Will Your Homeowner's Insurance Cover Injuries From A Dog Bite?
If your dog ran out and attacked a pedestrian walking by your home, this person might end up suing you for the damages. When this happens, you will probably wonder if your homeowner's insurance will cover the costs of the damages. To answer this question, here are several things you should know about home insurance and dog-bite injuries.
Most Homeowner's Policies Offer Liability Coverage
When you purchase homeowner's insurance, it typically comes with liability coverage. This type of coverage is designed to protect you against accidents that happen at your home. This can include accidents caused by many things, including dog bites. Liability coverage is standard with most policies. Therefore, if you have liability coverage, it will most likely cover the cost of damages to the person injured by your dog.
There Are Limitations
There are limitations, though, when it comes to liability coverage, especially when it comes to certain things, like dog bites. For example, if you have a certain breed of dog and your insurance company did not offer an endorsement for this particular breed of dog, the incident might not be covered.
Many breeds of dogs are considered safe, but there are certain breeds that tend to pose more risks for accidents. Dogs in this category have a higher risk of attacking and injuring someone, and insurance companies know this. Because of this, they will often not even offer insurance to people with these breeds, or they will add an endorsement to the policy, which increases the cost of the policy.
Some of the dogs that are not considered safe include pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, and Doberman pinschers. There are a number of other dog breeds, too, that insurance companies consider high-risk dogs.
There Are Dollar Limits, Too
The other thing to understand about this is that your policy will have a limit of how much it will pay out if an injury occurs from a dog bite. The amount you have on your policy will most likely be somewhere between $100,000 to $300,000. This amount is typically enough to cover all the expenses; however, there are times it might not be.
If you have a dog and are worried that it might attack someone, you should take extra precautions to make sure it cannot get loose. You should also contact your homeowner's insurance company to make sure you have liability coverage if this does happen. To learn more, talk to companies like Accredited Insurance Group Inc.
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