Home insurance claims more than double during the school summer holidays. The new research was gathered from submitted claims from insurance providers SO-SURE’s customers.
With the school holidays approaching, SO-SURE said its figures from 2021 shows claims increased by 109% between June and August, with visible peaks in July and September.
Claims for beds, sofas, TVs, bikes, tablets, PlayStations, and VR headsets all increased in the summer months.
SO-SURE have provided five top tips to help parents keep their possessions safe:
1. Keep breakables out of reach from young children
It might seem like an obvious one, but you should never underestimate children’s determination. Keep your valuables somewhere they can’t be reached by little hands that could cause expensive damage.
2. Protecting upholstered furniture from stains
Sofas and chairs will likely have meals and snacks dropped on them, soak up spilled drinks and be a seat for crafting! Choose fabrics that are stain resistant like nylon and polyester or use throws to cover sofas and slipcovers for chairs.
3. Keeping children safely away from Blinds
Blinds are unsafe for children and pulling the strings the wrong way can cause them to tangle inside the frame. Purchase blinds with safety clips that you install into the side of the wall or buy blind cord windups to keep strings out of children’s reach.
4. Mount TVs to the wall
Yorkshire Dad blogger Karl, father of two boys Ted, 8, and Charlie, 6, has shared his top tip to keeping televisions damage-free. “The boys used to put mucky handprints over the TV and when they both were squabbling over what TV show to watch they would stand in front of the TV and hold it. The TV at the time was placed on a cabinet and would wobble, after much frustration I mounted it to the wall and it’s now fully out of reach!”
5. Keep carpets stain-free with rugs
Carpets are easily stained by mud, drinks, food, paint, nail polish, make-up or anything else children may come across while playing. It’s worth purchasing carpets that have stain-resistant fibres in like nylon but we understand this can be expensive. A lower cost solution is to buy rugs for the areas where children play, these can protect your carpet and be rolled away when not in use.
Gabriel Cabral, Senior Marketing Manager at SO-SURE says:
“We all know that the summer holidays can be a crazy time for parents, and children running around the house can increase the risk of mishaps. Our data shows a correlation between the summer holidays and home insurance claims, meaning it’s important to take extra care of their possessions in July and August. With our tips, parents can enjoy time with their kids without stressing about accidents and breakages.”
