If you’re in the pet care industry, you most likely have a love for animals and taking care of them. There are so many professions to choose from—pet groomers, dog walkers, pet sitters, pet boarders, and more.
Being your own boss and owning a pet care business is great for your schedule and fun because you love what you’re doing. However, there are a few risks to be aware of, so we’re here to help you understand what you need in an insurance policy so you can protect your business and its assets. At Pet Care Insurance, we want you to feel confident in your coverage.
Why Do I Need Pet Care Insurance?
As a trained professional, you know what you’re doing, but accidents can still happen. No matter how careful you are, there is always the possibility of something going wrong. If an accident were to occur either to the animal in your care or to personal property, you can be held liable for any expenses. This means that you could end up paying thousands of dollars out of your own pocket either for a vet visit or to fix any property damage. For this reason, you’ll want to make sure that you have the correct coverage in place. With Pet Care Insurance, you can have a financial safety net in place in the event of an accident.
How Much Does Pet Care Liability Insurance Cost?
Pet Care Insurance offers a professional and general liability policy for $154 per year. You can add additional endorsements to your base policy if you need additional coverage. For example, PCI offers employee dishonesty coverage, animal bailee, and more, ranging from $19–$59. You can also add additional insureds to your policy for $25 per employee or $50 per contractor.
What Does Pet Care Insurance Cover?
Pet Care Insurance provides a wide selection of coverage options to protect your business. Here we explain exactly what we cover and what that means for you.
General Liability
Aggregate Limit: $2M
With a Pet Care Insurance policy, general liability can protect your business from paying for third-party bodily injury and property damage claims. Common claims include trip and fall accidents and accidental damage done to a place of business or personal property.
Products & Completed Operations Liability
Aggregate Limit: $2M
If you sell any pet-related products to your clients, this is where this part of the policy comes into play. The aggregate limit is the maximum amount your policy will pay in a 12-month period for bodily injury and property damage claims that result from the products you use to perform your services.
Personal and Advertising Injury
Aggregate Limit: $1M
Personal injury includes malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction, slander, libel, and invasion of privacy. Advertising injury insures offenses in connection with advertising of goods or services as well as libel, slander, invasion of privacy, and copyright infringement. For example, if someone steals your advertising or marketing campaign, this can be covered with this part of the policy.
Damage to Premises Rented To You
Aggregate Limit: $300,000
If you run your business out of a rented space, like a grooming space in a strip mall, you need insurance that protects you from paying for damages you might cause to that rented space.
Veterinarian Expense Reimbursement
Aggregate Limit: $2,500
This part of the policy provides coverage for medical expenses—regardless of who is at fault—for a client’s pet in your care, custody, or control.
Lost Key Liability
Aggregate Limit: $2,000
If you misplace or damage a client’s residential key, you would be responsible for replacing the key or any new locks that would need to be installed, or having the building rekeyed. Luckily, PCI covers this incident for $2,000 for each occurrence.
Additional Coverages
If you need additional coverage, you can add onto your base policy. Pet Care Insurance is proud to offer additional coverage options that allow you to personalize your protection.
Cyber Liability Insurance
Aggregate Limit: $100,000
If you collect or store customer information—names, addresses, even payment information—and that information is stolen or compromised, your business could be held liable. Cyber liability insurance can protect you from paying hefty fees, judgments, legal cost, fines, and processor fees that you become legally liable to pay. Cyber liability insurance is available for an additional $79 per year.
Animal Bailee
+$0–$29
Animal bailee coverage provides your pet business with coverage in the event that you are legally liable for injuries or damages sustained by an animal in your care, custody, or control.
Employee Dishonesty Coverage
+$0–$59
The employee dishonesty coverage will pay for loss of or damage to money, securities, and other property sustained by your client resulting directly from theft committed by an identified employee.
Broadened Property Damage Coverage
+$29
This broadened coverage is for property damage to clients’ personal property in your care while performing your pet business operations.
What Should I Expect When Filling Out an Application?
Filling out an online application is easy and takes less than 10 minutes. You’ll need to fill out some basic information and business information, so PCI can get you the coverage you need. Here’s a condensed list of what you’ll need to provide:
- Your personal information—email and mailing addresses, etc.
- Your business information—business type, name, activities, etc.
- Your business’ gross sales and other business-related questions
- Which endorsements you would like to add on to your policy
- Claims history—any claims you’ve needed to file in the past
- Additional insureds that you need to add and their information
- Payment information
If you need help filling out an application or have any questions about it, feel free to contact one of our licensed insurance agents.
How Do I File a Pet Care Insurance Claim?
Even though we hope an incident doesn’t occur, it is important to know how to file a claim in case it does. Pet Care Insurance’s online user portal makes it easy for you to file a claim online in just a couple of minutes by following these steps:
- Log in to your dashboard
- Locate the “Manage Policies” section
- Click on “File A Claim” and fill out the correct information
- Submit the claim
After submitting a claim, you will be contacted in 24–48 hours by your claims adjuster who will help you move forward with the rest of the claims process.
Do What You Love With Confidence
We hope that this Pet Care Insurance guide has been helpful in understanding what is included in a PCI policy and what coverage you need for your business. Purchase a policy today so you can work with peace of mind and a financial safety net in place. We wish you the best of luck with all of your pet care business endeavors!
To learn more about PCI, take a look at our website here.
