News on U.S. government agencies, U.S. politics, companies doing business with U.S. federal government. Read U.S. national and local news. This site is not affiliated with United States Government.
(USGovernment-News.Com, June 07, 2013 ) Crawley, UK -- In honor of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, the Insurance Information Institute (III) released data that indicates over the past decade, dog bite claims have drifted from a low 14,000 to 16,424 in 2012. While the number of dog bites claims has fluctuated, the amount paid to claimants has done one thing steadily: rise. In 2012, dog bite claims account for $489.7 million, which was more than one third of all the money paid out in liability claims last year.
Compare those numbers to 2003, when there were even more claims, roughly 17,000, the amount paid out in liability claims was just $324.2 million. From 2003 to 2012, the value of dog bite claims increased 51%, a rate that far outpaces inflation.
Insurers do take notice of such data, and owning a dog, especially one that has bitten someone, can affect your policy. In reality, the fact that you have a dog doesn’t factor into what rate you pay for homeowner’s insurance. However, once a dog bite takes place at your home, the insurer could raise the premium or even exclude dog-related injuries from further coverage.
Some animal cruelty prevention companies have reported that homeowners have often been denied coverage because they own certain types of dogs that insurance companies deem as “high risk breeds”. Some of these breeds include pit bulls and rottweilers. While a couple of saes outlaw “breed profiling”, most states allow insurance companies their own discretion of the matter.
About PPIClaimsAdvice.co
PPI Claims Advice (http://www.ppiclaimsadvice.co/) is a fast and friendly service with years of experience in PPI claims. The UK PPI Claims team only deals PPI claims and as a result you can be sure of expert help and assistance on every aspect of PPI and your consumer rights.
We are pleased to offer you this exciting, new, and entirely free professional resource. Visit our Free Industry resource center today to browse our selection of 600+ complimentary Industry magazines, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and more. Get popular titles including:
