Letters from vets/farriers to remove insurance exclusions - charges?

TGM

TGM

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Just wondered where owners have got a vet or farrier to write a letter to an insurance company in order to get a insurance exclusion lifted, were you charged for the letter? And if so, how much?
 
My vet wrote to my insurance company and he didnt charge me.I think he was so insensed by the exclusions they were trying to put on that it gave him a great deal of satisfaction in complaining!
 
Same here - my Newmarket specialist vet did a free letter on point of principle as he was so cross.

However, when talking to my "GP" vet he said they charge £40 for a vets certificate to claim a refund after withdrawal from competition.
 
Thanks for your replies folks! Normally we don't charge for doing these letters, but they do take up quite a bit of time and are a pain in the butt for me to do, so was thinking of charging a nominal fee for the service - say about £5. Does that sound reasonable or am I a money-grabbing cow
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I think it depends, my vet was happy to it for free as it related to a comment she made on the pre-purchase vetting that was subsequently solved by re-shoing 5 days later. I think £5 is fair so long as clients are warned in advance.
 
With us, as OH is a farrier, it is usually to remove an exclusion due to comment made by a vet. An example would be owner buys horse with extremely overlong feet and a comment is made by vet on the vetting certificate and insurance company then slaps an exclusion on the feet. Customer then gets horse trimmed and asks farrier to write letter to explain the feet have now been attended to and are now in normal condition. So the original exclusion is nothing to do with anything farrier has said or done!

Of course, would always explain to customers first that there is a charge for this service.
 
My farrier did a letter for me several years ago & didn't charge anything. That said, I don't think I would have been TOO horrifed if he'd charged me a fiver...
 
If I was a long standing customer, and had a good relationship with the farrier, then I think I would be slightly irked to have to pay TBH. If I was a nw client (say under 2 years) then I would happily pay. Saying that, a fiver is neither here nor there in the whole grand scheme of things!
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would have thought it was well worth a fiver to get an exclusion removed.

[/ QUOTE ] That's what I thought - will save them plenty of money on their insurance and saves them the cost of getting a vet back to say the feet are now OK.
 
I can understand that. The case that made me think about charging has been a customer for some time, but not a very profitable or regular one - just asks for a trim here and there every so often.
 
Can't see any reason not to - part of professional services. If it's a simple letter - can be nominal e.g. £5 but if it is more complicated and requires a check back through records then something more reflective of the time taken might be appropriate.
 
Wish I had one of the vets in this thread that don't charge! I was charged £20 for a letter, and £46 for the visit & examination to check the horse before writing the letter.
And to top it all the insurance company took weeks to get back to me then decided the letter wasn't written the right way, so it has to be re-written before they will consider taking off any of the exclusions.
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Wouldn't mind but I did ask them beforehand what info they needed from the vet.
 
ask kayleigh_and_rocky she's had lots of experience in this department. 5 pounds seems fair, I was charged 20 for a vet note to get competition fees back when Murph got his splint about 6 years ago, not needed one since.
 
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