An older roof can mean a higher premium, a reduced settlement based on depreciated value rather than replacement cost, or a requirement that you replace it within a set window as a condition of coverage.Thresholds vary by insurer, so there's no single number I can give you that will hold across the market.What to do: Ask the seller how old the roof is and whether they have receipts. Then ask your broker directly what that age means for coverage, before you firm up. It's a five minute phone call that occasionally saves a deal.6. Wildfire Exposure and Rural Location
As wildfire seasons have lengthened across BC, insurers have been asking more questions about homes in the wildland-urban interface. That includes plenty of properties around the Valley.Distance to a fire hall and whether you're on a hydrant or a tanker service both feed into what you'll pay. Homes on wells with no hydrant nearby get rated differently than homes in Duncan. FireSmart work on the property can help.What to do: If you're buying rural, get the insurance quote early rather than treating it as a formality at the end. Rural quotes take longer and come back with more conditions.If You're Buying
Do it in this order.- Get your home inspection
- Take what the inspection found straight to an insurance broker
- Get an actual quote in writing, not a ballpark
- Do all of this inside your subject period
If You're Selling
Every one of these is worth dealing with before you list, not during the deal.A buyer who discovers Poly-B on day eight of a ten day subject period isn't going to negotiate calmly. They're going to either walk or ask for a reduction that costs you more than fixing it would have. And once one buyer walks over it, you're relisting a home that now has a story attached to it.If you've got a wood stove, get the WETT report done in advance and have it in the listing package. If you know there was an oil tank, deal with it and keep the closure documentation. It removes an objection before it's raised.That's the same logic behind everything I tell sellers about pre-listing prep. Problems found early are cheaper than problems found late.One Caveat
Insurance underwriting varies a lot between companies, and appetite changes year to year. What one insurer declines, another may write with conditions. So treat everything above as a guide to what to check rather than a prediction of what you'll be quoted.The only way to know is to get a real quote on the specific property. Talk to a broker who writes a lot of business on Vancouver Island, because they'll know which companies are currently comfortable with what.Buying or selling in the Cowichan Valley and want someone who flags this stuff before it becomes a problem? That's the job. Call or text 250-709-8708, or email jack@pioneer-realestate.ca.If you're looking at rural property specifically, my Rural Property Guide covers wells, septic, access and the rest of what to check beyond the listing price.This post is general information for Cowichan Valley buyers and sellers, not insurance advice. Coverage decisions are made by individual insurers based on the specific property. Confirm anything that matters with a licensed broker.