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Domestic abuse and insurance

The Washington State Legislature passed a law in April 1998 that bans insurance companies from discriminating against domestic-abuse victims.

What is domestic abuse?

According to Washington state law, domestic abuse is when:

• Bodily injury, assault or fear of impending physical harm occurs between family or household members.
• A family or household member sexually assaults another family or household member.
• A family or household member stalks another family or household member.
• Someone purposely, knowingly or recklessly causes damage to property to intimidate or attempt to control another family or household member.

Your insurance rights

If you've been or may be a victim of domestic abuse, insurance companies cannot:

• Change the terms or your property coverage
• Charge you a different rate for the same coverage
• Deny you coverage
• Refuse to renew your policy
• Cancel your policy

Filing an insurance claim

• Insurance companies can't deny your claim if a covered loss is due to domestic abuse and you didn't help cause the loss.
• If you are a domestic abuse-victim and you file an insurance claim to recover your portion of the property loss, you must:
  • File a police report
  • Cooperate with any law-enforcement investigation
  • Cooperate with the insurance investigation
• Your insurance company may choose to seek repayment from the person held liable for the property loss.

Updated 04/17/2012