Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking over city codes today and enforcement... I began to wonder.

Does anyone with a collection of reptiles (say over 20) keep any type of insurance? I know that the snakes we keep are captive bred and can be purchased in Pet stores and therefore are not generally considered "Dangerous" animals.

Like to hear some opinions on this.

Best Wishes,

Steven X

Steven-

I wish! I've never heard of anyone being able to successfully insure their collection. I suppose Lloyds of London would do it (for an exorbitant premium!)....

As far as homeowners insurance goes, most (but not QUITE 100%) of the stories I've heard where the company has learned about a person's reptile collection have ended badly-usually the company dropped them immediately....
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

That's what I was talkinig about. Insurance to cover any damages or anything like that.

Best Wishes,

Steven Owens

I have it, I am with Travelers. On the snakes, the coverage is only fire and theft, and I must have a receipt from a pet shop or state licensed dealer, photo of the animal, and the remains if fire, or a police report if theft. Cost value only, no replacement value.

I have a guitar/bass collection too, so I am always "bothering" them. I guess it's also noteworthy that I don't have any receipts and only photos of some of the snakes. I might take it seriously one day if it collection grows to where it is something substantial.

I am sure that if you are in the official business of reptiles, there has to be a way to obtain insurance on your inventory - but I am not in the business, so I can't say.

Did I read your post correctly? You have your snakes insured but could never file a claim because you do not have the documents required (receipts). So why are you paying for this?

Bart

I am not paying it - it is normally on the policy.

That's remarkable-I know of many large breeders (myself included) who have searched far and wide for insurance coverage for their extremely valuable collections-to no avail! Is this part of your homeowners policy?
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Yes, it is.

But just to be clear - there is no separate provision in the policy for snakes. They consider it chattel, content. So if you have a receipt, it goes bye bye from theft or fire, you have a report, they will give you cost value, not to exceed the value of your content coverage. It doesn't cover accidents, health, etc. And these are on snakes that are purchased - I have no idea if captive bred and wild-caught snakes are covered.

With my guitars, which I have some very rare and valuable ones, there never was any doubt they were covered, but I had to get them appraised to make sure they did not exceed the limit on my content coverage.

I can definitely confirm Brad's comments. Back in the early 90's when I was keeping pythons, I had just purchased a new home. My insurance company agent knew that I kept snakes and just nonchalantly questioned whether I would like to insure my collection. I said, "sure, why not". Well, after the details were passed along to the company, my insurance for my home WAS immediately discontinued because of the potential liability issues.
Brad Bauserman