Man’s Best Friend? Or Homeowners Insurance Problem?

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Having an animal as a part of your family is a great thing.  They bring happiness and joy to your life, and a little character as well that can only be fulfilled by another member of the family with four legs instead of two. While cats, for the most part, seem to lay around all day and care less when you’ve arrived home, dogs on the other hand are so excited when you return for the day that you think they’re going to jump right out of the window! Unfortunately though, dogs can get a little rough, even if they don’t mean to be, and that can pose a big problem to your family, your neighbors, and your CT homeowners insurance.

Little nips here and there will happen when you have a dog, that’s just the reality of having one in your house.  While these are minor and probably don’t even cause damage to the skin, significant bites from dogs that are little more aggressive than others, could lead to a trip to the hospital, and a ct homeowners insurance claim on your end.

What’s staggering about this situation is this fact: while the number of dog bites over the past ten years has remained for the most part relatively steady, the amount of money paid out in claims relating to dog bites has skyrocketed.  Here’s something that will shock you, as it did me: more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claims  were a result of dog bites in 2012! 

So what’s the damage to the finances that a dog bite can cause? Well, in 2012, the total amount paid out from dog bites was over $489 million! I’ll wait to let that staggering number sink in.  Want another one? Here you go: on average, one dog bit claim payout went from nineteen thousand dollars in 2003, to twenty-nine thousand in 2012! That’s a 55% increase!

So what’s the moral of this tail (spelling & pun-intended)? If you’re going to get a dog, make sure that the breed has a history of gentle behavior and no aggression.  Breeds like rottweilers and pit bulls will almost certainly cause a bump in your ct homeowners insurance premiums because of their aggressive nature. So make sure your dog is trained, because you don’t want to have to deal with a bite of a friend, and then have to file a claim!