New research from Sainsbury’s Home Insurance reveals that over a million British householders admit to having forgotten to retrieve spare sets of keys or, just as worryingly, say they can’t remember if they have retrieved them or not.

Despite the fact that for most people, our homes along with their contents are our biggest financial assets, spare sets could still be residing with exes, cleaners, builders or even previous tenants. Indeed there are some half a million or more people that admit to not even knowing the precise number of spare sets of keys that exist for their property. Overall, the research estimates that there could be over 100 million sets of spare keys for British homes in circulation.

The findings indicate that the average British household has four spare sets of keys. The main holders of these spare sets of keys are children including those that have flown the nest (27%), followed by another non-resident family member such as parent (25%) and also neighbours (11%).

Neil Laird, Sainsbury’s Home Insurance Manager, comments: “Almost 700,000 homeowners admit that they have not collected spare sets of keys from ex-neighbours or tradesmen or others. Although it’s sensible and often necessary to leave a spare set of keys with a trusted person to gain access to your property, it’s concerning to see just how many homeowners have completely lost track of who could have access to their home.

“If you don’t take reasonable care of your property, including keys, you could potentially invalidate your insurance. If you have any concerns as to the whereabouts of a set of household keys, then the safest measure is always to have your locks changed.”

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