The ten weirdest home insurance claims

Updated
Unusual insurance claims: pesky squirrels
Unusual insurance claims: pesky squirrels



There are all sorts of risks we worry about when it comes to protecting our home: what if there's a fire, or a flood, or we're burgled? Meanwhile there are all sorts of things we don't even think to worry about - because the possibility just never occurs to us. However, as a new study shows, some bizarre and unusual calamities can befall our homes.

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The research, by Ageas, revealed the company's 10 weirdest claims of the year. But do any of them make our hall of fame of truly odd claims?

1. Rogue squirrel
A 68-year-old man from Wolverhampton made a claim for a pane of glass that had been broken in his conservatory. Apparently pesky squirrels kept burying things under the lawn, and in this instance they decided to bury a small piece of brick. When he was mowing the grass, the piece of brick flew up, and smashed through the conservatory window,

2. Rampant cows
A 52-year-old man made a claim for £7,500 worth of damage to his house and garden, after a herd of cows came through an estate at the end of a cul de sac in Gwynedd. They did apparently provide him with some free fertiliser.

3. The dog house
A puppy in Milton Keynes decided to play with its new 'toy' - some cables on the lounge floor. Unfortunately those cables turned out to be attached to a TV, which it subsequently pulled to the ground and smashed.

4. Grilled teeth
An 84-year-old man from Oxfordshire put his false teeth aside while he was cooking. Unfortunately, they slipped under the grill, and he melted them. The replacements cost £945.

5. Bee serious
A 75-year-old woman in Taunton was left with a £200 bill for smoke damage. Bees had swarmed into her dining room, so she had to call a bee keeper to get them out, and his smoke left black marks all over the carpet.

6. A rash choice
Two children in Bristol decided nappy cream must be good for everything, so they tried it out on the lounge carpet and sofa. They managed to cause an impressive £1,386 worth of damage.

7. Sinking feeling
A 64-year-old woman from Rochester left her iPad in the kitchen while she had dinner. She forgot that she had put it down on the chopping board - until she popped that chopping board into a sink full of soapy water.

8. Wheely irritating
Two children in Staffordshire made the decision to ride their segways in the dining room. While the segways remained stationary, the wheels spun, and burned £750 worth of holes in the carpet and rug.

9. Used his head
An 82-year-old man in Paisley broke the UPVC panel on his front door - with his head. He apparently tripped while he was on the phone.

10. Oil MG
A 54-year-old man in Dudley woke to an interesting surprise one morning. His baby son had toddled round the house while he was sleeping, dripping baby oil as he went. The damage came to £568.

The Hall of Fame

There's an impressive level of strangeness to some of these claims, but none of them make the list of the top five oddest that we've reported on in the past few years. That honour goes to:

5. A Belfast resident who incurred the wrath of his pet bearded dragon while cleaning its tank. The lizard sunk his teeth into the man's hand, causing him to jump backwards into his TV - leading to a claim for nearly £400 worth of damage.

4. The motorist who parked up in Dartmoor National Park and went for a hike. On his return he was delighted to get the chance to see 12 wild horses. He was less delighted, however, when he discovered that they had been licking the paintwork off his car - causing £1,200 of damage.

3. Earning its place through sheer improbability is the snail that ate £78 worth of carpet in the home of a 73 year old man from Preston.

2. The runner up was a man who liked to park his caravan on his drive so he could keep a close eye on it. It meant he had a great view of his neighbour as he decided to tackle the weeds on his driveway with a blowtorch. The fire got out of hand, spread to a bush, and blistered the caravan's paintwork. It cost £2,000 to put it right.

1. And the winner is the Rochester man, who was brushing his teeth when a wasp flew through the window. In a panicked attempt to shoo it away he knocked over a glass, which cracked the basin, and cost him £1,000.

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