Re-check the amount covered by your home insurance policy

Householders are advised to check the details of their home insurance policy – especially if they were lucky enough to get expensive gifts for Christmas.

Although six of every seven policies automatically increased the sum insured to compensate for Christmas, January sales bargains and recent high-value purchases may need to be notified to the insurers.

Director of Fair Investment Company, James Caldwell, warns: "The gifts we give are more expensive than ever before.

"However the good times can quickly go bad if there is a breakage or, worse still, a burglary. The amount of money lost can really mount up, especially if you don't have a policy that covers all your new purchases.

"Worryingly, of the three million privately rented homes in the UK, 72 per cent do not have home contents cover, leaving more than £50 billion worth of items at risk from burglary especially considering that many of these renters are young professionals with disposable incomes often spent on luxury items like plasma screens, laptops, iPods – an attractive booty for an opportunist burglar."

Mr Caldwell also advises householders to re-examine their preparations for flood damage in the light of winter risks of burst pipes, and notes that the risk of fire rises by 50 per cent throughout the winter season.

08/01/2008 21:43:06