Owners warned on garage home insurance necessity

Posted : 02-02-2006

Garages may be a useful place to store extra household items, but unless homeowners have taken out adequate home insurance they may be left counting the cost.

According to new research from Saga Home Insurance, one third of British garages are used to store in excess of £1,000 of goods. While this figure may come as something of a surprise, even more shocking is the fact that one in five homeowners do not even lock their garage at night.

More than half of people who were surveyed answered that they stored items worth £500 or more in their garages, 30 per cent said they stored goods worth £1,000 or more, while 14 per cent claimed their garage contained items worth £3,000.

The survey found that power tools were the most popular expensive item to be kept in garages, with 60 per cent of people saying they were guilty of this, followed by 50 per cent who stored bikes, 50 per cent who stores lawnmowers, a third who store sports equipment and a third keep their garden furniture in their garages over the winter.

All of these items would cost more to replace than most home insurance premiums, illustrating the need to ensure personal items are comprehensively covered.

However, Saga found an alarming degree of nonchalance concerning the risk of theft, with 21 per cent admitting they did not even lock their garages at night.

Andrew Goodsell, chief executive, Saga Group, said: "Anyone using their garage as extra storage space should consider the value of its contents – opportunistic thieves could find a wealth of goods just waiting for them. It is well worth checking to see if your insurance cover has any limits on theft from outbuildings."

Many home insurance providers do not offer cover for theft from outbuildings, but many of those that do place a limit on cover for items stored in sheds, garages and outbuildings.



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