Help! Loss of use?!?!

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wattamus

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Now that it is clear that my horse will never be able to be ridden again, can I claim for loss of use? The insurance have paid out £5000 this year for her (we have paid a further £5000). She is now unrideable and therefore not "fit for the purpouse i bought or insured her for" - god that sounds so heartless :rolleyes:
So would I be eligible to claim for loss of use? and how would i go about it?
Oh forgot to mention, she's still undergoing treatment!
 
Can’t help with the answer but I would be interested to hear other peoples views.

I am in a situation whereby I have a 14 year young horse. I used to go out and compete at dressage and xc, he recently fractured his elbow and whilst he is making a good recovery and I will be able to hack him again and maybe even do some low level dressage with him I will certainly never jump him again so technically he is not fit for the purpose that I got him for.

Due to that and other things that have happened in his lifetime, he lost a tooth as a baby so that is excluded, his vetting picked up a slight heart murmur so that is excluded, just before the fracture he was diagnosed with arthritis in one of his front fetlocks so that is excluded I did have to ask myself the question if it would be worth taking lose of use for him and putting that money away somewhere in case it was ever needed for a vet bill. Like you I don’t know if they would pay out having paid out £1500 for the arthritis and £5000 for the fracture.
 
Lovely, will get dad to ring up on monday (policy is currently in his name) and will see what we can do she is currently insured for £3k so if we get anywhere near that back it will put a dent in the vet bills, fingers crossed! Thanks for the advice :)
 
Wattamus, without knowing the full details difficult to say for certain, but from what you have written sounds like you could be in for a LOU payout.

Bionic Boy - your area sounds more grey and my gut feeling is that you would need to fight for a loss of use payout. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try, and if you are heading in that direction have a chat with your vet first as you will need their support. Essentially, irrespective of what price you have insured your horse for, the insurance company will give your horse a 'market value' on policy start and a 'market value' on LOU claim, deduct one from the other and there is your settlement.
 
Bionic boy
I would agree yours coujd be more difficult.
Insurance companies usually have horse uses in section
If your horse can not jump but still do dressage which could both be in use A them they may not may but then they may pay a percentage LOU instead
 
I would say there may be slight difficulties if your horse is still receiving treatment.

Your vet will need to provide a written report giving a history of the condition and stating that there are no other options. If treatment is still ongoing the insurance company might say no for now, but you can resubmit once the treatment has concluded. Basically there has to be no chance your horse will be fit for purpose again and so they may want to wait until all treatment is ceased.

Normally insurance companies will forward your claim to an independant vet for his opinion and he will state if there's any residual value on your horse.
 
Bionic Boy said:
Like you I don’t know if they would pay out having paid out £1500 for the arthritis and £5000 for the fracture.
Click to expand...

If you have a valid claim for LOU then they should pay out.

If a horse underwent colic surgery costing max vet fees and then the horse died anyway, they would still have to pay the death benefit too.
 
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