Accidental damage by cat possible to insure against?

StockportGerbil

Hi!
A couple of days ago a neighbour painted the top of a fence with anti-climb paint to stop the local kids from shinning over it and being a bloomin' nuisance. Unfortunately my cat walked along the fence, then came in through the cat flap, made a trail through the dining room and tried out serveral beds before he found one that was comfy.

I came back to find the hall, stairs and landing carpets ruined, along with three duvet covers, one duvet and a shirt! :-) (If I don't laugh I'll cry.) Checking the accidental cover section of the household insurance policy I'm fairly sure all damage "by animals kept as domestic pets" is excluded.

However the insurance is coming up for renewal - so is this exclusion normal / usual. Is there a policy available at a reasonable cost that would cover me something similar happened again?

Thanks

Kevin

gentlepurr

it's only an opinion, but the root cause of the problem is the neighbour painting the fence, your cat (bless it!) was incidental to the cause, so maybe you may get round it.

either way, i'd say it's worth ringing up your insurers to see whether you have interpreted the policy correctly.

xx

Bossyboots

Even with specialised pet insurance, they will not cover you for damage your own pet does to your own house.

However, this is usually in relation to peeing or scratching. The damage with the paint was not something foreseeable or something your cat and you could have avoided in the normal course of events. I think your insurer will claim that the damage isn't covered under the policy but I certainly think it is worth asking.

StockportGerbil

Thanks for the replies.

Yes you are right the insurer said given the damage was done by the cat then it is excluded from the policy. The bloke I spoke to did say that this exclusion is common to most (if not all insurers.) Is this the case?

Thanks

Kevin

ArchieB_2

Most but not all. Marks and Spencers, Liverpool Victoria and Saga (didn't check your DOB!). You will need to read their policy to check though.

Freak incident though. Could always get rid of the Cat??

seanparkin

Seems to me that the neighbour with the anti vandal paint is to blame.

I'm sure that you could claim the cost off of him. I remember a mate many years back claiming the cost of his clothes off of somebody that used this paint. He went to climb his fence to get a lost football back (nobody was in) which wrecked his clothes.

Might be worth trying this avenue. You may not want to annoy him but it was his blummin paint thats caused your wrecked carpets.

funky-footprints

cant see how you can blame the nieighbour, he can paint his fence if he wants.

Definately the cats fault, a downfall of having one as a pet as they do tend to wander !

our dog killed our stairs carpet after fireworks, lost a few teeth and did a bit of damage trying to jump the stair gate at the top of the stairs, we have to have a new stairs and landing carpet and our insurers have paid up no problem ... relief actually !!!

our policy is with more than . have you tried ringing your insurers and actually asking ? ?

StockportGerbil

Folks :-
Many thanks for the replies it is appreciated.

I have rung the insurers and the bloke I spoke said it was damage caused by the cat so not covered. Blaming my neighbour is really not an argument I want to go down. Anyway he could argue it's his fence so my cat shouldn't have been on it. :-)

In a bid to learn from my mistakes I am hoping to get an insurance policy which will cover such disasters in future. So I'll have a look at the suggestions above.

Regards

Kev