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Home Insurance - Home Insurance Could Save Britons £173Million - 16/04/2008

Overzealous DIY enthusiasts are estimated to cause over £173 million worth of damage to their neighbours property every year. The average cost of the damage caused is £291, with a significant amount of victims paying to fix the damage themselves.

According to Halifax Home Insurance 600,000 people had their property damaged through their neighbours botched DIY last year. In over one third of cases the victims of their neighbours misled DIY forays had to pay for the repairs themselves.

On top of that, in 27% of instances, the costs were split between the two neighbours. David Rochester of Halifax Home Insurance had this to say regarding the surprisingly low number of claims in such cases: “A number of errant DIYers are not just damaging their properties, but their neighbours' homes too. But even more interesting is that so many victims handle the situation with typically British aplomb. Indeed, over two-thirds of them chose to pay towards the cost of repairing their home - rather than create a fuss."

Perhaps many victims of DIY gone wrong are not aware that they can claim on their neighbour’s insurance policy. Many may be under the impression that the only way they can claim is on their own policy. This is not the case. If your neighbour has caused damage to your property with his DIY ventures, you are covered on his policy. In most policies DIY disasters are covered under home contents insurance.

The most common incidences resulting in damage to a neighbour’s property were where water pipes were damaged, causing water damage to the adjoining property, shared walls being demolished or damaged and damage to personal property.