Sainsburys Bank home insurance division has found that just short of 10 million people are thinking of planting trees in their gardens this year and would like to warn them about the threat of subsidence.
The main advice given by Sainsburys Bank is to select a tree that will be of a suitable size for the garden and also to plant it a good distance away from the house. If homeowners do not follow this advice they may find an increased risk of subsidence and the need for an insurance claim. Leylandii and Willow are two of the most troublesome trees it has been found.
A Sainsburys Bank spokesman revealed that home insurance claims for subsidence have cost British insurers over GBP700,000 per day over the last 5 years. It is therefore important to be aware of the risks before going ahead with planting a tree.
The Halifax is reminding all homeowners that they should ensure lightning cover is part of their home insurance especially as summer sees more claims.
According to data from Halifax home insurance customers the average claim for lightning damage costs over GBP 1,400 and such claims are 14 times more common in the summer than winter. The thing with lightning is that it can travel through things, so as well as causing actual damage to the structure of a building it can also go through wires and affect electrical equipment and so on.
A Halifax spokesman also pointed out that lightning can not be anticipated so no one knows where it will strike. For this reason checking the home insurance policy to make sure lightning cover is included is a sensible step to take.
Three new home insurance policies have been introduced by Tesco Finance, providing differing levels of protection to suit the needs of the user.
The entry level policy, called Value insurance, covers essential items only but costs around a third less than the Standard insurance package. This is being described as an upgraded version of the original Tesco home insurance policy. As well as offering the levels of cover existing customers will be familiar with it also includes an extra GBP10,000 of cover and there are no compulsory excesses.
The third home insurance policy introduced by Tesco Finance is called Finest and is a very comprehensive package, including ID fraud protection, home emergency support and buildings cover of unlimited value.
