1 of Every 3 Homeowners Insurance Claims Are Dog-related?

Brian Anderson

Executive Editor
100+ Post Club
656
You probably didn’t know it’s National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which means the latest stats about dog bites are getting a bit of attention.

State Farm paid a record $118 million as a result of 3,100 dog-related injury claims, and has paid out nearly $1 billion for dog-related claims in the past decade.

The I.I.I. says dog-related claims accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claim dollars paid out in 2015 – a much higher percentage than I would have figured. And the average cost of a dog-related claim is $37,214 – again a lot higher than I would have thought. More info and stats at the link below.

Does anyone here have any first-hand experience dealing with a dog bite claim, and if so, any big surprises in the process?

Insurance Forums | Average dog bite claim tops $37,000, accounts for more than a third of homeowners
 
Sounds about right. There are more property claims but they are saying liability only.

I've had a few and they all went for around $25k. These were all what I consider BS claims, where the claimant was just looking for a payday. If its a kid, or the dog did permanent damage, or a fatality I'm sure they go for much more.
 
I believe!!!!!!!! When I was on the carrier side I saw some bad pics. I understand that carriers often pay the limits on faces because of ongoing speak problems and reconstruction.

I have seen some sad pics before.
 
I've had a few. One in particular: Claimant went to ER for stitches and before he got back home had received a phone call from an attorney offering his services. Soon after getting home, gets a knock on the door - another attorney offering services. :no:

I've had three dog bit claims, none involved dogs on the 'bad' list.
 
How can that be so high? Don't most carriers exclude aggressive breeds?
 
How can that be so high? Don't most carriers exclude aggressive breeds?

Allsnake and Encompass do not

Foremost excludes animal liability in most cases.

The rest do but it's difficult to underwrite. A lot of homeowners won't call their insurance company if they get a dog.

The link below is an interesting case out of NY where a company denied a fire claim because they found a dog was in the household and that dog was on their excluded list (no the dog didn't start the fire)

http://barkpost.com/woman-denied-in...kpostfb&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
 
Back
Top