NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6867B
SPONSOR: Rosenthal L TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to prohibiting certain
restrictions as it relates to dog breed
PURPOSE OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to ensure that renters are able to secure
renters' insurance policies regardless of the breed of dog owned.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
This bill would prohibit insurers that issue renters' insurance policies
from refusing to issue, renew, cancel, charge, or imposing an increased
premium for such policy or contract, or exclude, limit, restrict, or
reduce coverage under such policy or contract based solely upon harbor-
ing or owning any dog of a specific breed or mixture of breeds.
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2021, legislation was signed into law (Chapter 545 of the Laws of
2021) prohibiting homeowners' liability insurance companies from refus-
ing to issue or renew; cancel, or charge an increased premium or rate
based solely on the breed of dog a homeowner owns. Now, 25 states have
enacted laws to prohibit homeowners' insurance companies from restrict-
ing access to policies based on the breed of dog in the home. These
restrictions are a clear form of breed discrimination, suggesting that
certain breeds are more dangerous than others, despite overwhelming
evidence that aggression is not specific to any particular breed or
grouping of dogs.
Temperaments vary with each animal and owners should not be penalized
over an outdated belief that biting or other acts of aggression are more
likely to occur with certain breeds of dog. This legislation will ensure
that renters, like homeowners, will not face higher premiums or other
obstacles when obtaining a renter's insurance policy simply because of
the type of dog they own.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law and shall apply to all policies issued, renewed, modified,
altered or amended on or after such effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6867--B
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 8, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL, LUNSFORD, JACOBSON, SHRESTHA,
GLICK, EPSTEIN, DAVILA, REYES, BORES -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Insurance -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted
to the Committee on Insurance in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec.
2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended
and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to prohibiting certain
restrictions as it relates to dog breed
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The section heading and subsection 1 of section 3421 of
2 the insurance law, the section heading as added by chapter 545 of the
3 laws of 2021 and subsection 1 as amended by chapter 679 of the laws of
4 2022, are amended to read as follows:
5 Homeowners' liability insurance and renters' insurance; dogs. 1. With
6 respect to homeowners' insurance policies as defined in section two
7 thousand three hundred fifty-one of this chapter and renters' insurance
8 policies as defined in section three thousand four hundred fifty-four of
9 this chapter, no insurer shall refuse to issue or renew, cancel, or
10 charge or impose an increased premium or rate for such policy or
11 contract, or exclude, limit, restrict, or reduce coverage under such
12 policy or contract based solely upon harboring or owning any dog of a
13 specific breed or mixture of breeds.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
15 have become a law and shall apply to all policies issued, renewed, modi-
16 fied, altered or amended on or after such effective date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10473-04-4
