"Despite being a nation of pet lovers, the damage caused by our unruly four-legged friends is leaving an unexpected hole in homeowners’ pockets, as well as their furnishings"
- Theresa Lindsay - Novuna Personal Finance
A new study, which polled over 2,000 UK homeowners aged 23 to 50, has shed light on the scale of misbehaving pets and the related repair bills impacting homeowners across the UK.
The Novuna research, unveiling the scale of havoc unleashed by the nation's pets reveals that 75% of Brits have experienced pet-related damage at home, leading to an eye-watering repair of £627m.
From dogs destroying households at a cost of over £348m to a cat-a-strophic repair bill of £279m courtesy of the nations’ feline friends, the errant ways of the nations’ pets are coming at a considerable cost to homeowners.
The study found that soiled carpets and flooring damage (50%) leads the tail of destruction faced by half of all UK homeowners, whilst chewed furniture (32%) is a headache encountered by a third of pet-loving Brits.
Homeowners in their droves are also left chasing their tails to repair ripped furniture (23%), torn curtains (13%) and electrical damage (10%) thanks to their unruly pets.
Indeed, due to the vast scale of unruly pets causing havoc across the UK, exasperated homeowners are fighting back, with nearly a third (32%) undertaking home alterations, equating to over 2m homeowners, to reconfigure their property in order to keep their unruly pets in check.
Theresa Lindsay, Director of Marketing, Novuna Personal Finance, said: “Despite being a nation of pet lovers, the damage caused by our unruly four-legged friends is leaving an unexpected hole in homeowners’ pockets, as well as their furnishings.
"With eye-watering repair bills of over £1,000 for many households, it demonstrates the lengths we’ll go to keep our furry friends happy, but also the importance of planning for unexpected costs."
