Posts Tagged ‘home contents insurance’

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All hail the Burglary rescue plan!

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

You return home to find your door open and all your personal belongings and contents in places where they have no right to be strewn across the floor. Your mind races as you realise your house has been burgled. What do you do?

The first thing to do is to enter your home only when absolutely certain no one is inside and to resist the overwhelming urge of rescuing ornaments from precocious positions about the room. Now is the time to heed something of a burglary plan.

It has been announced that burglary is on the rise in the UK and that this is directly linked to the downturn of the economy. Burglary rates have risen for the first time in eight years because, according to the Guardian newspaper, thieves are attempting to weather the tough times by taking advantage.

According to the article “Should the worst happen” a stark reality is that once you have been burgled that your chances of being burgled again will have increased by four times. In an attempt to weather your first nightmare of a burglary, something of a rescue plan has been formulated for readers’ attentions by ‘aboutproperty.co.uk’.

One important point to make is to take out some home contents insurance. In the event of a burglary, your loss will not be a permanent one. With the rate of burglary on the increase it is highly recommended that you take out some protection.

As already mentioned, upon discovering your house has been burgled, do not enter your home until sure that no unwanted guests remain inside. Do not touch anything, including the front door! There may be evidence lying around that can assist the police bringing the culprit to justice. Call the police dialling ‘999’ but do not call them from your home telephone, as the phone may again be a source of evidence. Ideally, you should call the police from a neighbour’s phone or a mobile.

Next, commit yourself to making sure your house is burglar proof by changing locks on your doors and windows. Check to ensure any banking paperwork has not been stolen, if it has then immediately call your bank or credit card providers. While you are on the telephone, call your insurance company and report the incident with a case number issued to you by the police.

The effect of burglary can be emotionally catastrophic, if you feel you can’t talk about the crime to your family, get in touch with Victim Support. Don’t underestimate the detrimental effects of burglary, instead, during the aftermath of the crime, seek out help immediately.

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Fighting the wave of credit crunch crime

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

During this credit crunch, there is all the more reason to take out tenant insurance than ever before.

The Home Office have disclosed the results of a recent report to show a steady increase in burglaries. According to the article “Insure against recession related crime” this growth appears to be directly related to the steady decline of our ever-deepening recession.

Domestic burglary throughout July, August and September in 2008 was reported to be 4% higher than the same months of the previous year. These startling results reveal, not surprisingly, there is a link between the recession and the increase of burglar activity.

With this increase in criminal activity, in particular burglaries, it is of the utmost importance that us tenants think about taking out insurance to protect our possessions. HomeLet, the major player in tenant insurance urges us to ensure our valuables and belongings alike are suitably covered.

John Boyle Managing Director of HomeLet said that he wasn’t surprised of the effects of a worsening recession and how it leads to more widespread unemployment and more burglaries.

While basic home contents insurance will cover your belongs to a certain extent, it would be advisable to consider more specialist insurance. In the event that an accident should happen, the tenant is protected should any damage to the landlord’s property occur. Being a tenant can lead to sleepless nights regarding any damage to the landlord’s property. Whether you spoil the curtains or stain the carpet, you are responsible at the end of the day! Any expenses incurred due to damage to the fixtures, contents, buildings and fittings, can be lawfully obtained by the landlord from your deposit. In the worse case scenario, you can be held responsible for the costs caused by flooding, fire and or burglary. Specialist tenant insurance is great in that it covers you against theft and the potential perils of day-to-day living.

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Living together beneath a solitary roof

Friday, October 17th, 2008

There is a new trend about to take off, according to a recent article “All under one roof”, for people to seriously consider opening up their homes to family members. But with all these people living under one roof, will we be losing out because we are forgetting to inform our insurance companies of the increased value of our collective belongings?

Twenty six per cent of people surveyed informed researchers they would go as far as to purchase a bigger sized home to be able to accommodate extended family members. Twenty seven per cent revealed they would consider purchasing a home in conjunction with in-laws or parents as they approach their twilight years.

