How can an innocent little tradition that had its seeds sown in the Middle Ages (a period of European history that dates from the 5th to the 15th century) and was historically kept by the Gaels and Celts in the British Isles, come to this? A knock at your door that can be anything but a treat. There they stand, delightful young children innocently tricking and treating in the traditional fashion that is Halloween. Unfortunately, over recent years, this seasonal scenario has been suffering from some expensive repercussions; homeowners and tenants finding that overenthusiastic activities have resulted in damage to their property or its contents.
If you think about it you really shouldn’t have expected anything less. Well let’s face it some of the participants aren’t the little cherubs in ‘fancy dress’ that you imagined they would be. No, they’re those older ‘kids’ that haven’t quite learnt to respect other people’s property and cause accidental damage or even malicious vandalism in their quest for ‘treats’.
Now in these times of cutbacks, unemployment and general austerity, the last thing anyone wants is an unexpected repair bill in the wake of a bit of ‘fun’. So now’s the time to take action and protect your property against the ‘little horrors’ of Halloween. First, check that you’ve actually got some home insurance and that you haven’t let it lapse, although that should be practically impossible these days with the amount of reminders and unsolicited advances one gets from the insurance world. Next, make sure that your home insurance adequately covers you, which means external as well as internal belongings. The emphasis is certainly on the external as this is where it’s possible to inflict damage, steal belongings all without anyone bearing witness to the actions of the perpetrators. It therefore makes sound sense to garage that car, lock that garage. And to keep your vehicle company include anything else that’s remotely removable.
If it transpires that there isn’t a home insurance policy on your property, or, like many us, you haven’t got a garage, then you clearly need one of those signs that have become so popular over recent Halloween years, you know the one, and it reads something like, “NO TRICKS OR TREATS HERE”. It could save you a lot of angst, or egg on your face, or glue in your lock, and go some way to protecting your property. It’s better than nothing. Happy Halloween!
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