Pets Homeowners Insurance – Protecting Against Dog Bite Liability
An average of 12,800 Americans are bitten by dogs every day. That is 4.7 million dog bite victims per year, according to reports by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). About one sixth of these attacks-800,000-cause injuries serious enough to require medical aid. About half of those victims end up in emergency rooms, making dog bites the second leading cause of emergency room visits (behind injuries from playing softball or baseball). An average of 16 people die each year from dog bites.
Children are more likely than adults to be severely injured by dogs. The greatest incidence of serious dog bite injuries occurs among boys aged 5 to 9 years, with 60 out of 10,000 boys that age being treated in emergency rooms for dog bites. Not surprisingly, more children are treated for bites above the shoulders than adults are-70 percent of children versus 30 percent of adults.
A some dog bites come from feral dogs and strays. On the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a community of 23,000 people, some 4,000 feral dogs the area cause an average of two dog bite incidents each week, according to a report that appeared in National Geographic. The vast majority of biting dogs are not strays, however, but household pets that have gone astray. The owners of these dogs can be held liable for the injuries caused by their pets.
The laws on dog bite liability vary from state to state. In many states, the victim must show that the attack occurred because the dog owner was negligent. Other states have “one bite” laws. These statutes hold that a dog owner is always liable for the behavior of his or her pet. California, for example has a law that reads, in part: “The owner of any dog is liable for the damages suffered by any person who is bitten by the dog while in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness.”
People who work closely with dogs, such as veterinarians and dog groomers, are not covered by these laws. The victim also may have not claim if he or she was teasing or physically abusing the dog. People bitten while committing a crime against the dog owner often are exempt from claims of liability.
Many homeowners insurance policies offer liability coverage for dog bites, but not all do. Some insurers exclude dog bite liability completely from their homeowner insurance coverage, while others exclude bites by certain breeds, such as American Pit Bull Terriers (pit bulls), Rottweilers, Huskies, Saint Bernards, Great Danes, and German Shepherds. Dog owners should review their home owner insurance policies to see if they are covered for dog bite liability. If in doubt, they should speak with their insurance agents about what exclusions, if any, might pertain to their pets. If necessary, the dog owner might be able to add a rider to his or her policy to guarantee liability coverage for dog bites.
Meanwhile, dog owners should do everything they can to reduce the chances that their dog will bite anyone. The CDC recommends several precaution steps, including:
Speak with an animal professional, such as a veterinarian, to learn about your breed of dog and how aggressive it might be
Remove any dog with a history of aggression from households with children (including visiting children)
Spay or neuter your dog to reduce aggressive tendencies
Do not roughhouse with your dog
Social and train your dog, emphasizing submissive behavior
Seek professional guidance if your dog showsgressive behavior
All dogs descended from wild creatures, and certain instincts are hardwired into their brains. Dog owners should enjoy their pets, but they should never forget that an ancient predator still lurks within their best friend’s genes.
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Categories: Homeowners Insurance Tags: centers for disease control, centers for disease control cdc, emergency room visits, emergency rooms, household pets, indian reservation, national geographic
Insurance How to Get the Lowest Homeowners Insurance Rates
You want the best protection possible for your home, but you also want the lowest homeowners insurance rate. Is it possible to get both great coverage and great rates?
Absolutely! Just follow these tips to find cheap homeowners insurance today.
Raise Your Deductible
The deductible is the amount you pay toward any insurance claims before the insurance company begins to pay. By setting your deductible as high as you can afford, you will lower your premium.
In addition, you will be more likely to take care of small claims yourself: remember that submitting too many small claims can cause your premium to increase, and may even cause your insurer to cancel your policy.
Get All the Discounts You Can
Discounts can lower your insurance premium even more. Common homeowner discounts include …
* Non-smokers discount
* Discounts for safety features such as smoke detectors, sprinkler systems, alarm systems, fire extinguishers, and deadbolts
* Senior citizen discount
* Auto/home discount
Ask your insurer if there are any other discounts you might be eligible for and include them in your policy.
Compare Rates by Shopping Online
Insurance rates can vary dramatically from company to company. You can save hundreds of dollars a year just by taking a few moments to comparison shop for homeowners insurance.
And a few moments, literally, is all it takes if you go online to an insurance comparison website.
