Having up-to-date home security is key to keeping your possessions, property, and family safe. There are lots of simple things you can do to increase your home security, such as updating your locks or installing CCTV, but nothing is 100% guaranteed to prevent vandalism or theft. This is where insurance comes in. Insurance protects you financially if your home is burgled or vandalised. Insurance can be a great protector if you use it correctly, however, this often isn’t the case. Continue reading to find out how you could be invalidating your home insurance.
Low-quality locks
Door locks experience wear and tear like every other part of your house. Replacing your locks ensures that they can function correctly, without any problems, and to the latest home security standards. It is recommended that you change your locks at least every 7 years. Old locks can cause issues for you accessing your home as well as making it easier for an intruder to break in due to the decreased security they provide. Some insurance companies will only honour your insurance if your lock is under a certain age. This is due to the inherent issues that come with an older lock and the changing security standards that older locks may not conform to.
Do you know what locks you have or how old they are? Reduce the risk of intruders breaking into your home by investing in high-quality locks for your home. How easily can your locks be broken?
Faulty, damaged, or broken locks can all invalidate your insurance. If you have to jiggle a lock to make it work or lift the door handle in just the right way you need a new lock ASAP. Faulty and damaged locks present opportunities that intruders can exploit.
Are you putting off replacing a faulty lock? A new lock will be less daily hassle for you when entering and leaving your home and our simple-to-use service can make the process even more stress-free. Changing your locks takes less than a day and is much more cost-effective than being robbed.
Lost house keys
Your first thought after losing a key may be to simply replace it – but if you don’t know exactly where it is and therefore don’t know who exactly has access to your property, your home is no longer secure.
While it can be a hassle, getting a new lock installed when you lose a key is a much more time and cost-effective solution than being robbed and can prevent your insurance from being invalidated if you were robbed using your own house key. If your house key is used to gain access to your property illegally your insurance may be void as the unauthorised access was gained without having to ‘break in’ to the property.
Have you lost your house keys? Here’s what you need to know!
Advertising an empty house
If you are going to be away for a prolonged period, drawing attention to the fact that your home is going to be empty could increase the chance that your house will be targeted and could void your insurance.
This doesn’t mean that if you upload a single post about your holiday to social media your house will be targeted and you won’t be able to claim on insurance, however the more you post online about your holiday the greater risk there is to your home security. If your insurance company can show that you advertising an empty house played a role in your house being targeted this could result in them voiding your insurance.
Top security tip: Ask your neighbours for support while you are away. A neighbour checking on your home, parking on your drive or putting your bins out will reduce the likelihood of burglars targeting your home.
Leaving doors or windows unlocked
We often open doors and windows while we are at home, especially in warmer seasons, or if we have pets. Although this may be beneficial at the time it can be easy to forget to close and lock them once you leave the room or house.
Always check your doors and windows before you leave your home. Open windows and doors make it easier for burglars to target your house and if this happens your insurance may be void as the unauthorised access was gained without having to ‘break in’ to the property.
It is important to always check your insurance policy to ensure that you are protected in the case of a burglary. If you feel your security is not adequate for your insurance policy, contact us on 0115 9780141 to talk to a member of our team about updating your home security solutions.
