Parties Could Cost You A Billion Pounds

You may think you would be saving money by holding a party at your own house rather than hiring a venue, this may not be the case, however. Even inviting friends over for a visit may be costing us more than we think. It may well be that we should be offering to visit people in their own homes according to recent research.

Having friends over to visit you at home may seem like the cheap option - until you consider the £1 billion in damage caused by visiting friends and their children.

Every year, home insurance companies receive around one million claims for pieces of furniture and a nearly 970,000 claims for wine stained furnishings needing professional cleaning, often caused by the children of friends who are visiting. Over 800,000 items of sentimental value are broken and more than half a million garden ornaments are destroyed, say home insurance companies.

Asking our friends for a hand with DIY projects is particularly expensive and disastrous, with at least half a million home insurance claims for botched handiwork and the homeowner having to call a professional in. Over 140,000 of those cases ended in the friend requiring hospital treatment after injuring themselves.

The average cost of an incident is nearly £80, while around 16,000 households a year are left with a bill of more than £10,000.

"However well meaning, friends may be enemies to your bank balance unless you have comprehensive home insurance cover for the damage they cause," commented a home insurance manager.

"Homeowners could face paying out significant sums if they are underinsured, or have no insurance cover, because of their friend's behaviour. Adequate cover can help people avoid disputes over damage to property and furnishings, which could otherwise cause rifts between lifelong friends."

If you would like to know more about home insurance why not ask AnswerBank Insurance.