Summer tennis may see ‘more home insurance claims’

Home insurance claims involving broken windows may increase in the run-up to the Wimbledon tennis championships, it is claimed.

The number of claims made in June last year for broken windows and other glass breakages was almost a fifth higher than the number of claims made in January of the same year, according to the Halifax.

People in Birmingham and Solihull made more home insurance claims in 2007 than anyone else for incidents involving broken glass, the data suggests.

Head of underwriting for Halifax Home Insurance David Rochester said that there is often an increase in these types of claims during the summer months.

He commented: “We’d advise any budding Murrays and Sharapovas to take care when playing ball sports close to home, and check they are insured for accidental damage should a mishap occur.”

Separate research revealed last week by Tesco personal finance suggests that messing around or horseplay results in damage worth £325 million to British homes each year.

Tags: tennis, underwriting, Insurance, solihull, care, summer

Rejected mortgage applications rise by 60%

In the past six months the number of mortgage applications being rejected has gone up by a staggering 60 per cent.

According to recent research by MoneyExpert.com, the amount of rejections this year has risen from 463,000 between January and March to 738,000 in the last six months.

The increase reflects interest rate rises and more specific lending criteria, the website explained.

Its chief executive, Sean Gardner, commented: “Life is tough at the moment if you’re applying for a mortgage. The financial environment is far more stringent than in the summer of last year and people need to be prepared for rejection.

“Lenders quite reasonably do not want to take risks when there are pressures on how much people can afford.”

Standard and Poor rating agency told the Financial Times newspaper that the mortgage slowdown is due to a “knock” to buyer confidence after the credit squeeze.

It added that mortgage lenders might look to further tighten underwriting standards and pricing on some types of mortgages.

Tags: January, tighten underwriting standards, Financial Times newspaper, financial, slowdown, underwriting, mortgage, poor