The story behind a new relocation tool for home restoration claims

In 2017, a law student started a conversation with a classmate who appeared depressed.

“I asked her, ‘What’s going on?’ She explained she had been the victim of a house fire. She had been living in a hotel for two months and needed to go through that for another four months while her home was reconstructed,” says Sinistar founder and CEO Alexis Vertefeuille.

“I was surprised that in Canada, someone who is a fire victim could be displaced to a hotel for that amount of time. She told me more about her situation — that she didn’t have access to a kitchen; she had to eat at a restaurant every single day; and that her dog could not stay with her.

“She had to move far away from school, work, and the disruption of her normal life following a traumatizing event left her miserable.”

Then came the coincidence behind the founding of a new insurance-based, home-bidding platform. A friend of Vertefeuille’s needed to rent a fully furnished home. Vertefeuille suggested he rent the house to his law school friend.

“I thought, ‘This might not be the only policyholder or displaced family left in a situation like this.’ It’s probably not the only time homeowners would have an interest in renting their properties out to an insurance company and hosting a policyholder from their community,” he tells CU. “I also thought her insurer is probably not the only one with an interest in renting from a local homeowner to support their policyholders.”

Built for insurance

That led him to develop a web platform letting hosts with furnished properties list their homes and bid on insurance relocation contracts.

The difference between that approach and something like Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com is that it’s not a reservation platform. It’s a bidding platform built exclusively for the insurance industry.

“The mission is to help displaced families. We’re the bridge between the policyholder, the host and the insurance company,” says Vertefeuille. “There are so many homeowners who want to host on the platform, support their communities…I realized there was just no connection between the hosts, the claim adjusters and the policyholders.”

The platform now counts more than 23,000 hosts, has helped relocate 5,000-plus insureds, and worked with claims adjusters from more than 42 insurance companies and independent adjusting firms.

Sinistar geolocates the address where a loss takes place and tells hosts there’s a claimant who needs of housing.

“All those hosts will be able to bid on the insurance relocation contract and compete against each other to give the policyholder and the insurance company the best price possible,” he says. “The policyholder or claims adjuster simply details their needs.

“For example, ‘I need three bedrooms, I need to be near my kid’s school, this is the address of the claim, I have a dog, I need internet and a dedicated workspace.’ They will pre-fill some criteria, and then the platform will let people bid. It’s essentially an algorithm that automates home-matching for a claims adjuster with all factors considered.

“In insurance, there was no sharing economy platform, especially in temporary housing, which is what we are bringing to disrupt the industry.”

This article is excerpted from one appearing in the August-September 2024 print edition of Canadian Underwriter. Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/Oksana Sazhnieva