As Samantha Anderson headed home to Sunny Corner after Christmas supper in Miramichi last December, a deer jumped in front of her car on a blind hill.
All she could do was brace for impact and tell her daughter to do the same.
“We’ve never been in a car accident, so it was petrifying for us,” Anderson said.
She came to a stop on the opposite side of Route 425, then made sure her eight-year-old daughter was OK. The car was heavily damaged, so Anderson called police and started clearing up debris scattered across the road.
What followed was a months-long dispute with an insurance company that has opened the eyes of the single mother, who hopes sharing her tale might help others.
Her main lesson: Pay closer attention to what you’re signing, do some homework, ask more questions.
Signed on for gap insurance
Anderson said the claim on her regular, required insurance policy was settled within a week after her car was totalled.
But she’d also bought a policy, called gap insurance, after being offered it by the dealership where she bought her car.
Trying to get that claim approved has been such a struggle, she said, she’s now on the verge of filing for bankruptcy.
Although she admits she could have been more careful when she bought the policy, her case also raises a question about who gets to sell such insurance.
New Brunswick officials say more than 100 dealerships in this province are allowed to sell gap insurance. But across the country in British Columbia, dealerships are forbidden from selling it, because that province feels they’re not qualified.
Anderson bought the gap policy from an Ontario company called Assureway Protection Corporation at Kaat Auto in Rogersville, which sold her the car, a Mitsubishi RVR, in January 2024.
A New Brunswick woman is warning car buyers to ask questions before buying gap insurance. It’s intended to cover some of what’s still owed on a car loan after an accident, but for Samantha Anderson, it’s only been a headache.
The policy was pitched as an option that would provide peace of mind because of the money she’d borrowed to buy the car.
If a vehicle is totalled, gap insurance can cover money still owed on a car loan beyond the depreciated value that’s covered by the regular insurance policy.
Anderson is a social worker for a non-profit and needs a car in her work. She described her Mitsubish as her “dream car,” and she wanted to be sure she was covered.
But she admitted she did not do much research into the gap policy or the company selling it.
“I guess that could be on me,” she said.
CBC News spoke with Roland Gauvin of Kaat Auto, who said the dealership no longer sells insurance products from Assureway because of problems that employees and customers had getting answers.
“I only sell the product,” Gauvin when asked if Kaat was responsible for Anderson’s troubles. “I’m not responsible.”
Trying to deal with Assureway was not easy for Anderson. When she called, she was told to make her claim online and was immediately hung up on.
On March 13, she received a letter from Assureway saying there were “certain inconsistencies” in her claim, but it provided no details.
Five days later, an unidentified Assureway agent asked in an email for photos of the dead deer. Anderson had already sent the company photos of her car in the wrecking yard, with deer hair visible on the vehicle.
An insurance company seeking proof of an accident also has access to an accident report, according to RCMP Sgt. Jason LeBlanc.
He confirmed police received a call about a deer collision in Strathadam on Dec. 27, but said officers weren’t dispatched to the scene because no one was injured and no other vehicles were involved.
A staff member did take details of the collision over the phone to complete a report.
‘I’m so tired,’ Anderson says
Emails Anderson sent to Assureway show she’s reached out at least 15 times for updates.
“I’ve begged them. I’ve cried through email because they won’t answer the phone.”
More than five months after the accident, there is still no resolution.
“I’m a single mom with three children trying to get by, trying to make a living. I have a really good job, but it needs a car.”
The gap policy cost Anderson $2,500 for a seven-year term.
The car’s sticker price was $38,000, but a previous car loan she was still paying off brought the bill up to $48,000, which is what the gap policy was to cover if necessary.
Anderson said her main insurance policy paid off about $19,000 after the crash, so she’s waiting for the rest to come through from Assureway.
“I”m so tired of trying to pry and pry and pry,” she said. “Lawyer fees are too expensive and I’m still paying a car payment for a car that’s no longer here.”
