Sainsbury’s Home Insurance warns that parties held by children in their parents’ homes are collectively responsible for around £46,000 of damage every night of the year(1). With Halloween fast overtaking Bonfire Night as autumn’s biggest festival, and falling on a Friday this year, October 31st could prove to be one of the most costly party nights of the year.

Of the £16.8 million of damage caused by children’s parties every year, the Bank’s research reveals that 54,000 parties – 8.6% of all those held by children – are thrown each year in the parental home without their parents’ permission and that these alone are responsible for up to £1.4 million of damage each year(1).

With the increasing use of social networking sites Sainsbury’s Home Insurance is warning that homeowners may not be fully covered should their children host parties having posted invites on sites such as Bebo or Facebook.

Neil Laird, Sainsbury’s Home Insurance Manager, commented: “Halloween has grown hugely popular in recent years, and we’d expect some serious parties this Friday night. The worry, though, is that with many people now posting invites on social networking sites, these parties can easily get out of hand, and if they do, some insurers may claim the homeowner failed to take due care of the property and could refuse to pay up.

“At Halloween, the risks of not knowing exactly who’s at your party are even greater than usual, for obvious reasons, and we’d strongly advise people, particularly, teenagers, against openly advertising fancy dress parties on social networking sites.”

The research for Sainsbury’s Home Insurance also suggests that if a child holds a party in the parental home there is a more than one in three (38%) chance that damage of some sort will be caused. While for just over 1 million parents, the damage was limited to less than £100, the consequences can be hard on the wallet, with 17,000 parents admitting that parties for their children in the past five years had resulted in damage costing between £1,000 and £5,000 each. Some 124,000 parents said that they did not know how much the damage had cost(1).

(1) Based on analysis of data from ICM. 3,000 people were interviewed by ICM between 2nd August 2008 and 10th August 2008. Interviews were conducted over the phone with a total of 604 interviews with parents of children aged 13-24 years old. The consumer omnibus research conducted by ICM uses a large sample size that reflects the demographic profile of GB. Given this, it is possible to extrapolate figures and make projections from the research results within appropriate confidence intervals.

(2) Only eligible for NCD Protection after payment of a small additional premium.

(3) Additional cover can also be purchased at an additional premium.