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£23 million party bill: parents left counting the cost teenage house parties
Costs soar by more than a third in a year
With the average cost of repairs for teenage parties reaching £162 - up £45 on last year - insurance provider, Allianz Your Cover, is issuing a warning to parents to be on the look out for illicit parties or to budget for breakages in the event their teenagers do hold a house party.
Andy James of Allianz Your Cover said: “One in 10 teenagers have caused damage to their family homes by throwing a party, so parents have good reason to worry about celebrations getting out of control. By being vigilant to their teenager’s behaviour, parents can avoid being the unlucky owner of a home ravaged by a teen party that has caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.”
Unaware Parents
One in 10 parents polled are oblivious to whether their teenager has advertised a party via a social networking website, this is despite the vast majority (92%) having revealed that they do not think social networking websites are a good way for teenagers to organise their social lives. Parents’ apprehensions are well founded as a recent survey revealed that teenagers have an average of 243 friends on Facebook3, so by posting details of a party online teenagers are essentially opening the door of their family home to hundreds of people.
Further demonstrating this trend of unaware parents is a drop in the number of parents monitoring their teenager’s online social activity from a third (35%) in 2010 to just 17%, meaning that parents are left unaware as to whether their teenagers are organising parties online.
Dreaded Damage
Parents have named the top five types of problems most commonly caused by teenage parties:
General rubbish and mess (52%)
Broken furniture (45%)
Trampled garden and plants (28%)
Stains to carpets (24%)
Burns to upholstery (23%)
The research also found that while parties hosted by boys are more likely to result in broken furniture, girls hosting parties are twice as likely to create more general rubbish and mess.
Andy James continues: “We would urge parents to talk to their teenage children and set boundaries for parties to ensure that any festive celebrations do not compromise the safety and security of their home. We recommend that parents check the levels of accidental damage cover on their home insurance policies to ensure they have adequate coverage in case major damage happens. ”
Your Cover Insurance, Allianz UK’s flexible insurance offering enables policy holders to purchase different levels of accidental damage cover on both contents and buildings policies to ensure homeowners get the cover they need.
For more information please visit: www.YourCoverInsurance.co.uk
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