CBC News requested an interview with Assureway but received a brief email from an unnamed employee several days later instead.
“We have found the claim questionable on several grounds due to irregularities in the claim thus its investigation status,” the statement said. “Our investigation is currently underway. [Anderson] is fully aware of this status.”
The irregularities weren’t identified in the email, which went on to say the company would not discuss the matter further for privacy reasons.
The day that CBC News tried to talk to Assureway, Anderson got an email from the company for the first time in several weeks.
“We are still conducting our investigation. We will update you as soon as possible,” the email said.
Advocate wants to answer public’s insurance questions
While Anderson wishes she’d asked more questions about the gap policy, there’s a public office in New Brunswick just for that purpose.
Michèle Pelletier, the New Brunswick consumer advocate for Insurance, said that since 2005, her Bathurst office has fielded about 1,200 calls annually from New Brunswickers with insurance questions. She and her staff answer for free.
“There’s no silly questions,” she said. The office can also be a link between consumers and insurance companies, she said, reaching out to companies directly when consumers aren’t getting answers.
Pelletier said her office rarely gets questions about gap insurance, but that it’s always important for people to read the fine print and ask questions.
“It’s the language,” she said of some policies. “It’s not plain language sometimes.”
Assureway not directly regulated by province
Insurance in New Brunswick is regulated by the Financial and Consumer Services Commission, which licenses any dealerships who distribute insurance products, as well as insurers who underwrite the policies.
“We’ve set those in place to protect New Brunswickers. So it’s not just anybody that can hang a shingle and say they’ll sell insurance,” said commission spokesperson Melissa Sollows.
The commission confirmed that Assureway is classified as a third-party administrator, which Sollows described as a service provider that goes between a dealership and the actual insurance company underwriting the policy.
“And in the event of a claim, the third-party administrator would do the administrative work,” she said, adding that paperwork would show a customer the insurance company underwriting the policy.
Third-party administrators are not regulated by the commission, Sollows said, but dealerships that offer insurance products such as gap insurance do have to be licensed.
The commission confirmed Kaat Auto is licensed to sell insurance.
When asked if the fact that third-party administrators are not regulated sets up a loophole for consumers to be exploited, Sollows declined to answer.
In an email statement, another commission spokesperson, Morgan Daye, said consumers who purchase from third-party administrators still have potential recourse through the commission.
“The Commission has the power to intervene with both the underwriting insurer and with the representative selling the product,” Daye wrote.
Daye also confirmed that 127 dealerships in New Brunswick are licensed to sell gap insurance.
Nowhere on Assureway’s website does it say the company is a third-party administrator. Nor is there a mention of another insurance company underwriting the policies.
“No smoke & mirrors … just true coverage that SIMPLY WORKS!” the website says.
B.C. doesn’t allow dealerships to sell gap insurance
While Anderson is waiting for a decision from Assureway, if she had lived in British Columbia, its rules would have saved her from the situation she faces in New Brunswick.
Melinda Lau, a spokesperson for the Insurance Council of British Columbia, confirmed the province has not allowed car dealerships to sell gap insurance since 2017.
“GAP products are considered complex insurance products and must be sold by a qualified, fully licensed general insurance agent,” Lau wrote in an email statement.
Dealerships are only eligible for insurance licences that are “limited in scope” and don’t have the same educational requirements as full insurance licences, she said.
“The Insurance Council is of the view that it would not be in the public interest for dealerships with limited licences to offer complex insurance products to consumers.”
Lau went on to say that B.C. does not issue full insurance licences to car dealerships because it could “present a potential conflict of interest.”
CBC News has asked the New Brunswick Department of Finance, which oversees insurance, whether the province would consider a similar policy as British Columbia.
The department directed questions back to the commission. Spokesperson Morgan Daye said the province recently updated requirements for car dealerships selling insurance, requiring them to be “knowledgeable and provide sufficient information to help consumers make informed decisions.”
