A company unceremoniously cancelled boiler insurance because their client had too many cats, they said. It’s a world first.
This strange cat story comes from Portsmouth, England. A woman, Tracey Webb, has 13 cats and the company providing boiler repair insurance say that she is in breach of her insurance contract because there are too many cats. They discontinued the contract without notice.
They claim that cat faeces made the place a health hazard to engineers.
Tracey denies this. She said that the engineer who visited didn’t like the fact that there were 13 cats in her home. I believe her. To some people her home would seem unsavoury, let’s say. Thirteen cats is a lot for what appears to be a small house. But this is not a reason to stop boiler insurance cover.
I have watched a video of the woman explaining the situation. I can’t embed the video into this page. I’ll just say that she is a bit eccentric and without being impolite she appears to be inebriated in the video. However, her home looks clean enough and there is no sign of cat faeces or any other health hazard.
Tracey is an animal lover and has rescued 2 cats from Greece. Greece has a lot of stray, homeless cats, with a bad record of animal welfare so they need rescuing.
She has been a customer with the company, SSE (a gas supplier) for seven years.
Tracey added:
“I’m really angry and upset about this, I’m just an animal lover and it’s not fair when I’ve been a loyal customer.”
I agree with her. She claims that she is being discriminated against because of her cats.
I think SSE have shown a lack of sensitivity to a client’s preferences and lifestyle. If she has upheld her side of the contract for seven years then SSE are in breach of contract and she should consider suing them. She won’t because it is much easier to change service providers. Good luck to her.
Source: The News (Portsmouth).
Yes, I am sure it was a man (the engineer) who thought “crazy cat lady” and dismissed her as mad. He probably disliked cats as well and it all worked together to discontinue the contract. I feel fairly confident that she could sue for breach of contract. She appears to have a drink problem but I can’t be sure.
I’m sure it was blatant discrimination to her and the cats. Men are especially guilty of that, and I’m also sure that if it were a man and his dogs, it wouldn’t have been an issue. I myself bought my first home which is 595 sq ft (small) and for three years in particular I had 15 cats. The numbers increased up to and decreased after that period. They weren’t a problem for me or any of my visitors and wouldn’t have been for the gas or electric company or anyone I did business with. I don’t understand the boiler situation but I’m glad she could begin dealing with someone else. People really need to stop being so petty and mean, personally and professionally.