A lot of people don’t actually give any thought to it, but there’s often certain things that need to have some type of insurance behind it. People with dogs don’t realize that… until they have to pay the price of medical bills for a dog bite.
While most dog owners rarely deal with their dogs biting them, sometimes it does get out of hand with certain dog breeds. Even though these dogs don’t usually bite, certain circumstances may cause the dog to act unruly and bite another party. When that happens, the owner is usually responsible for covering their medical bills.
The case with dog bites and insurance coverage
Now, you might think that’s simple enough to understand, but there’s a catch. Like with any insurance policy, the owner is usually the one responsibility for a liability—the other party who may have suffered the dog bite. This happens when the owner isn’t insured for dog bites. And, believe or not, a lot of insurance companies actually exclude dog bites from their policies.
These policies specifically detail the exclusion of dog bites, meaning that the dog owner wouldn’t have anything covered by their insurance company if a third party happened to experience injuries caused by their dog. Many homeowners insurance companies in different states have started setting certain requirements for the types of dogs covered by their homeowners insurance policies.
To provide a current example, some homeowners insurance companies may provide insurance coverage for certain ‘non-aggressive’ dog breeds, but will turn down insurance for known ‘aggressive’ dog breeds. Even though they might provide coverage, the owner is still liable for any type of damages and resultant injuries that may be caused by their dog.
So, yes, even if you do manage to get insurance for your dog, there’s still a real possibility that you might not get full coverage. Before you look to see if there’s any all inclusive Florida homeowners insurance against dogs, it’s important to learn why companies may make the decisions that they do make about insurance against dogs. Of course, part of those decisions revolve around the prospect of incurring risks.
Dog owner liabilities and insurance
Many homeowners insurance policies place limitations on how much insurance coverage a dog owner can receive. That also applies to dog bite victims, who sometimes don’t get enough coverage for medical bills resulting from their injuries. Due to these restrictions, you usually have to search for Florida homeowners insurance against dogs from the many companies in the area that may or may not provide that particular insurance option in the first place.
When you search for Florida homeowners insurance against dogs, you might come across some options on the ‘insurance market.’ Those options usually include:
- Umbrella coverage policies, which usually provides liability coverage against damages, injuries and/or losses not covered by your primary insurance. In other words, it will cover dog bites that aren’t covered by your homeowners insurance policy.
- Excess coverage policies, which typically include a higher policy limit for losses that are usually covered by your primary insurance. Here, you might end up paying more for coverage against something like dog bites.
- Canine liability policies, which are policies developed specifically for dog owners. If you can’t get coverage against or for dog bites and other damages from dogs, this would be the type of policy that you’d need to get.
Interestingly enough, most dog owners end up getting umbrella coverage, since it’s usually enough to cover their insurance needs. You can probably get Florida homeowners insurance against dogs in the form of an umbrella policy by talking to your insurance provider for more information.
It’s because you might not even get insurance to cover dog bite liabilities and other issues from an umbrella policy in the first place. Some umbrella policies may even exclude dog-related coverage altogether. That’s why it’s important to check with your insurance provider to see if they provide insurance against dogs.
You might get the best insurance coverage out of a canine liability insurance policy, since it’s specifically designed for that purpose. The problem with canine liability insurance policies is that they’re pretty uncommon around the country. You might luck out with finding coverage in your Florida area, though some places aren’t so lucky.
Getting dog-related insurance in Florida
Don’t think that you can’t get Florida homeowners insurance against dogs, because you can. You just have to ask your insurance company about the options you might have. The difficulty with finding adequate enough dog-related insurance is the fact that owning a dog can be considered a risk to homeowners insurance companies.
That risk lies in the prospect of incurring liabilities that your insurance company may have to provide coverage for. To put that into perspective, resources like the Federal Centers for Disease Prevention and Control have reported that dogs do ‘bite more than 4.7 million people per year, which results in more than $400 million in medical costs.’ Another resources, the Insurance Information Institute, reported sometime back that the ‘cost of dog bite claims increased about 53 percent from the years 2003 to 2011.’
So, when you look at that information, you’d see that dog bites are rather common… especially when you consider that they now account for ‘more than a third of all homeowners insurance liability claims, something that equal to about $1 billion in claims for damages every year.’
While most people don’t experience severe damages from dog bites, some do. And, the costs from the dog bite place pressure on the victim and the dog owner themselves. Due to that, having some time of dog-related insurance coverage is important. It’s not going to be easy to find that coverage, though.
If you do want to find Florida homeowners insurance against dogs in your area, you will have to contact insurance companies like yourfloridainsurancequotes.com to find out more information. While you’re more likely to get insurance against dogs from a different company altogether, it doesn’t hurt to ask around. After all, learning more information about your coverage options can help you get the coverage you need before it’s too late to find good enough coverage against dogs.