Would appreciate people's views on the following.

I would imagine it is a standard clause in pet insurance that one of the conditions of cover is that the company has to be notified in writing of an illness, accident etc within a set number of days of the problem starting.

Just wanted to know how other pet owners handle the kind of situation where treatment starts off low cost (so under excess on policy) and there is no certainty about length of problem, ie could clear quickly, so the insurance company is not notified.  However, the problem doesn't clear quickly and more expensive treatment is suggested but this occurs just outside the period of notification required by the insurance company.

I suppose the insurance company could be within their rights to refuse to pay (unless I'm interpreting their conditions incorrectly) so does this mean that a policyholder should always tell the insurance company straight away of any treatment, even though a claim seems unlikely to be made at the time?

Most decent insurers would simply pay out providing the condition started within the term of insurance. 

I've come across T & C's where it says the insurer must be notified within a certain timeframe and in writing. :rolleyes:  It's weak, doesn't carry any weight and can easily be overturned if challenged.

Failure to do so would not reduce the insurers liabilities, in other words, the insured incident which gave rise to the claim would not have been prevented had the Insured notified them in writing, phone etc, etc, in a given timeframe.

I'm insured with DL and often made late claims in the past and there hasn't been a problem.

We had this recently with a cruciate ligament injury (we didn't know that's what it was to begin with). The first time we were at the vets about a lameness problem was in February. We didn't make a claim as it was under the excess amount. The symptoms came and went (would disappear for months at a time) over the following months. We mentioned it to the vets on another 2 occassions as a side thing when we were there for other reasons, so again it wasn't claimed for.

It wasn't until December (10 months later) when my dog went in for further investigation and we were referred to a specialist that we then put a claim in. We had noticed a clause about "you must notify us within 180 days of any possible incident which may result in a claim" so phoned (before the xrays etc) to make sure it would be covered as the vets had told us to check when we mentioned the clause to them, as they would have to send the full history. The insurance company said it would be covered as we have a 'life time policy'. I'm not exactly sure what that means though! This is the Kennel Club by the way, and he was insured with them from the breeder and we continued with them so not sure if that is what the 'life time' policy means.

Our vets did say that if the insurance had kicked up a fuss that they would speak to them personally as, like you say, to have to notify them every single time for any treatment would be ridiculous! The problem was never put down as cruciate ligament until last month. Initially it was put as a muscular type injury and then several months later a different vet detected a clunking noise from my dog's right hip so it was put as a potential hip problem (hips turned out to be fine). So, I'm not sure if it might make a difference if it's put down as definitely being a certain condition (rather than a collection of symptoms that could be any number of conditions), that you then don't claim for until beyond the number of days stated in the clause. Hope that makes sense!

Thank you both for your replies. 

From past experience of insurance companies (not just pet insurance), they normally seem to jump at any chance not to pay out! :(  So the problem is, do I query this and risk them saying they won't cover or just go ahead and hope they will pay?

The treatment is for allergies btw, which as anyone with an allergic dog can testify can clear up pretty fast or just go on and on.  So far, treatment has been fairly inexpensive but I'm now considering allergy testing and possible immunotherapy which is obviously going to cost a fair bit.

never had this problem happen with Pet Plan. :)

If you have a policy that provides lifetime cover, per condition up to x amount or x amount per year, you should be ok.

If it's one of these policies that only cover a condition for 12 months; then there may be a problem if the condition started, say more than 12 months ago.

There is no harm in querying it with your insurer if you have any concerns. 

Probably I'm one of the few people who has actually read the pet insurance terms and conditions - that will teach me LOL!

It is a lifetime cover policy Spender, with a maximum amount per condition per year.  However, this notification period that is worrying me is only 60 days from commencement of any treatment which doesn't give you much time to decide whether or not you will need to claim - unless it is pretty obvious from the beginning that treatment will be expensive.

I will telephone the insurance company this week I think and just talk this through generally with them because if they are going to be funny about this, then I will be letting them know every single time my dog needs any treatment - regardless of whether I am likely to claim or not!

No you're not Annie. I am totally anal when it comes to reading ALL the small print for pet insurance :)
K

That's cos we don't trust insurance companies - they're too slippery! :-D :-D

I also read all the small print on my insurance policies :) Now M&S have taken away their no excess policy I have decided to put a claim in for any vets visits even if the amount is under the required level to claim. I know I won't get any money back just a letter saying the claim is under the excess but at least the condition will have been notified to the insurers in case of any future recurrences :)

Well Harley, I think that is what I will end up doing unless I get an assurance from the company that they are prepared to be flexible on this notification period.  I'll post on here again when I've spoken to them.