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SPANISH MANDATORY DOG INSURANCE | ARE YOU AFFECTED?
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Oct 29, 2024
BayRadio's Dougie speaks to Rafa Nadales From Liberty Seguros about the new law coming into place on the 29th of September 2023. This new law requires all dog owners to have insurance that covers their dogs, are you affected? ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW in this interview.
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[Music]
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it's Bay radio this is Dougie Mac and we
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have a few questions to ask about this
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new law that's coming in if you're a dog
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owner we love our dogs we love our dogs
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and we want to make sure we do what's
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right by them there's a new law coming
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in on the 29th of September that you
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must have public liability insurance for
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your dog I'm here with Rafa nadalis from
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Liberty segurus Hi Rafa hello good
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morning though how are you I'm very well
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thank you thank you for joining us uh
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now this is quite an issue isn't it I
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mean this is uh to a lot of people this
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has happened quite suddenly it is
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actually something very very new and
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it's nothing that we have never had such
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a thing in in Spain beforehand and only
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there are certain communities or certain
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regions in Spain where the um the dark
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insurance was obligatory up until now
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which is Madrid and The Basque country
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but in the rest of the country in the
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rest of pain there is no such an
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obligation and although there is only an
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obligation to have this public liability
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only if the dog is considered a
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dangerous breed of talk that's the only
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case now there's been all sorts of
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conflicting ideas and reports on social
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media most of them wrong because it's
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social media but um no first of all home
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insurance policies is this going to
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cover the pet liability yes I would say
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that most of the current home insurance
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policies in in Spain already included
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public liability that has covered for
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this for the dog owner okay and I will
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say most of them because there may be
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some companies that do not include but I
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won't say that it's too many of them
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okay at least in Liberty we include the
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public liability of the what we call the
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um family or the policy holder and
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public liability which includes the
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cover in case always
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and subject to that dog not being a
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dangerous breed of dog if for example if
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you are the if you your dog is
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considered as a dangerous breed of talk
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then you can have an additional cover in
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your home policy to cover public
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liability for a dangerous speed doctor
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understand that dogs deemed dangerous
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breeds will not be called that in future
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what's that about there is something on
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the law that we haven't talked about is
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that now dangerous breed of dark will
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not be called dangerous breed of dog
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simply to be politically correct okay
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yeah at the end of the day can be
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dangerous or not then we have a new
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concept which is I mean sorry for the
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translation but it says something
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similar to talk of special handling okay
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so instead of if your dog was dangerous
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dog now it's a dog with a special
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handling
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what sort of limited limitings or
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exclusions could be expected
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um where there are not such big
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exclusions the only thing that you have
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too many is that in order to
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um have cover a general cover for public
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liability and you have to be
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um I mean you your your home insurance
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has to cover your main residence so for
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example if you have a holiday home in
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Spain then you are not considered to be
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kind of a resident here in Spain so your
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public liability for your home insurance
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in Spain will not cover that okay it has
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to be covered through your home country
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public liability policy other than that
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I don't see any any other exclusion the
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only uh always sorry bear in mind that
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this cover
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um jobs that are not considered as
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dangerous breeds of dog
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questions in from uh people quite
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concerned and one of those questions is
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is there a policy that would cover both
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public liability and medical insurance
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yes
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um there is a policy that is called the
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pet insurance policy where you can have
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a basic cover that will provide you
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cover in case the the dog is has an
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accident or the dog has to be put to
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sleep or basically took over the uh The
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Cremation course of the of the dog this
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is the basic cover plant that you're
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gonna have also additional cover to
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cover the uh the veterinary phase
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um for example if your dog is diagnosed
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with uh with an illness and you have to
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take the the dog to the to the vet
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center then the pet insurance policy
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will cover such course and you can also
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include liability cover to your pet
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insurance policy so that's another
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option to have liability insurance for
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total and what sort of Premium I guess
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it's going to differ between the size of
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the dog the age of the dog but what sort
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of say for instance a 15 year old dog
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under 10 kilos and it's like a a terrier
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type
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if we expect just the basic cover with
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public liability uh we will be talking
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about 75 Euros per year which is not
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very expensive
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well if the dog is a bit bigger maybe
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younger it won't change too much okay
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because that's what we consider a basic
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cover including public liabilities so I
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would say between 7 500 euros per year
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per policy
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um the premium will increase uh if you
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take over if you take out the cover for
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um the course of veterinaries um fees
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now this um this was passed in March
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this law wasn't it yeah so how far down
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the line are we with it because I mean
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it comes into law on the 29th of
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September before we went on you were
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explaining to me about how was it kind
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of some gray areas aren't there it is it
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is actually a little bit of a gray area
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where
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um the law was actually passed by the
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end of March last year and it was
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published in the Spanish official that
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said so it was supposed that the law
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will become enforced six months after
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being published in the official asset
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right so we are now at the end of
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September the law is supposed to be
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enforced on the 29th of September this
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year however we have a an unusual
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situation in Spain as you know at the
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moment after the general elections we
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don't have an official government what
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we have is what we call an acting
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government and this acting government
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has limited capacities okay so after the
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law was passed uh the government should
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have been developing the regulations of
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this law
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this regulation of this load will
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develop
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um the the the the
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content of the law itself for example
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the law says that every dog owner
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um will be obliged to have a mandatory
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public liability insurance policy
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however the law doesn't establish which
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is the minimum cover requester
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this should be explained and Detail in
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these regulations again another quite
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interesting point of this law is that
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every owner every dog owner will have to
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pass a test okay like a capability test
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the law only established that New
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Orleans have to pass the test and
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existing owners will have ability of 10
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2DS to pass this test however
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you don't find anything in the low about
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the content of the test and who is going
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to provide the test and who is going to
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certify the capability of the top owner
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this is why at the moment we have recent
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news from the um from the ministry last
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week since that the law will be enforced
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after the 29th of September but there
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will be certain part of the laws that
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will not be enforced one of this part
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that will not be enforced will not be
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applicable is the obligation of having
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an insurance policy
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the reason as explaining is because the
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law or the regulation that had not been
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approved yet
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don't establish how much is the minimum
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cover for this for this insurance policy
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just to give you an idea
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um the dangerous breed of dog and that
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I'd obliged to have mandatory insurance
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policy at the moment this insurance
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policy for dangerous breed of thought
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establish a minimum cover of 120 000
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Euros per year but at the moment we
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don't know if this will be the figure
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that will be used for the new mandatory
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insurance policy or they will be a
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different
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um cover or a different amount these
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tests that that for instance I will have
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to take for my dog but I don't know what
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that's going to be because nobody knows
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nobody knows what nobody knows it right
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okay so any idea what form these tests
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may take uh to be honest with you no
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idea simply because
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um first we have to have a government in
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place and once there is a government in
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place they will have the capacity to
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develop the regulations but up until we
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until sorry at the current situation we
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don't know yet yeah anybody's guess yeah
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I I like to think I'm a responsible dog
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owner so um hopefully the test won't be
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too too difficult I don't think the test
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will be too difficult or mainly if you
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have been there owning the dog for years
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and you will be more than capable to to
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pass the test for sure
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um but um we guess that most of the dog
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owners will be taking up taking out a
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public liability insurance basically
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because sooner or later they will have
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to have it anyway something that I would
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recommend everyone is that they simply
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have to check their home policy and most
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probably they won't have to take out a
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new insurance policy uh what I recommend
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them is to check the current insurance
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policy they have the current home
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insurance policy if they can't check it
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with the with an insurance agent or an
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insurance broker so that just to verify
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that they have cover for public
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liability for dogs and they will only
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have to ask the agent or the broker to
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register the details of the dog mainly
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the the chip number and the name of the
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dock and that's all what do you think of
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this uh this new law well I think it's a
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matter of responsibility at the end of
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the day something that um they have put
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in on paper would
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um has been in in society for the last
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few years okay so at the end of the day
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um you just put a little bit of um order
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okay and by lead with regards to this
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public liability because there are more
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and more dogs on the streets now I don't
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mean free on the street but and they can
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cost certain damages that you know we
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have to protect everyone's okay and I
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feel it's a good a good um good law that
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will bring more security and more safety
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to to dogs and to dogs owners as well
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absolutely absolutely now if um anybody
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listening to this wanted to know more
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how can they get in touch with you
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uh well they can contract Liberty
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segurus one of the expert agents or
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Brokers and they can refer to me or they
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can also talk to the to the insurance
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agenda broker they are fully qualified
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to get advice about this new liability
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insurance and for sure what they will
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recommend them is if they already have
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the customer already have a home policy
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it's just to register the the name of
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the details of the of the dog in the in
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the policy and that way they won't have
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to pay anything extra okay Rafa thank
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you very much for joining us today
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fingers crossed out and past this test
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hope so I hope we can talk in the next
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few months to know how many but in the
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next few months yes let's catch up once
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the halls of power have settled down and
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decided upon the final details I will be
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here to talk to you
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radio
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foreign
#Dogs
#Public Policy