Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm in the process of buying a new home and the seller( a friend of ours) happen to let the insurance company know that I maintain a large collection of venomous. Needless to say, that promped a call informing me that they could not provide my homeowners policy. So, my question is this.
Do any of you have the name of a company that provides coverage?

Thanks in advance.

Holy crap, that sucks dude. Sorry to make you look at this post and think that I have an answer for you, but I dont. It does make me want to fish around with my insurance company and find out what their policy is though.
All I can say is best of luck going forward.
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Tom
TCJ Herps
"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Did they say why they would not offer coverage?
The only place that will insure reptiles that I know of is Loyd's of London, insuring a house with reptiles in it shouldnt be a problem, they simply would not be covered as a loss.
Go to another insurance company, WITHOUT your friend, and get another policy.

Most if not all insurance companies refuse coverage based on a single ball python. Do not tell them you have a single snake or else you may not be getting that house. And do not tell them where you heard it. lol.

I was a claims adjuster for one of the major insurance companies in the US for five years. Insurance is obviously based on risk, and having venomous reptiles poses an enormous risk to people in their minds. I handled claims with some envenomations before and I can tell you that the person will never get insurance again. Most insurance companies will not write a HO policy for people that have certain breeds of dogs, not just pitbulls. You really don't want them finding out about your collection, you need to call another company, and DON'T tell them about your collection. They will always err on the side of caution so I wouldn't mention any of your pets. Good luck, Eric-

by not telling your home owners insurance company, you will run the risk of being dropped if found out and try to get a policy after that ! The worst case scenario is that you COULD in fact be denied pay out coverage by trying to by-pass the " keep it a secret " scenario. There are umbrella clauses that SHOULD allow you to keep. Expect a high premium and probably an inspection. It would help , as in my case , being totally legal in state and or township ( in which brings up a lot of problems ) and have your " hot " room totally off limits to the public, family members, etc. AND have a locking door and as my cages, locking mechanisms of cages. This has swayed my insurance company greatly. As said, many insurance companies are denying home owners policies now no matter what reptile you are keeping due to the salmonella issue as well. I KNOW that there are hot keepers with the umbrella clause. I just don't know the companies and I won't tell you mine in which I have to stick with them because when i called to compare policy prices, I was going to get SCREWED by payments or they just didn't even want to talk to me when they heard REPTILE let alone venomous.

They won't ask unless they have reason to. By not coming forward and offering the information you are not in violation of any HO policy, and I have read them all. If you have paid a premium and there is a loss associated with your venomous collection they will pay, just once probably, but they have to pay. Even in states that do not have bad faith laws, the courts will always side with an insured. An insurance policy is an adhesion contract, meaning you have no right to alter or negotiate the terms, you take it or leave it. Any ambiguity or misunderstanding will ALWAYS result in the insured's favor. Most of the time an agent will ask if you have dogs or cats. By not offering the information you are not going to hurt yourself in the long run, as long as you don't lie. Contrary to popular beleif, insurance companies do not talk to each other about policyholders. Once you file a claim for a loss, it is public record and other insurance companies have access to that information. But, if you have not, the insurance company that denied coverage is not going to go around town saying don't insure this guy. Also, I think that we are losing track of the original question, which was, do we know of anybody that will insure a home containing venomous reptiles, not the reptiles themselves. Pets are considered personal property and they would be covered up to their value in case of a covered loss. Vet care or treatment would be covered up to the value of the animal. If I understood correctly, you were not asking for covearage of the specific animals, rather your home. In this case I would not mention it. The risk is way too high for any insurance company to handle. The reason is, you, me, or anybody could not afford to pay a premium high enough to handle this level of risk, actaully your state would not allow them to charge a premium that high, therefore they must refuse to write the policy in the first place. I would be honest but don't offer information they don't ask. If it were ever to come up, you simply say you were never asked. You will not be blackballed from the insurance industry but may not be able to keep the animals in your home. Hope this helps, Eric-

Lets say someone gets homeowners insurance, and does not inform them of the reptiles (venomous or otherwise). Two years later, they have a thermostat/heating device failure that causes a fire and destroys the home (heaven forbid....I worry about it alot). Could the insurance company deny the claim based on the following rationale:

"Hey homeowner dude....you did not indicate you had pets. The equipment for the unamed pets caused the loss. Therefore, we will not cover said loss. Continue to make your monthly mortgage payment on your smoking hole in the ground. Buy a tent from walmart you jackhole......"

