Risk of Xmas tree lights on at night

THE chances of a house fire increase drastically during the festive period for those who have a Christmas tree.

It may be faulty fairy lights or overloaded plug sockets. But if your tree goes up in flames – will your insurance cover you?

One reader, Frank, thought he would be. It seems he was wrong.

Frank put up his Christmas tree on December 1, just as he does every year. After he’d decorated it, his wife put presents underneath for their children.

When the family were woken at 3.30am on December 3 by smoke filling the house, Frank quickly found the Christmas tree on fire.

He evacuated his family and called the fire brigade.

Safe

Luckily the fire was extinguished quickly and the damage contained largely to the living room of the house, in Norwich.

More importantly, everyone was safe. Frank gave his insurers all the details of the fire.

He listed the destroyed presents that were under the now-wrecked tree plus all the other damage.

A couple of days later they called back. They wanted to know two things – had the fairy lights been left on overnight and were the damaged presents under the tree?

After saying “yes” to both, Frank was told he may not be covered. The insurers deemed it negligent to leave the lights unattended. Frank is awaiting their decision so he contacted me for my thoughts.

The legal starting point will be to see what the insurer’s terms and conditions say on this subject.

Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to view an up-to-date copy and the insurance company has not been forthcoming in either sending them or directing me to them online.

Still, it is likely that leaving the fairly lights on unattended will fall within an exclusion, because it is commonly known they can be a fire hazard. The issue of the presents under the tree is more intriguing.

I have seen insurers “advise” against placing presents under the tree because of burglary risk.

I’ve also seen them partially reject claims because the value of presents were over the contents limit. But I’ve never seen an insurer refuse to cover damaged presents because they were under the tree.

I think this would be a step too far. I’ve advised Frank to lodge a claim with t he Financial Ombudsman if they pursue this.