Pet owners are £600m paw(er): cost of home repairs revealed due to tail of destruction unleashed by our four legged friends

• New research from Novuna Personal Finance reveals repairs bills run into millions for pet owners, with dogs and cats costing owners over £600m in repairs
• Homeowners left chasing their tails to pay for pet related damages, with dogs costing owners over £348m and cats costing owners around £279m
• Almost a third (32%) of pet owners exasperated by the damage to their property have altered the design of their homes to mitigate the antics of their furry friends

Pet loving Brits are forking out millions on DIY repairs caused by their furry friends running amok at home, according to new research by Novuna Personal Finance.

The study, which polled over 2,000 UK homeowners aged 23 to 50, sheds 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 nations pets reveals three quarters of Brits (75%) 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.

According to Novuna’s new study, 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.

Tails of destruction region by region: - Reconfigured pet friendly homes across the UK

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”.

Methodology

The findings are the result of a YouGov omnibus research study conducted from 15 February to 16 February 2024. During this time, 2,040 UK homeowners aged 23 to 50 were surveyed.

*Respondents were invited to provide an estimated figure of the financial cost (£GBP) to them as a result of damage caused by their pets. The £627m figure was calculated by scaling the percentage of homeowners within our research group who cited damage of over £1,000 caused by cats and dogs. We then used the average number of UK households (ONS) to estimate the cost of repairs.