How Your Pets May Affect Your Homeowners Insurance Policy
Posted by David Schneider | December 3, 2007

Roughly one-third of all households are home to cats and dogs. If your home is among them, then you likely consider your pet to be a full-fledged member of the family. As it turns out, so does your homeowners insurance provider. You've probably never thought about it, but owning pets — especially dogs — may affect your homeowners insurance policy. In fact, depending on the type and number of pets you have, you might even have trouble finding approval for insurance coverage.

Why Are Homeowners Insurance Providers Interested in Your Pets?

Unfortunately, the answer isn't just because insurance providers are dog and cat lovers. While this may be the case, they are actually interested in your pets because they can increase your probability of filing a claim and collecting on your policy. This may ultimately require your insurance provider to pay you money, and despite what they may tell you — they hate doing that.

More specifically, pets can affect the liability portion of your homeowners insurance policy. Liability coverage protects you in the event that someone sues you because of injury or damage that occurred due to your negligence. In other words, an accident caused by you, your family or your pet will be covered by your homeowners insurance provider. This includes both accidents that occur on the premises and elsewhere. If found liable, your insurance policy will help cover legal defense fees, as well as any resulting settlement fees.

Assessing the Insurance Risk of Your Pet

A dog bite is by far the most prevalent event that affects insurance policies. Homeowners insurance providers know this, and therefore take the frequency of dog bites for your particular dog's breed into consideration when determining your insurance premiums and coverage. Yes, you may know that your sweet puppy wouldn't hurt a fly, but insurance providers like to play the odds. Therefore, the size of your dog and the breed's general reputation take precedent over your dog's particular personality.

In general, the larger the dog the more you are likely to pay in higher insurance premiums. Breeds that will cost you the most include Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepards, Malamutes, Great Danes, Chow Chows and Saint Bernards.

Provide Full Disclosure of Your Pets to the Insurance Provider

You may be tempted to simply neglect to tell your insurance provider about your four-legged friend when applying for your policy. While this may save you money in monthly premium fees, it could end up costing you thousands of dollars in the end. Any claim you file because of injury or damage caused by a pet that is undisclosed to the insurance provider will be denied. This means that you are stuck paying the entire bill for your legal and settlement fees.

Don't think your dog could ever be the cause of an accident? No matter how docile your pet, there's always a possibility. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were approximately 4.7 million dog bites reported in 2005. That's almost 13,000 dog bites a day. With the injuries of these dog bites resulting in $317.2 million in insurance claims, it's no wonder insurance companies are interested in knowing if pets will be living on the premises. Protect yourself, your home and your pet and provide full disclosure to your homeowners insurance provider.