a hypothetical insurance question.

[jodee]

ok....

so if you dont need a vetting for insurance what is stopping you from taking insurance out after your horse has gone lame... got injured etc. like prince for instance... has been on off lame for a few months. if he wasnt already insured could i in theory insure him, then register him with another vet.

im guessing it is probaly illegal in some way?

[black crow]

Technically you could 'try' it, however;


All insurance companies have a 14 day external, accidental, visible injury ONLY limit. This then means people cant [or rather morally shouldnt] take out an insurance cover and quickly claim within a day or so, when really their horse went lame the day before they got the cover etc [insurance way of trying to cover themselves]

However, there have been a big number of people making their horses suffer for the 14 day time band, to get past it so they can claim. So companies are now extending the time band to 30 days, hoping that people arent going to be so cruel as to make their horses wait, it seems to be working so far.

If your horse needed vetinary treatment, and your horse was injured/lame before you got the cover, the vets would know, and as they would be in contact with the insurance company anyway regarding the horses problem, they would most likely tell them that the problem had been there before the owner says it has, which would then most likely get you in a lot of trouble i.e suspected fraud.

[jodee]

If your horse needed vetinary treatment, and your horse was injured/lame before you got the cover, the vets would know, and as they would be in contact with the insurance company anyway regarding the horses problem, they would most likely tell them that the problem had been there before the owner says it has, which would then most likely get you in a lot of trouble i.e suspected fraud.

but what if some registered their horse with another vet, so that this vets had no idea the horse was on/off lame?
thanks for the indepth answer bc. your good at explaining things!

by the way im not planning on doing this! my horses are already insured! purely hypothetical.

[Lorraine]

When you take out insurance they ask you a number of standard questions one of which is something along the lines of "has your horse ever sufferred in the past, or is currently suffering from, any illness or injury".

If you answer no, when in fact the answer is yes, then I would hazard a guess that a) this would make your insurance void, and b) would make you guilty of fraud (obtaining services by deception) for which you could be prosecuted.

[black crow]

Not a problem!

It depends really, the insurance company will dig all they can to get out of a claim,

If you took your horse to another vet and said, hi, its got so and so wrong with it im putting in an insurance claim, the vet would be able to tell how long the horse had the issue, so they could very easily say to the insurance company,

You have been told the horse was injured on the 23rd october, going by my vetinary experience, i believe the horse has had this problem for atleast 3 weeks

Insurance company would then probably ring you, and if you played the "omg i didnt realise he was hurt!!" then they would most likely not cover the horse due to the owner being negligent [most insurances will have a several page doccument where it will state somewhere the owner has to notify a vet the second they see a problem, dont try to treat it yourself [i,e you try to stitch a gash, horse gets it infected, bone is infected, loss of use claim] or they would suspect you were trying to con you, and would throw in the legal prosecution

Then in the future, as Lorraine says, if you deny your horse has had a claim, they will look into it anyway, so if they find you've lied, prosecution again :lol: