In the last year, more than 2.5 million homes have suffered some kind of damage caused by children, with most of the culprits being under five years old (23 per cent), followed by six to ten year olds (22 per cent).

The most common offence was drawing murals on wallpaper – around 38 per cent of people needed to redecorate their house. This was followed by damage to furniture (31 per cent) and broken ornaments or other items (30 per cent).

And 39 per cent of adults paid for the damage out of their own pockets, without taking advantage of home insurance or accidental damage cover, even though the average cost of damage per case amounted to £221.

Boys are twice more likely to cause havoc in the home than girls, and so are Scottish children – with a £625 average for repairing or mending the damage in Scotland, nearly three times as high as in other parts of the UK.

More than one in five people who had suffered damage to their home thought that the kid had deliberately trashed their home.

Tony Beckwith, head of Abbey‘s parent company Santander Insurance UK, commented “Dealing with the damage caused by children can be inconvenient, costly and cause unwanted tension if people do not have the appropriate level of insurance cover.

“With more than a third of all adults paying for the breakages caused around the home by their children and school holidays now upon us”, Mr Beckwith added, “we would urge anyone looking after children this summer to try and avoid this by ensuring they have the proper cover on their home insurance, including any additional full accidental damage options required on their policies.”

© Fair Investment Company Ltd