Currently, sixty seven per cent of people living in the British Isles live with their family but in the future this is expected to change. While the larger proportion of people surveyed stated they would need a bigger property in order to take care of older relatives, thirty one percent saw the financial benefits of a decision such as this while eleven per cent claimed they would prefer sharing their roof with a number of family relatives.

The people at Halifax Home Insurance recognise this return of the trend where the generations live together is due primarily to our current social and economic situation. People actually want to live together again (as opposed to being more independent as was the trend in the not so distant past) and see the financial advantages of this. People’s attitudes towards multi-generational co-habitation can vary according to geography, it would seem. If you live in the south east, you are more likely to want to live with your older parents than those living in the west.

Regarding the matter of home contents insurance, where more people live under one roof, one would expect the number of valuable personal belongings to be greater. It is easy to end up with less cover than you need unless you take out an unlimited cover policy like that on offer at the Halifax. With research showing people are sometimes not clued in as to what the correct values are of family members’ belongings, more often than not, homes are underinsured, and this is a worry.

Should a family member move in with you, it will be beneficial to all concerned to inform your insurance provider alerting them to those extra items of higher value that you now need to cover.

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Protect your house from the school holidays!

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

In the article “Home insurance could save the day this school holiday”  we are alerted to the fact our children’s school holidays could cost us a fortune.

Every time there is a school holiday, the house is at greater risk of a disaster occurring than any other time. Things get a bit wild, the kids lunge about and before you know it, your favourite Ming vase is a ‘gonna’!

The company ‘Sheila’s Wheels’ have looked into the subject and have discovered £0.5 billion worth of electrical item damage is caused by bored children in the UK during the school holidays. We should take heed of this and look seriously into our home contents insurance.

Twenty five per cent of children break or damage electrical equipment which adds up to £553 million paid out in the UK to replace these things or repair them. The average child will cause damage to the tune of £183. Over one in five mums and dads claimed on their home contents insurance because of the damage caused by their children. If you were wondering what articles get damaged the most, it would have to be digital cameras and laptops at the top of the lists.

The thing to do is to get adequate insurance for your possessions so you don’t have to come home to face a horrendous bill. Only a quarter of parents questioned said they would get their children to pay for the damage as a punishment so kids generally get off lightly it would seem!

In the event of damage during the school holidays, many parents are having to foot the bill themselves. Seventeen per cent of parents do not have any kind of insurance themselves preferring to foot the bill if and when disaster occurs.

Look out the schools have emptied out!. This is the main time when things get broken and someone has to face the music, according to the people at Sheila’s Wheels that is! If you have a family, the message is, don’t take any chances with your belongings. Store away your important valuables and create plenty of space for the children to play in.

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Struggling to make those everyday ends meet!

Friday, September 19th, 2008

During these tough financial times, people are under pressure to ‘tighten their belts’ outlines the article “Families cut back on savings and pensions to cope with rising costs” Cut backs are going on everywhere you look. People are constantly on the look out for new ways to stretch their money and in some cases people are preparing to default on payments, defer insurance policies and slide into debt. The people surveyed by American Express insurance revealed their savings accounts would be the first to suffer, they would stop paying income protection insurance and other insurances while 14% would stop paying into their pension funds.

The problem of debt seems to be increasing all the time. The people at the CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) reported an 18% increase on debt advice in July and August on the previous year.

Prices are rising all the time and with increasing food and petrol prices placing more strain on the family finances, twelve per cent of people surveyed revealed they would, if pushed, reconsider paying off their credit card bills. Similarly, people revealed they would look at stopping their monthly car finance payments or paying towards their personal loan balances.

Surprisingly, 8% of people who took part in the survey revealed they would consider dropping their home contents insurance, while 17% would stop their pet insurance. These are the lengths people are willing to go to just to make ends meet while the nation is in the grips of a credit crunch.

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