Grand designs not matched by grand handiwork
Brits do not seem to be able to translate their ideas for making their homes into palaces into reality, with over £670 million a year paid out to fix botched DIY jobs.According to Halifax Home Insurance, 11 million UK households are dreaming of grand designs for their property, yet 4.1 million of these will have to shell out for professionals to correct the job they started.People in the Midlands are the worst when it comes to handiwork, with £272 million per year spent in the region to get the professionals in to rectify DIY mistakes.However, Scots seem to know their stuff, only paying out £4.6 million to save them from home improvement hell.Halifax warns that anyone aspiring to be the next Bob the Builder should check that they are fully insured for accidental DIY damage, as 36 per cent of British homeowners have not invested in buildings insurance and 22 per cent have not covered their home contents with a policy.Halifax Home Insurance's senior manager of underwriting, Vicky Emmott, commented: "Whilst well planned and executed home improvements can add significant value to a home, getting it wrong can be a disaster."We'd advise anyone planning any major improvements to their home to employ qualified and reputable tradesmen, rather than going it alone. Indeed trying to tackle certain areas that you are not qualified for, such as electrics or plumbing, could invalidate your home insurance and leave you liable for the cost of any subsequent damage."Can we fix it? No, we can't.
Share this..
Related stories
Royal Bank of Scotland to curb mortgage lending
04/06/2014 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that it will be restricting mortgage lending from June 2014. This will mean that mortgage applicants can only lend up to four times their annual income for loans of £500,000 or more. They said the reasoning behind the move was to protect customers from taking on more than they can afford and to address inflationary pressure in Lon...
Read MoreAre Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch set to work together?
While there is no doubt that the revamped and restyled Microsoft search engine Bing has made some inroads into the massive influence of Google in the online arena, in the overall picture it has had a minimal impact so far. Interestingly, and seemingly unconnected at the time, recent news that Rupert Murdoch was looking to withdraw his various news channels from the Google news system was largely i...
Read MoreIs the UK on the brink of bankruptcy?
As the UK national debt approaches £1 trillion many experts in the field of economics are asking the question "Is the UK on the verge of bankruptcy?"
While this seems a very bizarre question for a country as "strong" as the UK there are serious concerns that debt could reach £2 trillion or even £3 trillion if the latest rescue package goes disastrously wrong. In effect Gordon Bro...
Wind power delay for UK government
Despite yesterday claiming that up to 50% of UK homes will have their electricity supply originating from wind power by 2020, the UK government has been forced to admit that this particular plan is ambitious to say the least. Aside from the fact that the 6,400 new wind farms, which will be located offshore, will take longer than first expected to arrive there is also the problem of transferring th...
Read MoreOnline spending in December increased by 14%
News that online spending in the UK increased by 14% in December has not come as a surprise to many in the retail sector. Suspicions that many people have switched from the high street to the online shopping sector appear to have been borne out with a 25% increase in overall spending online in 2008.
A figure of £43.8 billion has been suggested as the total online expenditure throug...