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My name is Madaid and I live in Vermont. Due to a biting incident that occurred in April 2010, our homeowners insurance is telling us we need to find a place for my dog. He is an approx. 4 year old neutered male pitbull mix. He is microchipped and is up to date on all his vaccines. He does ok with cats, but not most dogs. He is wary about strangers and since the incident happened, I either muzzle or board him when guests stay over. Although he did great with kids he knew, after this incident, I would not recommend having him in a house with kids. He was not at fault in the incident, but due to unfair insurance policies, we are unable to keep him and it is heartbreaking. We have tried calling every insurance agency I could find and that others have suggested to no avail. I only have about 10 more days with him, so if there is any information you can give me or a direction I can go with this, it would be great.
We tried them and every insurance company out there. Because he bit, no one will insure us, even if they are ok with insuring pits. 🙁
Phoenix,
Many companies do not care so much that a dog bit someone (ok, yes they do care) but it is the fact that there was a claim. I work for State Farm Insurance, and we will write insurance for people if they have had a dog bite claim. But…that would need to be a claim that has happened at least 36 months ago before we even consider it, amongst several other factors. Keep in mind that it may not be the company as a whole that is turning you down…it could be that select office/agent that you are contacting. State Farm Insurance as a whole does not have any breed discrimination policies. But, there are individual agents out there who may have a bias againist certain breeds and decide on their own NOT to write policies for anyone who has a certain breed.
Many companies will also allow you to keep your dog and your insurance, yet exclude him from coverage. Basically, if there were to be another incident, the company would not cover the incident. Though that could be dangerous with a dog who now has a bite history, but it would be a temporary solution in the meantime until you locate a company who can write insurance for you. There are companies out there. They can just be hard to locate.
Yes, our policy is with state farm. There are many insurance companies who won’t cover at all, and those who will, but with no liability of any kind, which we can’t have. We are not as worried about cost of insurance, it’s the lack of insurance that would worry us. Our agent is a dog person, so it’s not a bias in that sense, but a big company decision, from my understanding, even though our dog was not at fault in the incident.
That is interesting. We had a VERY expensive dog bite claim here in my office several years ago, and we still have the family insured.
I am SO sorry that you are having to battle this. Is State Farm wanting to drop you all together, or just requesting that you get rid of the dog?
Ooof. That is rough. So, they won’t write an exclusion on the dog? Each state is different, so since you are not in my state, I cannot really help. I can only offer suggestion. I am so sorry.
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