A Harrogate family returned from a weekend in London to find friends of their teenage daughter had held a party and wrecked the house. So how can you make sure your home is safe from the teenager home alone? MAXINE GORDON and STEPHEN LEWIS report.

IT'S what every parent of a teenager must dread.

You go away for the weekend, leaving the house in the care of your supposedly mature and sensible 17-year-old. And she then organises a party which is gatecrashed by 50 strangers, and the house is wrecked.

That is more or less what happened with Alan and Elaine Bell, the couple from Houghton-le-Spring, near Durham, who returned from an Easter break this year to find that more than 200 revellers had descended on their £230,000 detached house, causing more than £20,000 worth of damage.

The couple's 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, who hosted the party, blamed internet hackers for posting a message on MySpace urging people to come to a "let's trash the average family-sized house disco party".

She later apologised to her mother, saying: "It was just supposed to be a party with a few friends and it turned into a complete nightmare."

In the case of the £1 million Harrogate home trashed at the weekend, the teenage daughter appears to have gone with her parents to London for the weekend. Unfortunately, she agreed to let two friends use the 17-room house while the family were away.

The party which followed attracted more than 70 youngsters, and resulted in £15,000 worth of damage.

The bad news for parents who find themselves in this situation is that, quite apart from the heartache of seeing their beloved home wrecked, the insurance may not even cover the cost of the clean-up.

According to Darren Kelly, of York-based Custom Insurance Brokers, the best such parents could probably hope for was falling on the mercy of their insurance company and hoping it would pay up as a goodwill gesture.

"If somebody broke into your home, then absolutely that would be covered by your insurance policy," he said. "But I'm not aware that anybody could pay to be covered for the sort of wild party where somebody has effectively allowed these people to be there. In a case like that, somebody has given permission and access."

Malcolm Tarling, of the Association of British Insurers, said whether or not a householder was covered would depend on the circumstances and nature of their policy.

With malicious damage and accidental damage cover, it may be possible to make a claim, depending on circumstances.

"There is no definitive answer," he said. "If you have got malicious damage cover and you have taken reasonable steps to reduce the risk, then you may well be covered. But if there were 300 people in your house, the insurers may say you have not taken precautions."

So what steps can parents who are thinking of leaving their teens home alone over the summer take to make sure the house is in the same state when they return as when they left it?

The trouble is, says York novelist and magazine writer Donna Hay, that often it is beyond the control of your child.

Her daughter Harriet, 17, would never intentionally allow hordes of teenagers into her parents' house for a wild party, she says.

"She is a very sensible girl and she would be mortified if anything like that happened."

But her daughter had frequently been to parties where the parents were away and didn't have a clue what was happening.

Very often, she says, such teen parties are organised on a "need to know" last-minute basis. When Donna asks where Harriet is going, her daughter will say "so and so is going to text me, I'll let you know".

Such parties can easily get out of hand, Donna says. A teenager might invite only a few of his or her best friends. But they will invite friends, who will in turn invite friends. "The word just spreads like wildfire," she said.

So what advice would she give to parents thinking of leaving their teen home alone?

Tell the neighbours, Donna says - and ask them to keep an eye out for any signs of trouble. Make a rule that they are not allowed to invite more than one or two friends round - and make a point of ringing up regularly to check on them.

Your teenager will think you're a nuisance - but that's better than your home being wrecked.

Di Keal, a Ryedale councillor and mother of daughters aged 11, 13 and 16, says even though she trusts her teenagers, she wouldn't consider leaving one of them at home alone for any length of time until they were at least 18.

She did not fear they would have a wild party - but was afraid of the risk of an accident.

"They wouldn't trash the house, but they might get hungry, make some toast and leave the grill on," says Di, from Norton.

Her advice if leaving teens home alone is to tell the neighbours, and local family members if there are any, and ask them to keep an eye out. "And keep in touch on the phone every day," she says.

York interior designer Joy Plaskitt, who has two step-children, cautions parents to think twice before leaving their teenagers home alone at all.

On one occasion, Joy and husband, Peter, returned from their holidays to find a smashed window, their drinks cabinet empty and every bed in the house slept in.

"It's a really bad idea," warns Joy. "Particularly nowadays with the booze culture."


Don't do it... Maxine Gordon urges parents to take their keys with them

I LOVED it when my parents went on holiday and left me behind.

My twin sister and I could lie in bed till noon, leave the house like a bomb site, and invite our mates over for days at a time.

We never had out-of-control house parties, but we did cause damage.

Nothing makes you feel more grown up than being the hostess in your own house, so often Yvonne and I would hold dinner parties for a small group of buddies.

When your mates are cooing over your perfectly golden lasagne, you're not really thinking about the imprint the dish might leave on mum's antique table.

Ah well, it just added to the water marks left over from the last time they went away and we had mates over - and promised mum we wouldn't do it again.

The final straw came the following year when the folks returned early after a night flight from Spain to find two of my college friends asleep in their bed.

From then on, the keys were taken off us and we had to stay elsewhere when mum and dad were away.

But we didn't quite learn our lesson. On New Year's Eve 1989, while in student digs at Stirling, my flatmates and I held an End of the Decade' Hogmanay party.

Half the town turned up, and things soon spiralled out of control.

People locked themselves in the loo to have sex, or be sick - leaving others to relieve themselves in our pantry.

But then somebody found our stash of poster paints we'd bought to make Welcome to 1990' banners. It became a mass graffiti-fest as guests began redecorating as the old year rang out.

And the ringleader? As I came downstairs for a round of Auld Lang Syne, a familiar face greeted me with a wicked smile then squirted red paint all over me. "Happy new year, Max".

Talk about the terrible twins.