Hi everyone,

I am fed up of the constantly rising cost of pet insurance and after much swithering and anxiety have almost convinced myself to cancel it and save the premiums on a monthly basis.  However, I'm concerned about losing the public liability element of it, so does anyone know whether it is possible to just get that on its' own?  Or does house insurance cover that sort of thing?

Thank you

Lesley

PS Once upon a time we'd have never given any thought to having public liability insurance for our dogs - my parents certainly wouldn't!  And I can't decide whether it's just a case of being a repsonsible citizen in having it or a symptom of a world gone litigation mad

Hi Lesley

Go with M&S their premiums are very very reasonable and you can get a no excess  option.  Still at an incredibly reasonable cost.

Cheers
Tim

Hi Tim

Thank you - a lot of people have praised M & S recently, as they seem to do good deals :)  I did think of moving insurers and looking for a better deal, but the problem with that is that anything the dog has been treated for in the past isn't covered if it recurs and with some insurers anything that can even be remotely and tenuously linked to something the dog has had in the past isn't covered either  

It's not as if I'm displeased per se with the cover I've got at the moment, but I'm coming round to thinking that with multiple dogs it would be more cost effective to save the money instead of paying for insurance, and I intend to save what I'm currently paying plus a wee bit extra.  But the only thing that is putting me off my cunning plan is the public liability element

Lesley

Hi LF,

I think most house insurances cover puplic liability, but check, double check and then ring your house insurance provider and triple check with them (whilst making a note of whose ever you speak to names, the date and time of the phone call, and if you can, keep the phone record with your insurance documents so you can prove it all!!). I am not a big fan of insurance companies!!

Nat :)

P.S. I think it is a symptom of a world gone litigation mad. :)

Put it this way - if your dog escapes, runs across a road causing an accident YOU will be held responsible as your dog is a domesticated animal,  what if your dog gets out and gets lost and scared and then ends up biting some child on the face with the child needing reconstructive surgery (not saying that this will happen with your particular dogs but it's just an example) again YOU will be held responsible and all costs involved PLUS compensation for both above scenarios will be down to you - now would you rather pay about £10 per dog and know that you are covered against this or risk not paying and end up having something happen that leaves you with a huge bill on your hands.  I really don't think (haven't checked my own household insurance but pretty sure) that household insurance covers public liabilty for your dog - if someone enters your house and hurts themselves while on your premises then yes I believe you are covered but not for animals who are outside / escaped which is where the public liabilty cover is predominantly for (my Insurance company covers up to 3 million per dog for this).

It may be worth you double checking your household as yours may be different - failing that how about just contacting a company who deals with Public Liabilty and seeing if they can cover your dogs for this without you having to pay for pet insurance (although PL insurance is actually quite high - have had dealings with it for a business purpose! - so it may actually work out cheaper to stay with pet insurance.

When I applied to switch Chelsea I was interested to see what their (M&S) exclusions would be.  I hung on to PetPlan until I got a report back.  I had told them of a hystiocytoma and a hemangiocytoma that she had had when she was younger.  Although these things are one-off's I suspected they might exclude any more lump removals.  They asked for her full vet history, and when we got the approval the only thing they excluded was any anal gland related procedures (she has her anal glands emptied on a regular basis).  I was VERY pleased and we went ahead and switched.

Hope this helps.

Wendy

Hi Lesley,

Yeap M&S are good and so are Sainsbury's. My recommendation would be to have 3rd party liability as the law is definitely against the dog and if something happens, at least you won't have to worry about the financial side of things.

Cheers,
Patty

Hi Lesley,

I'm sure I was told that the NFU did separate third party liability insurance for dogs but you may want to check?

How are you anyway?

