Insurance query

Cinnamontoast

Cinnamontoast

Fais pas chier!
Joined
6 July 2010
Messages
38,679
Visit site
My horse is not for sale, so please do not button push!

His insurance is due for renewal at the end of the month. I originally put his market value as £3500 (can do anything, jumps, schools, would have been fab for endurance, whatever, useful weight carrying bombproof cob). I found out he has arthritis in one leg last November. He can still school, hack, go for canters etc, just won't be jumping. Doesn't bother me, frankly! He's 11, otherwise healthy, had a sarcoid that was successfully treated.

My question is, will my premium drop significantly if I drop his market value? And how much should I put?

Also, the new quote says any arthritic conditions are excluded from the insurance from the renewal date. I thought I had a year in which to claim for any treatment? I'll be asking about this when I phone them tomorrow, but I'm reluctant to ask about the market value in case they want me to drop it to a silly amount. Help!
 
The market value doesn't make a lot of odds as far as vet fees and public liability are concerned, it' related to the amount of money you 'll receive on his death I think.

Re the year to claim for treatment, that's so in my policy, but best check the small print, although I think it's pretty standard.
 
Personally I always have the value at the absolute lowest as I'm not bothered about replacement if anything happened to him,but it makes a huge difference to my premium costs overall.

If you want his full value should the worst happened then I would just leave it as it is TBH,I doubt they will ask or make suggestions regarding value when you renew.

If you are looking to lower your premium costs then drop the value,but I think you would have to lower it significantly to make it worthwhile.

You should have a year from the onset of the condition in which to claim BTW,so yes you are correct on that one and would definitely question it.It may just be that they are excluding any new issues that arise from the arthritis,and have just not been very clear in their wording.
 
Right, firstly what you insure your horse for value wise is down to you. The market value is more relevant if you are insuring the horse for a lot less than it would actually be worth (although even after having worked in equine insurance for several years I am still not quite sure how an insurance company could say your horse is worth more than youhave chosen to insure it for!). In that situation they could apply average in respect of a LOU or death claim.

Basically, if you wanted to sell your horse tomorrow what do you think you would ask and feasibly get for him? Base your revised sum insured on that. Usually premiums are based on a % rate against the sum insured so reducing your sum insured would reduce the premium. However, some companies may work on sum insured bands (ie between £1000 to £2000 for example) so you may need to check that.

As for claiming, yes you have 12 mths usually from the date of problem occurring/diagnosis to claim for a condition. What the exclusions means if any further arthritic conditions occur in the next period of insurance, they would not be covered.
 
Thanks, all. And arthritis is now excluded, the relevant leg wasn't mentioned. It will now therefore be excluded should it occur on a different leg due to say, injury? PITA!

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure on value?
 
Last edited:
I would guess £1500

As for the 12 month cover. You would be claiming on last years insurance for anymore treatment for arthritis. I would get vet to have a check of his other legs for signs before insurance runs out
Any sort of arthritis will be excluded even if caused by injury. I would think cuts/Normal tendons/ ligaments etc should still be covered though
 
soulfull said:
I would guess £1500

As for the 12 month cover. You would be claiming on last years insurance for anymore treatment for arthritis. I would get vet to have a check of his other legs for signs before insurance runs out
Any sort of arthritis will be excluded even if caused by injury. I would think cuts/Normal tendons/ ligaments etc should still be covered though
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll see if that makes a big difference to the premium.
 
cinnamontoast said:
Thanks, all. And arthritis is now excluded, the relevant leg wasn't mentioned. It will now therefore be excluded should it occur on a different leg due to say, injury? PITA!
Click to expand...

I would seriously question the exclusion as shouldn't exclude all legs, just the affected one! The arthritis could be due to a previous joint injury so why should arthritis be excluded? Seems very harsh to me.

Re value that's a tough one. What would you be happy with should you want your insurance to pay out if you lose your horse rather than what you could get for him if sold.

I found by increasing my excess really brought the price down rather than decreasing the value insured.
 
When I insured my new one 18 months ago I just put his purchase price as his value. The insurance company could hardly argue that he's worth MORE than I paid for him, and although he is priceless to me why pay more in premiums? The majority of my premium is for vets fees, and this is the standard 5k. Unless you've paid a large sum to buy the horse imho you are far more likely to use the vet cover than make a loss of use or death claim.
No idea what you should do about renewing your policy but I'd be straight with the insurance. After all the horse is actually a known risk now so trying to reduce the premium might be wishful thinking?
 
I would query the arthritis exclusion to be honest. The horse is only 11 and therefore I think an arthritis exclusion is harsh. Arthritis/related conditions in that affected limb then fine but I don't like when insurance companies put a blanket exclusion on like that. it's ridiculous to be honest and I would not have done the same when I was underwriting. The most I would have done is maybe put the exclusion on the other leg - ie if bone spavin in one I may have excluded the other as well as quite often occurs bilaterally but it would depend on the cause - ie if from an injury then I wouldn't but if it seemed a conformation issue then maybe.
 
My excess is £250. I'm not sure I'd want to go higher cos anything more than vaccs can easily go over that.

I will query the whole arthritis on every leg, seems a bit harsh!
 
I'm about to change the insured value of one of mine. I insured him for what I paid and misunderstood the lady on the phone. When she said the monthly figure I thought that was my new direct debit amount including the other horse I already have insured. Checked my bank yesterday and it was just for the one horse and a rather large sum has gone out lol.

I'm gonna drop it down to 1k cos I only have them insured for vets fees not for what I would get if they were pts.
 
I don't do insurance but even if /when I did, I can't see the point of declaring a high value for the horse. You only need to value the horse at the level where the vets fees will be useful to you. You would be very unlikely to get lou or death payments, which are based on the higher value, ime.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top