You buy home insurance with the hope you won't need it - but in the belief that you'll have coverage in the event you do.

That's what the Schwarz family near Bowmanville, Ontario believed.

And, for 15 years, the retired couple thought paying their premiums would hold them in good stead.
But when vandals destroyed their modest rental property located on main street in the downtown strip, they got a lesson in insurance company economics.

In the fall of 2007, someone wrecked the home in the worst way. They sprayed anti-Semitic statements on the interior walls, drew a large painted Swastika, jammed a scissors into the wall, pulled down ceiling tiles and turned the water on. The smell of mould and the stench of hate hangs in the air in the abandoned home.

Marion Schwarz, a lovely woman in her 80s, broke down in tears as she showed me and my Global News cameraman the inside of the boarded-up home. Why, she asked, did someone hate her? She was Jewish, she said, but that was hardly news.  Everyone who knew her was aware of that fact.
But why perpetrate this kind of hate crime in so vicious and vile a fashion?

The local police investigated the incident more than a year ago. They did not find a suspect who could be charged. Whoever did the deed is free.
Yet, more than a year later, the company that insured Mrs. Schwarz's modest rental property has refused to honour her claim. There, to her family and to anyone who would pay a visit to the home, is the real offence.

The insurance company is Gore Mutual, located in Brantford Ontario. Its president, after originally agreeing to speak to me about the claim, later declined, providing only a written statement. In essence, the company says the claim is unpaid because the company believes the vandalism was committed by former tenants of the Schwarz family.

Were that the case, Gore Mutual might have some justification for declining the claim - which amounts to more than $100,000. The home cannot be rebuilt and is to be torn down.

But in the absence of proof of responsibility (the police have not charged anyone, nor have the courts convicted anyone) Gore Mutual is taking the position that it will not pay.

To see the full story on video, go to www.globaltv.com/sos and look for the section on top where you can watch my story.