Christine

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I shall check out my home insurance and also NFU (I'm well Christine, haven't seen you for ages, how are you :) )  Boxermum - it's exactly those sort of scenarios that are making me investigate what I need to do to keep some sort of public liability cover, but I must admit, and I do apologise if you didn't mean to, but I felt as if I'd been thoroughly spanked for being naughty with the first part of your post ;) :D  It may be that I do have to stick with my Pet Insurance to retain the cover, but I want to look into it thoroughly to find out what is the best option :)

Lesley

Consider yourself spanked - no, only kidding :D

Ooooooo I like a good spanking :D :D  Only kidding too :D

I had a look at our home insurance policy and I think it may cover anything arising from the dogs!  Under "public liability" there are some exceptions, one of which is claims arising from live animals EXCEPT domestic animals.  This leads me to believe that domestic animals are covered since they are an exception to the exceptions!  They also cover legal fees and the like, but I will check with them whether my reading of their gobbledegook is right ;)  

As an aside, but insurance related, I once had horribly expensive mobile phone insurance.  Someone told me there was no need as home insurance covered them as personal possessions, so I went into the shop to cancel.  They gave me tales of doom and gloom and told me home insurance never covered phones, but I cancelled anyway.  I then checked with my home insurers and told them what the phone Co had said.  The guy told me phone companies always tell people that home insurance doesn't cover their phones, but it most emphatically does :) 

Thank you everyone for all your help!  I knew I'd get some answers on here :)

Lesley

Oooh, I'll never have separate phone insurance (my bank keep phoning me and asking me if I want mobile phone cover - blooming annoying ar**s :) ) a lot of the insurance that we are 'advised' to pay for is a complete waste of time really - extra cover on your cards, phone, bikes (their in my ruddy garage on my private land so house insurance can cover it) they'll be asking us to pay extra insurance on our poop soon just in case some farmer decides to cut out the middle man and steal it fresh out of our bottoms ! (sorry, toilet humour had to come in some where !)

Check your home insurance thoroughly - I always ask them to speak it in laymans terms as they always give you all the garbage that is in the policy without actually answering your question, I mean if the policy is confusing so you phone to get them to clarify why can't they just clarify (oops, going into an insurance rant now)  I'm pretty sure mine doesn't cover domestic animals outside of the insured property (oh, they might cover whilst in the car, have to check) but then I was stupid enough to listen to my bank and get my insurance through them (supposed to make things easier - yeah right !)

At the end of the day insurance dealers are all the same - they are all keen to take your money but the day you ask for a bit of help whamo !  They'll be some mysterious clause in there somewhere that you must have 'missed the appendage that was sent out relaying the new rules on clause 3 iiiiiii update 2.899  ' 

We have seriously thought about not paying out on pet insurance but it would be just my luck that my boxer decides to run out and grab the neighbours prize angora rabbit and chew on it's ear a bit leaving me with a very red face and a bill for a reconstructive surgery on the darn bunny, or my springer cross decides to pinch the farmers prize cockerel for his sunday lunch :D  (he never has - the odd wood pigeon yes but never a cockerel - at least I didn't see it)

Hi ChristineW!  Have just had a reply from NFU - they only include 3rd party in their Premier Home Policy!! :(

I've been wondering about this too... But what can they do to you if you haven't any insurance and haven't any money either and someone tries to sue you? (Any legal experts out there?)

I refused to take on pet insurance on principle, I did look into it thoroughly and decided against.  In 18 years of owning my cat I've spent £200 on her (includes blood tests for breeding and hospitalization and care during a 9 week brain problem now thought to be polio - long story) compare that to the amount spent on 18 years insurance same with all our pets, we save the amount we would have spent and it covers vets bills including the ones insurance wouldn't pay out for ;)

Having said that, I'm sure the fates will now take notice and prove me wrong BIG TIME

:D at Boxermum.  The poor angora rabbit could get a face lift at the same time :D

Grommit, I'm no legal person, but I would imagine in the circumstances you describe you might have to spend the rest of your life handing over any spare money you had to pay damages, plus having to sell the house if there were one to sell

Dill, I don't blame you.  We've paid premiums for a combined total of ten years between the dogs and made one claim for £180 in all that time.  Anything else fell below the excess or only a few pounds above it, so not worth claiming, plus the routine "maintenance" stuff can't be claimed for anyway.  But I know what you mean about the fates proving you wrong - that's why I still haven't contacted the insurance company to cancel :D  But I will, very soon! 

Lesley