On such a website, you will spend just a few minutes typing in your insurance information. Once you submit this information, A-rated insurance companies will begin to send you quotes.
All you have to do is look over the quotes and select the best one for you. And if you have questions at any time, the best insurance comparison websites let you talk with insurance experts to get quick, accurate answers to all your questions.
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/homeowners-insurance.html or click on the following link to get the lowest homeowners insurance rates from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can get more tips and advice in their Articles section, and get answers to your questions from an insurance expert by using their online chat service.
The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written numerous articles on getting the lowest homeowners insurance rates.
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Categories: Homeowners Insurance Tags: click on the following link, comparison website, fire extinguishers, Homeowners Insurance, insurance companies, insurance comparison, sprinkler systems
Insurance Recommendations on Homeowners Insurance for an Unoccupied Property
It’s important to obtain California homeowners insurance for an unoccupied property so your house is protected when you are away from the property. Therefore if something happens to your house while you are away you would be safe from paying anything towards damages that might have been caused to the unoccupied property. Therefore it’s important to obtain homeowners insurance for your unoccupied property. To get a reduced rate on unoccupied property insurance there are certain steps that need to be followed to reduce the pricing.
1. Securing your house – This can reduce your monthly premium by having extra protection to your property; many insurance carriers will likely provide a discount for having an alarm system. Many of them provide a 20% discount. They’ll normally have to pre-approve the security system prior to offering the discount. This would also make the property less risky for a robber to break in or for the house to be vandalized or for a fire to happen without the emergency response being notified. It might also be a wise decision to have fire extinguishers in the event of any emergency. This can be beneficial in the long run despite the fact that securing your home might be expensive.
Different ways of securing the house will be to ensure window locks are fitted, or if your property does not have these security measures in place, it’s crucial to install them as soon as possible since many insurance companies will suggest this before providing insurance. A burglar alarm system will also be useful, with infra-red sensors and glass breakage detectors which are very easy to install and are also less expensive. An additional security measure will be to make sure the house does not look like it’s unoccupied for instance having curtains or having your neighbors park their vehicle in your driveway, and ensure the mail is removed every day. By visiting your property or having a neighbor visit regularly would help to you get a better deal on your insurance policy.
2. Do your research – The key is to obtain several insurance quotes and research online for various insurance carriers that provide various programs. You have to be aiming to get a minimum of 3 insurance quotes. It is very important to look for a reliable insurance company that would be capable of providing you the best insurance quote possible. Unoccupied homeowners insurance is essential to all property owners who want their house to be safe and want to prevent their home from any damages that could be caused.
3. Deduct land value – Usually when you value your property, the land value is also included, it will be smart to deduct the land value as you won’t need to stress about insuring it since it will be unlikely for anything to happen to the land.
Therefore by following these tips your homeowner’s insurance quote for your unoccupied property will be a lot less and you could save money and safeguard your asset simultaneously.
Sevak Meenasian is a California Homeowners Insurance agent who provides excellent service, coverage and prices for Home Insurance. Sevak Meenasian is one of the great agents and is a very dedicated insurance expert in all lines of insurance products. Sevak Meenasian and the other agents all have over 10 years of insurance experience and provide excellent protection from the nation’s top carriers. Sevak Meenasian is always ready to go to even the impossible to assist his customers in getting great coverage for an affordable price. Sevak Meenasian and the rest of the California Auto Insurance agents are all ready and waiting to assist new and existing customers.
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Categories: Homeowners Insurance Tags: additional security, burglar alarm system, california homeowners insurance, insurance companies, unoccupied property insurance
Insurance Homeowners Insurance – Protecting Against Dog Bite Liability
An average of 12,800 Americans are bitten by dogs every day. That is 4.7 million dog bite victims per year, according to reports by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). About one sixth of these attacks-800,000-cause injuries serious enough to require medical aid. About half of those victims end up in emergency rooms, making dog bites the second leading cause of emergency room visits (behind injuries from playing softball or baseball). An average of 16 people die each year from dog bites.
Children are more likely than adults to be severely injured by dogs. The greatest incidence of serious dog bite injuries occurs among boys aged 5 to 9 years, with 60 out of 10,000 boys that age being treated in emergency rooms for dog bites. Not surprisingly, more children are treated for bites above the shoulders than adults are-70 percent of children versus 30 percent of adults.
