Spare keys floating around could invalidate insurance

It’s something that we have all done at some time or other: given a spare house key to a neighbour in case we lock ourselves out or perhaps to a cleaner or plumber to let themselves in when we are out at work.

However, how many of us keep track of just who has our house keys? It seems that forgetting to take them back is commonplace with an estimated one million or more of us not knowing who exactly has our spare keys.

Recent research by Sainsbury’s Home Insurance reveals that the average house has four sets of spare keys, although even this is open to debate since half a million of us have no idea how many spare sets exist for our property.

The most popular keepers of the spare keys seem to be children who now have their own home, with 27% of them still having keys to the family home. Parents or other family members living elsewhere come a close second at 25% and trusted neighbours come third at 11%.

Bottom of the league are estate agents, builders and window cleaners which is perhaps just as well since, should you be burgled and admit to your insurers that every Tom, Dick and Harry in the neighbourhood had access to your house keys, you may well find that your policy is invalidated.

If in doubt it is always safer to have your locks changed although this can be decidedly costly. It is obviously better to keep a close track of who has them and retrieve them as soon as practical.

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