Seriously...I'm scared this would be the result if my place burnt to the ground. Am I right?

this and its going to shock some of you and especially the past claims adjuster or the under writer that has posted. I WILL tell you that i have one of the 3 most dominate insurance companies of the mid-west. I have the policy right here before me but i want my agent to " fine tune " this topic and it doesn't look good if you " don't tell " ! It is listed under dangerous activities and potential dangerous pets. And while i agree on some info of the under writer info, it doesn't hold up on certain liability claims and while they may or may not pay out, he said the same thing that i said with a huge payout of a claim > try to get insurance after you fill out the reason you were dropped by your former company ( that is right on my policy questionnaire > if you have ever had a claim, amount of claim , reason of claim, etc. and if you LIE ). He said that you would probably surely be picked up by your mortgage company but at what rate ? And of course this is only if you are buying your home and not renting or leasing.........more details later.

The whole deal with insurance is you cannot lie, and you cannot break the law. Other than that, if it isn't specifically excluded in the policy you should be covered. Snakes or any exotics are like swimming pools. Not all insurance companies ask about them but if they find out, they will raise the premium to accomodate this risk. If you are keeping animals that are legal to keep you should be fine. There would be no difference if a thermostat failed causing a fire or if an electric blanket malfunctioned and caught fire. Either way you were doing nothing wrong, you have no obligation to inform your insurance company that you had an electric blanket and it should be covered. I think the more difficult issues would be if someone was envonomated by one of your snakes. In this case you have to read the bodily injury personal liability section of your policy. I have never heard of a policy excluding exotic pets specifically. This is because not many people keep them and the risk is not large enough to add it to a policy. Like someone mentioned, dangerous dogs are often times written right into the policy. If more people kept venomous reptiles they would be too. The advantage to us, like I mentioned in an earlier post, is that if it isn't specifically excluded, and you did not lie or break the law, it will be covered. After you file that claim they may come back and say now you have to pay a premium for this risk. It is a lot harder for an insurance company to drop you, or cancel you, than it is to charge you such a high premium it will not be worth your while. No matter what we are talking about, homeowners insurance, boat insurance, car insurance, it is always in your best interest to stay with the company until your claims have dropped of. Five years in some places, seven in others etc. Again, if they don't ask that is their problem. There are rooms full of actuaries out there calculating risk. They take you and where you plan to live, past claims history, age and all other attributes to come up with a number. It is unlikely that they would ever think to ask about exotic pets because the majority of people out there don't own them. Some insurance companies do require a home inspection, while others don't. The bottom line is, if you don't lie, don't break the law, and pay your premium, anything that is not specifically excluded SHOULD be covered.

someone being evenomated and not so much on contents from or caused from. I probably got lost on the subject on other issues. But then I would assume as part of self, it would fall under if one sky dives,etc. Now I KNOW that people have been turn downed on the keeping of Pit Bulls and Rotties when it came up as to my own insurance. And I use to have Rotties but my agent said no way if I ever wanted to get back into them. Funny that his agency head office has something about Dart Frogs. AND we know that Dart frogs themselves after being in captivity or bred doesn't harbor the toxins due to...well that's a long story but it was mentioned by my agent. I will tell you that American Family down right told me that they would not insure me if keeping snakes and large lizards. But they wouldn't give me a guideline ( because they just wasn't interested in hearing me about the matter ) to as what lizards and size and the same on snakes. The local agency straight out said salmonella reason handed down from home office. My own policy states : they do not cover ( exclusions ) Bodily injury which arises out of transmission of communicable diseases by any insured from livestock or animals, they do not cover animals. It is listed as EXCLUSIONS of CERTAIN CATEGORIES of PERSONAL PROPERTY. But on medical payment to others it states : reasonable charges paid from accident by animals owned by or in care of ? This what my " fine tune " thing is about.
Much more later because now I'M stirred up NOW about my own home owners policy. Yikes !

my insurance broker is a friend also-when I received an issue of reptile mag dealing with the subject I asked my agent-What he told me was that as long as the collection was not illegal & nothing was in the policy excluding it I would be covered. My policy did mention a section on pitbulls but not on "exotics". It is important not to take any chances that might cause a claim to happen. if there is a wiring that you may think is wrong or cage that you might think has a possibility of escape- CHANGE IT OUT! "when in doubt,throw it out"

norcalsnakemaster@comcast.net