A some dog bites come from feral dogs and strays. On the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a community of 23,000 people, some 4,000 feral dogs the area cause an average of two dog bite incidents each week, according to a report that appeared in National Geographic. The vast majority of biting dogs are not strays, however, but household pets that have gone astray. The owners of these dogs can be held liable for the injuries caused by their pets.
The laws on dog bite liability vary from state to state. In many states, the victim must show that the attack occurred because the dog owner was negligent. Other states have “one bite” laws. These statutes hold that a dog owner is always liable for the behavior of his or her pet. California, for example has a law that reads, in part: “The owner of any dog is liable for the damages suffered by any person who is bitten by the dog while in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness.”
People who work closely with dogs, such as veterinarians and dog groomers, are not covered by these laws. The victim also may have not claim if he or she was teasing or physically abusing the dog. People bitten while committing a crime against the dog owner often are exempt from claims of liability.
Many homeowners insurance policies offer liability coverage for dog bites, but not all do. Some insurers exclude dog bite liability completely from their homeowner insurance coverage, while others exclude bites by certain breeds, such as American Pit Bull Terriers (pit bulls), Rottweilers, Huskies, Saint Bernards, Great Danes, and German Shepherds. Dog owners should review their home owner insurance policies to see if they are covered for dog bite liability. If in doubt, they should speak with their insurance agents about what exclusions, if any, might pertain to their pets. If necessary, the dog owner might be able to add a rider to his or her policy to guarantee liability coverage for dog bites.
Meanwhile, dog owners should do everything they can to reduce the chances that their dog will bite anyone. The CDC recommends several precaution steps, including:
Speak with an animal professional, such as a veterinarian, to learn about your breed of dog and how aggressive it might be
Remove any dog with a history of aggression from households with children (including visiting children)
Spay or neuter your dog to reduce aggressive tendencies
Do not roughhouse with your dog
Social and train your dog, emphasizing submissive behavior
Seek professional guidance if your dog showsgressive behavior
All dogs descended from wild creatures, and certain instincts are hardwired into their brains. Dog owners should enjoy their pets, but they should never forget that an ancient predator still lurks within their best friend’s genes.
Related Articles – homeowners insurance, homeowner insurance, home owner insurance,
Related Reading:
Categories: Homeowners Insurance Tags: centers for disease control, centers for disease control cdc, emergency room visits, indian reservation, national geographic
Insurance Best Rated Homeowners Insurance Companies – How to Find Them
Your home and its contents probably represent your biggest investment, and you want to protect them with homeowners insurance from a top insurance company. But how can you easily find quotes from the best rated homeowners insurance companies? Here’s how …
The Internet Has Your Answer
The Internet lets you easily get quotes from the best rated homeowners insurance companies. First, you’ll need to gather some basic information about your home and insurance needs, including the following:
* Square footage of your home. * Year your home was built. * How far away the nearest fire station and fire hydrant are. * Construction details about the home, such as the type of foundation, walls, and roof. * Amount of coverage you want. * Deductibles you want. * Safety features in the home, such as deadbolts, smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and security systems.
Once you have this information, you can go to an insurance comparison site, fill out information about your homeowners insurance needs, and quickly receive quotes from A-rated homeowners insurance companies.
The best comparison sites even let you chat with insurance professionals online so you can ask questions and make sure you choose the best homeowners insurance company for you. (See link below.)
Check Their Ratings
By going through an insurance comparison site to select your homeowners insurance company, you know you’re getting a company that’s been rated to be reliable and financially sound. You can set your mind even more at ease by checking the company’s ratings on other sites. Again, the Internet will help you out:
* Go to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Web site (www.naic.org) and select your state. You’ll then go to your state’s Department of Insurance website. This website is maintained by the Insurance Commissioner and lists licensed agents, companies, and each company’s complaint ratio.
* Check ratings from companies such as J.D. Power & Associates (jdpower.com), A.M. Best (ambest.com), and Standard & Poor’s (standardandpoors.com).
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/homeowners-insurance.html or click on the following link to get quotes from best rated homeowners insurance companies and see how much you can save. You also can get more insurance tips there.
The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written a number of articles on best rated homeowners insurance companies.
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