Cancellation & insurance claim?

carthorse

carthorse

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 January 2007
Messages
11,554
Location
west mids
s150.photobucket.com
Last November our young horse went lame behind,the vet came and she had box rest and bute and decided to scan fo see if there was soft tissue damage. There was no damage and within a week she was slowly bought back into work.
6 weeks ago she started to cough. Vet came took blood to check which all came back clear. Put on AB and ventipulman. Took off straw. Got a lot better but still coughs once at start of work. Had scoped to check. Still has some inflammation and mucus. Mucus test doesnt show bacteria so needs another deeper scope to test for allergy. She is now out 24/7 and in work .
Her insurance was due for renewal last week, it came excluding her hindlegs. We phoned as nothing was found wrong with them but KBIS said we must have suspected a problem so they are now excluded. The claim was only £45 as we paid excess and 15%.
We asked for a claim form for the cough and also decided to cancel insurance as now they will exclude legs and lungs. The second scope is after cancellation , will they pay for bills up to cancellation (well their part of it)
Maybe we should have carried on insuring but it annoyed us that you have something checked find its ok and the still exclude it.
 
Petplan will review those sorts of exclusions if there is nothing else wrong after twelve months. It is not that there was nothing wrong - it is that your horse went lame and developed a cough and it was in neither case severe enough for your vet to form a concrete diagnosis which would form the basis for a much narrower exclusion. I agree it is really frustrating, but personally I wouldn't cancel my insurance over it as I think most companies do it and I do understand why they have to protect themselves. Ask if they will review the exclusion and what the terms would be.
 
The only one that can tell you if they will pay is them. As for the leg exclusion, if you contact your vet & they send a report to the insurer saying that there is nothing was nothing wrong with the leg they excluded then they should remove the exclusion. They will not remove an exclusion on the say so of the owner, they want a report from a vet.
 
If you informed them of the lung investigations at the time and they agreed to pay for those then yes you should be covered - it might be worth reading the small print as some companies pay out for 12 months after the start of a problem, irrespective of exclusions on renewals so you may be able to claim the deeper scope. Not sure if you've cancelled tho.

I don't insure as excess, exclusions, painful paperwork and crazy rules make it really not worth it unless you're very unlucky. A £45 claim, finding nothing, resulting in excluding both back legs is certainly madness!
 
I've found this problem with KBIS, my mare had an impaction colic and was found to have a liver infection which was what caused it all. This was a few months before I started the insurance with them, she's excluded for anything relating to her digestive tract (pretty big thing to exclude seeing as she wasn't insured at the time so it's not as if I claimed for it!) also as she had laminitis 2 years ago anything to do with laminitis is excluded. :rolleyes: wonder why I bother with the insurance sometimes!
 
Just to clarify, have you actually cancelled your policy, as in cancelled cover before the expiry date, or have you just decided not to renew?

Two very different things. If you cancelled your policy before it expired (i.e. runs 14/05/12 to 13/05/13 and you cancelled 10/05/13) then I don't believe they would pay for any further claims made. However, if it is just a case that you haven't renewed the policy and I'm assuming the Insurers were aware of the respiratory problem before you renewed (as they placed an exclusion on renewal), then yes they should pay for any claims.

Insurers will place exclusions for any injuries/illnesses they have been advised of as insurance is all about assessing and reducing risk (to them!). However, seems a bit harsh to only review the lameness exclusion after 18 months. I would have said seeing as the lameness was in November, if your horse only received a week of treatment and no physical cause was found and your horse has been sound since then they could remove it now, or after 12 months max!
 
You should be able to claim for 12 mths after start of claim/vets visit irrespective of whether you renew your cover or not
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top