£173 million cost of neighbourhood botches

Britons undertaking DIY or home renovation projects cause £173 million of damage to their neighbours' properties each year.

New research from Halifax Home Insurance reveals that neighbours caused £173 million of damage to next door properties last year after their home improvement disasters spilt over the garden fence. From water cascading into neighbouring properties through pierced pipes, demolished party walls and even broken ornaments, over 590,000 British homes were damaged in 2007 by these so-called 'Neighbourhood Botchers'. It is not just over-ambitious DIYers that were to blame, with one-in-ten blaming building calamities on professional workmen.

Shockingly, in one-in-three (32%) cases the victim was forced to foot the bill for repairs or claim on their own home insurance policy. In a further 27% of incidents the costs had to be shared between both parties.

Neighbourly relations in the South-East may be particularly strained as the region leads the way when it comes to neighbourhood botches, accounting for 29% of incidents, closely followed by Northern England at 27%. While in the last five years the average neighbourly DIY disaster in Scotland costs the most to repair at an average of £817, the region accounts for just 11% of recorded incidents. Wales and the South West ranked second highest of the UK regions surveyed with an average repair bill of £359, followed by the North of England with £320.

David Rochester, Head of Underwriting at Halifax Home Insurance, said: "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 they weren't aware that they could have claimed for repairing the damage on their neighbour's insurance policy."

Halifax Home Insurance also covers householders for any damage they may have accidentally caused to a neighbour's property, due to a domestic mishap such as a DIY disaster, under its Home Contents policy.

It is worth bearing in mind the requirements of the Party Wall Act, which requires that homeowners give notice and agree with their neighbour any significant work to be undertaken to a party wall before starting the work. Failure to do this could result in any subsequent claim for damages being rejected.