When we read about a `Home Emergency`, we immediately conjure up images of catastrophic damage and roofs blown off, and whilst these things can happen, they are the exception rather than the rule. No, it is the mundane things; the ones we take for granted; the ones we need every day without realising it, which can be our nemesis.

Our house is one of a row of four semi-detached that were built in the 1930s. They are typical of their time. Unfortunately they also had typical faults that were prevalent at that time also. Of course, you only find out about these things when a problem arises.

I will be honest and admit that I took out home emergency insurance at the time I took out the house contents and buildings cover, as a complementary policy to the main ones only as an afterthought because my father had been a plumber and I remember vividly how often he was called out to emergencies, rubbing his hands at the prospect of inflated callout charges!

We first noticed a problem when the toilet flushed and took a while to settle down to its normal level in the pan. It got worse. Finally, it would not flush away at all! Now what? Then I remembered the home emergency insurance. Did it cover toilets? Yes, it did!

I called the emergency number and an engineer came out almost immediately. He discovered that the sewage pipe was shared by the four houses in our block and that the pipe had been blocked by the end house. Evidently, the young mum there had flushed disposable nappies and the bore of the old pipe was not wide enough to cater for them. He used a long flexible rod and just pushed it along the pipe from our end until there was a great roar and the backed up waste rushed down the pipe!

How would we ever have realised that was the problem?