The Precious Heirloom and the Cat: Covered or Not?

Is your precious crystal vase covered by your contents insurance if your cat knocks it over and destroys it? The answer is no! Find out why in this article.

What does your contents insurance cover?

Insurances are supposed to make your life easier. However, complicated wordings, special cases and exceptions often make it even more complicated. To shed light on this dark side of insurance, our series "Covered or not?" will show you what contents insurance is all about.

Here's what happened

Do you know that feeling? It’s 10pm and you just wanted to see one or two educational videos on Youtube before going to bed, but five hours and 350 cat videos later you've learned only one thing: Cats are cute, but they definitely want to take over the world one day.

Being a cat owner yourself, you naturally notice this every day in the subtle actions of your pet. Sometimes she sits on the table and pushes down everything in front of her paws; other times she sneaks up on you in a corner, while you walk by unsuspectingly.

And today? It was a hearty leap from the table to the shelves with a badly positioned landing. Shortly afterwards your favourite vase crashed to the ground. It wasn't just any vase either: the crystal glass heirloom was well worth €2,000. You can't find the motive behind the cat’s action, but somehow she has been looking at you suspiciously all day...

As cheeky as your cat was today, at the end of the day she snuggles up with you on the couch and the trouble is as good as forgotten. Now you're just wondering if you could at least get the material value of the vase refunded. That's why you think about reporting this damage to Getsafe and submitting it as a contents damage. However, we would advise against this and want to answer your most important questions:

Is my valuable vase part of my household goods at all?

Yes, the vase itself is covered by your contents insurance.

Does this mean that my contents insurance will cover this damage?

No, because contents insurance protects your belongings only from very specific risks. These risks include  fire, storm and hail, water, burglary and robbery.

Your cat may seem dangerous to you (and we understand that very well), but unfortunately she does not count as an insured risks within a contents insurance.

Should I still file a claim?

Unfortunately, this claim would have to be rejected. We recommend to not file claims for damages that have been caused on your property by your cats, dogs, birds, and all other pets.

You want to learn more about the Getsafe contents insurance?