Coping in a crisis
We’ve all heard of saving for a rainy day – sometimes that’s exactly when we are likely to need a quick cash injection
Now the days are getting longer we know winter is on the way out, but there’s plenty of opportunity for bad weather home emergencies.
Storms show up leaky roofs and the wind blows off loose tiles and slates. Heavy rainwater can cause flooding.
Emergencies are worse in bad weather. If the heating fails, it hits families harder than in summer. And if you get an flood indoors, it’s nastier when it’s cold outside.
If the failure is serious, your insurer will pick up the problem – and the bill. But what happens if it’s not that bad – perhaps the cost of repairs is not more or not much more than that first slice of the claim which you pick up – the “excess”? Or if the problem is not covered by insurance such as a boiler breakdown?
The answer to both is that you may well have to pay it yourself, one reason why it’s often suggested you should put aside cash for a rainy day fund – if you can afford that.
According to property insurer NFU Mutual, we spend an average £527.30 from our own pockets for each household emergency. That adds up to a startling £3.7 billion a year across the nation.
And during the past two years, just over half of us has experienced a home problem which was either not covered by insurance or too small for a claim, forcing us to pay or endure discomfort.
The biggest problems are heating failures – covered on few policies – followed by a power supply breakdown, where generally you can do nothing but wait for utility companies to repair the fault.
A third major concern is blocked or broken plumbing, including guttering and waste pipes.
NFU Mutual calculates one in six decide to live with the problem, hoping it will go away or at least not get worse, although some decide to fix it themselves.
Most get a roofer or heating engineer or plumber in, but while older people can generally find the cash – they’ve often built up a rainy day fund – for those aged under 25, it’s either more card debt or another appeal to the Bank of Mum’n’Dad.
Ross Garner at NFU Mutual says: “While home insurance protects against disasters such as fire, flood and storm damage, the costs of everyday domestic breakdowns, such as broken boilers, can be expensive to fix. Although some people put money aside to cover unexpected costs, repairs can often cost more than anticipated and home emergencies can happen in quick succession.”