Uninsured Hit By Snow Damage Costs

• News
• Published: 01 Feb 2010 in Household and Home Insurance

The financial cost of damage to houses caused by the recent spell of snowy and icy weather has topped £2 billion.

And many residents will be forced to pay for the repairs themselves, as they are uninsured for the damage.

Home emergency and repair firm HomeServe compiled a report which found that an estimated 5.9 million homes suffered average repair bills of £343.

Its research suggested that just one in five of those households, or 21%, were insured for the emergency.

That means a total of 4,779,000 households were uninsured - and a worrying 472,000 of those claim they cannot afford repair costs.

Boiler repair call-outs hit a massive 2.2 million households during the big freeze - average bills were £351.

A total of 1.24 million households suffered central heating misery, 5% of UK homes, paying an average £294 for repairs.

A similar total of 1.24 million households also suffered water leaks, and were charged an average £242 for the repair.

The most costly repair was for roof damage, hitting a total of 999,000 (4%) households and costing £546 on average to put right.

HomeServe's Jon Florsheim said: "We've found around six in 10 people are taking out insurance so that they are covered the next time they face an emergency of this kind."