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Q: Is there any coverage for pets under a homeowners’ policy? However, I have recently heard of a few homeowners’ policies that may provide very limited medical coverage for certain pets owned by the insured. ---------It depends on the policy form. Although a pet is personal property, many forms specifically exclude fish, birds, and other animals from covered property. Some might have a special provision to cover domestic pets injured or destroyed by a covered peril. If it’s a special pet, then consider obtaining an animal mortality policy for your clients.
A:
The typical homeowners’ coverage form excludes animals from items covered under personal property. I have never seen a homeowners’ policy without the exclusion. Some carriers do, however, offer some limited coverage for pets as part of an enhancement endorsement. You should research what your carrier offers if you haven’t done so already. There are pet mortality policies available, as well as coverage for the pet’s medical needs that are similar to health insurance. These are offered by specialty markets. ----------
---------For the policy in question, try to find a section labeled similarly to “Property Not Covered” or something similar. For example, the ISO HO 00 03 05 11 form under its “Property Not Covered” section excludes animals, birds, or fish ---------Are you asking about first party coverage? Or third party liability coverage? There is probably no property coverage for the death of a homeowner’s pet, but I can imagine some circumstances in which liability coverage for the injury or death of an unrelated party’s pet might be found. ---------Liability coverage for pets injuring others is covered and is one of the largest causes of personal liability claims. Many auto policies are adding a pet injury benefit to cover pets hurt in auto accidents. Pet medical plans have become widely available, but I’ve not seen animal mortality for animals smaller than livestock.
ISO and AAIS homeowners’ coverage forms exclude damage or injury to pets and the great majority of insurers closely follow this practice.
Q: How many claims would be considered for riots lasting multiple nights? We have a few clients with multiple retail locations throughout various states with various policies. If they have locations which receive damages from riots on multiples nights, how many claims would this be considered and therefore how many deductibles?
A:
That’s an excellent question. Each event is separate and distinct from the other. As far as we are aware, there was no coordination of protests/riots that would indicate that these can be classed as one event. A storm is an event, protests/riots in multiple cities is not comparable. ---------It really depends on the form. ISO uses the term “occurrence” and refers to it as loss. The deductible applies to the loss. Some courts feel that a series of losses from the same peril is one occurrence with one deductible. Some property forms may define “occurrence”. There may be a deductible for each event. You need to read the form or check with your carriers.
an occurrence. It is important that each damage occurrence be reported to the carrier as one loss. An exception is if the entire “riot situation” (editorially, how sad we have come to this?) is identified as on CATASTROPHE which does not seem likely. ---------Given the gravity of the riots, I feel this answer will be company specific subject to Department of Insurance Regulations if applicable for your state. I might advise that you reach out to your carriers proactively and to your state association for further guidance. ----------
It, as always, depends on the facts and the wording of the policy.
This question is beyond the scope of this service. These could be potentially be legal questions depending upon the specific circumstances of each situation and the coverage forms in play. Different coverage forms issued by different insurers may produce different responses. The statement that coverage forms are not required to answer the question is unfortunately not entirely accurate. Think about how long it took the courts to determine whether the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center were one occurrence or two occurrences.
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A named storm deductible is specific as to a particular storm. The perils of rioting and vandalism should stand on their own as well.
Based on ISO’s Building and Personal Property coverage form the deductible provision in the unendorsed policy states that the deductible would apply per occurrence and deducted from the amount of the loss. The word occurrence is not defined in this ISO policy.
---------It will depend on facts and case law in each jurisdiction, but each location likely will have a separate deductible because the events took place at a different time or place. ----------
---------A logical finding is that each location and each event (i.e. night) is
wisconsin INDEPENDENT AGENT |
SEPTEMBER 2020 | 19
