R.M. OF TECUMSEH -- Marvin Shauf wants other farmers to check their insurance policies, after his grain bin nearly full of peas, sunk and tipped in August.
"We filled it about half full... It sat for a few days, we continued to fill it and then sometime during that night it bent over and landed against that tractor,” farmer Marvin Shauf said.
Shauf's insurance company, Wawanesa Mutual Insurance, commissioned a group to inspect it. An engineer observed photos, and determined the ground was uneven. The engineer determined the weight of the bin caused it to settle in the ground due to local soil shear failure.
Wawanesa then emailed Shauf saying “there is no coverage for the bin and the denial for the coverage to the bin remains."
"The new manual that they have, and I don't know when it came into existence, excludes everything, ground shift, earthquake, landslide,” Shauf said.
In a response to CTV News, Wawanesa outlined its transparent escalation process where customers can contact the office of the ombudsman. That process aims "to examine whether a customer's file was handled fairly and appropriately."
"I’m not sure and I’m here, I've looked at it 100 times, and I don't know yet what cause it, and what it was effected by,” Shauf said.
After lifting the bin on Friday, Shauf is now questioning if it really was the result of uneven ground, or something else.
"We know the ground is soft, but the ground has been soft, this yard was full of water in 2011, and we still didn't have any bins fall over,” Shauf said.
Shauf says he understands he probably won't get the money back from the accident, but wants other farmers to look at and fully understand their insurance policies, so they know what is covered.
