Do you have /what is your opinion of - LOSS OF USE insurance?

[_April_]

Hey folks,

We were having a yard discussion the other night about insurance and specifically Loss of Use insurance.

Lots of people on my yard are saying it is a waste of money because, in the event of a claim, One would only recieve the current market value - ie what the horse was worth then and not what it was worth prior to the injury

This seemed pretty pointless to me...


So today I phoned my insurance company to query this and they said that it was not exactly the case and this is how they work LOU:


Just an example but say horse is a mare worth £6k and is competing at eventing, SJing, RC etc

If it has an injury which completely ends its ridden career - you would recieve the market value at the time of injury or sum insured (whatever is lowest) less the value of the mare as a broodmare.

If it has an injury which ends its jumping career but it can still hack etc -
you would recieve the market value less the value of the mare as a hack.



Soooo after all that - I am actually still wondering if LOU is even worth paying for?

I can see why you wouldn't bother on a horse that was only intended for hacking etc and why you definitely would on a competition horse but what about mid value horses that are used for PC/RC and low level competing?

opinions?

thanks

 

[quirky]

Had LOU on previous horse ... would never have it again. I'd rather put the extra premium into a pot to build up if the worst did happen.

The criteria for getting a LOU payout are quite strict. I wasn't prepared to put my horse through the jumping of hoops that would've been necessary. I cut my losses and put him out of his pain.

 

[Puppy]

Oh dear

I have LOU for Be, and see it as being very likely that I shall be claiming on it, however, I realise I'm not going to get anywhere near what I paid for her.....

 

[Louby]

Ive had LOU claims twice with no problem at all. You do need a vets report to support it though. They werent expensive horses though. My current horse is insured for LOU at the moment but I keep toying with the idea of removing it, mainly as he isnt insured for much but its £6 a month (at last check) and I keep thinking if Im paying £33 a month then what difference will the £6 really make?

 

[_April_]

Its a minefield - I really have no idea whether to keep it or not.

I guess so long as the vet supported a decision to fully retire there wouldn't be a problem - it's the grey areas that make it more difficult.

 

[ecrozier]

The problem apparently is also with proving the value of the horse - unless you can prove their market value (so if affiliated and has results logged would be easier that RC) they will not pay out much! Friend has a very smart Welsh D who she tried to claim LOU on but they said as he is sound to hack, they wouldn't pay out as she can't prove that he was doing any more than hack before (he was a fab jumping pony). She could have traweled through websites and printed out results etc but hasn't competed him that regularly and was no guaranteed payout so she never did in the end.

 

[_April_]

God apart from BSJA at Ingliston none of the diddy places I compete ever bother publishing results - like my unaff ODE's or hunter trials etc.

Guess I will just have to get better and do more BE (unlikely!)

or more likely I might drop the LOU - will do more investigating. Might ring insurance company and tell them all this and ask them what 'proof' they would require to get the market value.

I remember when my last horse was PTS we had to get the vet to value her (why?!) aswell as my riding instructor but then again it was the dreaded E&L so that might explain that...



thanks everyone for your replies xx

 

[woolyjumper]

I've never bothered with LOU. It would almost double my premiums, and the insurance companies seem to do everything they can to get out of paying it. I only insure my horse for the vets fees and third party anyway. To keep my premiums as low as possible, I have his value set as under 6k as this seems to be some kind of theshold for my insurers, even though I paid almost double this for him as a four year old last year. LOU claims seem a bit of a minefield to me. I've heard good and bad stories!

 

[emma69]

I would have LOU for a mid range horse - I've claimed LOU in the past without any bother at all. The horse was diagnosed with navicular, so stopped hunting / competing etc, and just did light hacking etc. The insurance didn't dispute the value we put on him, we had scoured adverts which had similar calibre horses in (age, ability, breed) so had a fair idea of his value prior to the diagnosis, and there were plenty of adverts for happy hackers, so could estimate that, taking into account a horse with a degenerative disease will be worth less than the a sound happy hacker, and the insurance paid out the difference.