A Nova Scotia man is taking on the insurance industry after his own provider denied a claim when vandals caused an oil spill.

Greg Fong says someone stole copper wire from the oil tank at his Dartmouth home four years ago, causing nearly 300 litres of oil to spill onto his property.

The cleanup cost him $150,000, and when his insurance company denied the claim, he decided to sue them.

“The understanding is that if your property was damaged as a result of something that was not your fault, it’s something that you do expect to be covered,” says Fong.

But the court ruled in favour of the insurance company, saying there was no physical loss.

Between the cleanup costs and legal fees, Fong says the whole ordeal has cost him $200,000.

“Justice is a very expensive thing for the average person to get,” he says. “It was tremendously disrupting.”

Fong’s case was recently considered in a similar case in Sydney; fuel had leaked onto a neighbour’s property and the homeowner’s insurance company denied the claim. But, in that case, the homeowner won the court ruling that the soil was a part of the enclosure within the building.

“Over the last 15 or 20 years we’ve seen a number of claims similar to this and had them with other insurance companies and the response has just been different,” says Steve Earle, Fong’s insurance broker.

“There have been two rulings which are completely contradictory,” says Fong.

Now he is appealing the court’s decision in his case and is asking others to step up and join the fight because no one is safe if the ruling stands, he says.

Fong has started a crowdfunding website called Insurance Goliath Must Not Win to help with his appeal.

“For me, it just felt like the right thing to do, to stand up to this type of situation,” he says.

“Generally, insurance companies are very well funded. It’s not a level playing field by any stretch of the imagination.”

At the very least, he hopes his loss serves as a reminder to others to check and understand the details in insurance policies.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell