A pet owner who sought a payout after his dog bled onto his mattress and carpet has won a claims dispute before the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

The complainant lodged an accidental damage claim with his contents insurer after finding stains in two bedrooms on December 29 last year. He said his dog, Snoopy, had bled from its anus overnight. 

Open Insurance declined the claim, referring to a general exclusion around “scratching, chewing, tearing or soiling by any animal”. It said the pet’s bleeding fell under “soiling”.

The insurer acknowledged its policy did not define the term but said the exclusion existed to “capture the most common loss or damage risks with keeping an animal inside a home, of which soiling is one”.  

In its ruling, the complaints authority’s ombudsman said: “The insurer says the act of bleeding carries an equivalent risk to alternative acts of soiling, such as urinating, defecating or vomiting, in that it can happen without warning and it would not be expected that the animal would take actions to prevent this occurring.”  

But AFCA says that in applying the exclusion, the insurer “must be specific as to the loss being excluded”. 

“The fact that bleeding was not included in an exclusion clearly drafted to address the risks associated with an animal being present at the insured address indicates, in my view, that ‘bleeding’ was not meant to be excluded,” the ombudsman said.

“If that exclusion had been intended to apply to ‘bleeding’ as well, then ‘bleeding’ could and should have been specified.”  

AFCA requires Open Insurance to accept and settle the claim within the policy terms.  

Click here for the ruling.