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Insurance To Prevent Rats Eating Your Investments
When 81-year-old Luciano Mares found a mouse in his house, he threw it on to a heap of burning leaves outside. Unfortunately, the burning mouse ran back in. As a result, the building and all its contents were destroyed. In Britain , most people would probably be insured but there are some exceptions to insurance cover. Brian Brown, Associate director at Defaqto.com (a finance information website) says 'Virtually no policies cover vermin damage - it is usually excluded under the accidental damage clause, however, most insurers would cover events consequent to vermin damage, such as a fire or flood caused by vermin chewing through a pipe or wire.' Insurer Saga stands out from the rest, says Brown, since all of its policies cover squirrel damage, which can cause some of the worst problems. And Saga's Cover Plus product includes damage by all vermin, except that to pedal cycles. In order to prevent damage in the first place, you could take out a pest control product offered by online insurer esure. It gives cover against the five most annoying pests - grey squirrels, rats, mice, wasps and hornets - for an annual fee of just under 22 pounds a home insurance add-on. It could save customers up to 150 pounds for getting rid of a rodent infestation and 100 pounds to destroy a hornets' nest. Although once again, damage caused by vermin is excluded. Research by ICM claims one in 10 UK homeowners has suffered a pest problem in the past year which has cost them money. Local councils offer such services, but response times vary. And, according to esure, private pest controllers are unregulated. Vermin can certainly cause a lot of damage, rats and mice will chew through cables and this can cause a fire. In one case, the whole upstairs of a house collapsed because the joists had been gnawed by rats. If you know you have vermin, you must act quickly. A common entry point for vermin is the drains outside your house; it can cost 2,000 pounds to survey and fix them. And chewed up flooring can cost up to 1,500 pounds to replace. A rather more dreadful case was seen in the Isle of Man , where there have been a number serious rat infestations. 'We were called to a house because of an awful smell. We found an elderly gentleman who had fallen down the stairs and died. The bottom half of his torso had been eaten by rats.' Rata and mice do not chew things out of a malicious nature. Peter Cottee of Paragon Pestshield says 'Rodents need to chew all the time to prevent their teeth from getting too long, it could be wood, electrical cabling or lead pipes. The damage can be serious - from fires and floods to damaged possessions.' Pest problems are seasonal. When temperatures fall, rodents go indoors to escape the cold. Wasps, by contrast, nest in spring, sometimes making nests of more than 25,000. A rarer seasonal pest is the 'glis glis', also known as the edible dormouse. The 6in rodents were fattened on walnuts and eaten at ancient Roman banquets. In 1902, Lord Rothschild, introduced them to Hertfordshire at his estate at Tring. The creatures can now be found within a 25-mile radius. But rather than being a tasty treat for humans, the glis glis are eating their own way through people's homes. They gnaw through cables and insulation but, because they are a protected species, have to be professionally caught rather than killed by the householder. Perhaps the only consolation is that this past delicacy hibernates for half the year. Watch out in spring!
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