Your choice of dog breed could hike insurance rates, or get you canceled
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: NBC
A bull mastiff named Sky is a member of Gary Collins' family. Collins said, "We have had her longer than our two children which are 4 and 7. So she's been with us 8 years."
For three of those years Sky underwent training to become a canine good citizen. "That gives her the ability to go into hospital nursing homes and able to do rehab with adults, children whatever because through training have certified that she will not attack," said Collins.
So Collins never dreamed Sky would be a problem when he was looking for cheaper home insurance. He applied to the One Beacon Insurance Group and was approved until the underwriter came to his Grove Avenue home to do an inspecition.
Collins said, "We already had the insurance policy active. We had already paid for it and he reported back to insurance carrier that we had a bull mastiff on the property."
Two days later, Collins got a letter in the mail. His policy was cancelled because he owned a bull mastiff. "I was pretty shocked. She's 8 years old...so it was pretty surprising to me."
Collins says owning a dog wasn't even part of the One Beacon application. "They did not ask us and obviously if they did ask us we would have told them. It's not like we're hiding her."
One Beacon Insurance issued this statement: "One Beacon will provide coverage for pets that are known to not have aggressive tendencies. This position was developed through company research that suggests certain breeds, including the bull mastiff, have a greater propensity to bite and cause fatalities. As a result, we consider the bull mastiff unacceptable for underwriting purposes."
Insurance commissioner Thomas Sullivan says what One Beacon and other insurance companies are doing isn't illegal. "We do allow for limitations of particular breeds of dogs if they are in the filed guidelines of that company."
According to Sullivan, the Insurance Institute reports 1/3 of all homeowner's liability claims are for dog bites.
