Home insurance can ease cost of holiday burglaries

Posted : 30-08-2005

More than one in 20 homeowners return from holiday to find that they have been burgled, a new study has shown.

Despite these figures, homeowners continue to go on holiday without taking adequate security precautions, and some are even failing to take out adequate insurance cover, Zurich warn.

According to the insurance company, one in five homeowners who have security measures such as security lights and burglar alarms forget to use them, and one in ten have made the mistake of leaving a door or window open or unlocked while on holiday.

One in 20 have alerted burglars to an empty home by allowing newspapers or pints of milk to pile up on their doorsteps.

The problem is more acute because over half of UK homeowners are going on holiday more often than they did five years ago, and one in ten are jetting off more than six times a year.

Failure to put in place adequate contents insurance can make burglaries a very costly, as well as unpleasant experience Zurich warn, with the average claim for domestic burglary standing at £1,875.

As well a urging homeowners to take simple steps such as not writing your home address on luggage labels and ensuring newspaper and milk deliveries are cancelled, a Zurich spokesperson said: "It's worth checking your insurance policy to make sure that you have adequate cover for all of your household contents, particularly more expensive items such as jewellery."

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