Pet Insurance & Public Liability – Are You Safe From A Personal Injury Compensation Claim?

Are you one of the million of Britons famous the world over for being a pet owner and lover? If so, do you have pet insurance? If not, you may well want to read on if you want to save yourself millions of pounds….

Let’s look at two, not uncommon, scenarios that may happen to a pet owner in the UK:

Scenario 1:

You own a dog. The dog is out in the garden. The post comes to the house to deliver a letter. In the course of delivering the letter your dog bites the postman.

Scenario 2:

You own a horse. The horse is grazing in the field. The horse is startled, jumps the hedge and crashes into an oncoming car.

Do you know what would happen in both of these scenarios? Well, if you don’t already know, as you may recall from the recent famous case involving Princess Anne, in Scenario 1 you could be liable to pay damages under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Less well known, in Scenario 2 you could be liable to pay damages under a recent House of Lords interpretation to the Animal Act 1971. Either way, you’re paying.

How can you limit the liability you’ll suffer if either of these unfortunate events where to occur? Without some form of pet insurance policy you could not. As such, if you have a pet and want to save yourself from the prospect of having to pay out a potentially large amount of money in compensation damages to a third party – now is the time that you should be considering getting pet insurance.

Although pet insurance is unlikely to cover you for the full costs you that you may need to pay to both defend your self against a claim and also pay compensation if you lose, as there is likely to be a minimum excess payment and maximum cap payment, for a reasonable annual premium payment you can arrange to have cover that would pay a large portion of this amount.

At the end of the day, however, having pet insurance is like having any other type if insurance. Would you go out n the roads and drive your car without insuring yourself against an accident? Would you leave all your valuables at home without having any home contents insurance? Do you want to take the chance that you could be used for million in personal injury compensation without having paid a minimal amount in pet insurance?