Home insurance can be invalidated if tradesmen are not insured

Up to £590 million of damage is caused to homes in Britain each year by tradesmen, according to new research rom Sainsbury's Home Insurance. With one in five tradesmen estimated to be operating without any public liability insurance, the bank is warning that up to £118 million of this damage may not be covered by insurance. And it believes that this could get worse, as it has seen a 5% increase in the past year in the number of personal loans it is approving to fund home improvements.

Sainsbury's Home Insurance's research indicates that while up to 25 million British adults have employed a tradesman to carry out work in their home in the last five years, worryingly only 16% (4 million) of these people asked for evidence of public liability cover from the person they were employing in advance of them carrying out the work. The research also suggests that of the 84% that didn't ask or couldn't remember doing so, nearly one in five (19%) said they didn't ask for evidence of insurance because they didn't know about the cover.

Ben Tyte, Sainsbury's Home Insurance Manager, said: "Some home insurers, like ourselves, will review matters of damage on a case by case basis and may cover damage done to a property by a qualified tradesperson. However some insurers may not. All homeowners have a duty of care to look after their properties and if no effort to check for public liability cover is made and damage is done, they could find their home insurance invalidated and risk having to pay for major repairs themselves."

The average bill for damage caused by tradesmen stands at £1,136. Yet of the 2.6 million people whose homes were damaged in some way by tradesmen in the past five years, 339,000 people faced bills of over £2,000, 133,000 people incurred damages costing between £5,001 and £10,000 to repair and 11,000 people suffered damage valued at over £10,000!

The British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) has called for public liability insurance to be made compulsory. While it remains optional, however, Sainsbury's Home Insurance is warning homeowners of the need to ensure the tradesmen they employ are adequately covered before allowing them to commence work.

Ben Tyte, Sainsbury's Home Insurance Manager, said: "We've seen a significant increase in the number of people looking to carry out work on their properties in the last year alone, and it's a real concern that so many tradesmen continue to operate without adequate insurance.

"The risks involved in home improvement work are obvious, and while many public liability claims can be of a relatively low value, the financial implications for those who suffer major damage at the hands of an uninsured tradesperson could be huge.

"We'd encourage all homeowners to only employ tradesmen with adequate cover, and to insist on seeing evidence of such before allowing work to start."

On a local basis, Scots are the most likely to check up on their tradesmen, with 21% requesting evidence of public liability insurance in advance of the works beginning.  People living in the North East and North West of England are the worst at checking for cover, however, with only 8% and 9%, respectively, of people in these regions asking for evidence of insurance in advance.