Prevention is Better Than Claim

Buildings insurance will certainly put your mind to rest about the potential costs of any damage to your property. But there is still the inconvenience, time, effort and stress you have if your property sustains any substantial damage and good maintenance and prevetative measures can help prevent the worst. Here are some basic tips, some of which may well reduce your buildings insurance premium;

Fire

There are still 200 house fires per day in the UK, there is one death and 40 injuries as a result. Even a small fire can cause thousands of pounds worth of damage to your home. Being sensible to any possible dangers and the precautions you can take can greatly reduce the risk of fire in your home.

• Smoke Detectors - Pay attention to the advertising you see regarding smoke detectors. They are possibly the best single investment regarding reducing your fire risk. Smoke detectors can detect the earliest stages of fire, so make sure you have at least one on every floor of your property. Regularly check the battery level, this is quick and easy to do, say, weekly and replace batteries immediately when the need arises.
• Sensible Smoking - Cigarettes, cigars and pipes are still a regular cause of fires in the home. Be thorough when stubbing out and use and ashtray. Avoid that last smoke when you are tired, there is a risk of fire if you fall asleep.
• Sensible Partying - When preparing party or christmas decorations or planning your barbeque, keep any additional fire hazards in mind regarding positioning of wire, fires or barbeques.
• Sensible Storage - Rubbish and fuel a fire in your home. Clear any rubbish that might be building up in areas such as cupboards and attics. Also, make sure you store and flammable liquids such as adhesives, paints and paint removal products properly, always store these in a secure place, ideally an outbuilding or shed but not anywhere with large temerature changes such as greenhouses.
• Careful in the Kitchen - More fires start in the kitchen than any other room in the home, unattended cooking appliances being the main cause. Never leave any leave anthing being heated by a flame unattended. If anything in your kitchen does catch fire do not try to put it out with water. Turn off the heat immediately and cover the flames with a pan lid or damp cloth. Fire blankets for the kitchen are cost effective and take little storage space.
• Safe Electrics - Faulty electric wiring and appliances are still a common cause of fire.Only use a qualified electrician when you need repairs or alterations and make sure your wiring is checked at some point when moving into a new property. Check appliances and cables and never ignore exposed wires. Also, never be tempted to overload power sockets.
• Care for the Family - Discuss and plan what to do in the event of a fire with your family. Elderly ones may not be able to evacuate a home quickly in the event of a fire. Talk about what to do if there is a fire with your children. We always explain dangers outside the home with our children, but they may not realise the dangers of a fire in the home, make sure they understand what to do if a fire occurs. Also make sure matches and any flammable material are out of reach and all fires have fireguards.
• You can get home fire exstinguishers, fire blanket and Smoke Detectors quickley and easily online.

Theft

Between 2000 and 2001 it is estimated there were just under 1 million burglaries in Enland and Wales. Here are some basic tips for lowering your risk of breakin.

• Doors - Outside doors should have a deadlock which can only be opened with a key, the tongue of the lock cannot be pushed back with say a credit card or be opened from the inside by breaking glass panes. When obtaining an insurance quote you will usually be asked if your doors are fitted with these, and it can reduce your insurance premium. Doors that you usually lock from the inside should also be fitted with a bolt. However, make sure all doorframes are well maintained and do not ignore weak or rotting wood as locks are only as strong as the door and frame they are in. Additional security locks should be fitted to patio doors to avoid the sliding frame simply being lifted off the tracks, when you are having patio doors fitted make sure the sliding leaf of the door is fitted on the inside. Any external french style or double doors should have bolts at the top and bottom of both doors in addition to a lock.
• Windows - Most breakins are via windows. Key operated locks should be fitted to any accessible window, including ground floor, and any windows with access from a drainpipe or flat roof. These locks are not expensive and easy to fit.
• Keys - Avoid leaving keys in locks. Never leave spare keys hidden outside your property, theives know all the hiding places.Leave spare keys with a good neighbour or nearby relative.
• Outbuildings - You may be surprised how many valuable items you have accumulated in you shed or garage, tools, bikes, ladders, lawnmowers so don't forget to lock up shed and garages. Also make sure any equipement you have to keep outside, like ladders, are secured with a chain or padlock.
• Away from Home - Make sure you close windows and lock up properly, however short a time you are going out for. A theif can be in and out of your home within minutes. When you are going away for longer periods, like on holiday, try not to make it obvious that you are away. cancel milk and papers. Get to know your neighbours, let them know how long you are away for and ask them to keep an eye on the place. Timer switches can be useful to set lights on and off at different times of the day, also security lighting can be a good idea.
• Property - Make a list of valuable items, you would be suprised what you might forget you are missing in the event of a burglary. Take photos of any special items such as jewellery. You can also use a property marking kit to mark your postcode and housenumber on your property. This can help police return property if it is recovered. You may also want to keep valuables and possibly valuable papers in a home safe, although these can be quite expensive. Local police stations now have a Crime Prevention Officer who is there to advise the public, feel free to make contact and ask for information on security and any particular risks in your area.
• Alarms - If you are thinking of installing an alarm system to your home contact your insurers first. You may save on your home insurance premium if the installation is to be carried out by a company registered with the National Approval Council for Security. However, this type of security equipment can be expesive and most alarms are to alert that there has been a break in. There is much you can do to hinder someone entering your home in the first place.
• Neighbours - Get involved with your neighbourhood watch scheme, or you may wish to get together with your neighbours to help set one up. Your local police can give you details. At the very least get to know some of your neighbours, particularly when moving to a new area. Neighbours who know and talk to each other can be one of the best prevention measures, as you then both have someone who is familiar with your routine, knows when you are away and can keep an eye on your property (making sure no post is visable for example), can hold extra or spare keys, and will often notice unusual visitors or events. It is also useful for you to exchange mobile numbers with your neighbour, so they can alert you to anything while you are not there. It is not uncommon for leaks, burst pipes, falling tiles and other problems to happen while you are away from home.
• Doors, windows and outbuildings can be secured relatively easily by you with the wide availablility of good home security products.

Weather Damage

Winter weather can cause millions of pounds worth of damage to homes and businesses accross the UK with the problem of burst pipes alone. A good number of these bursts can be avoided with some basic precautions, but many people don't take them as they either think their property will be fine and the weather won't be extreem enough to cause them any problems or they just don't know what precautions to take. Here are some basics to prepare for cold weather:

• Make sure you know where your water stop valve is and also that is can be turned off if necessary.
• Don't ignore dripping taps, make the necessary repairs, these are usually extreemly easy to fix.
• Most houses have water pipes and/or tanks in the loft space. Have a look just so you know what is up there and check out or get someone to check for you if the insulation on these is damaged, torn or just too thin. Again repairing or replacing this should not be expensive.
• Any pipes or tanks situated somewhere that could expose them to freezing should be lagged. It is worth investing in having this done properly if you are not confident in doing it yourself. The thicker the lagging the better, particularly in your loft if it is generally well insulated anyway as this means very little heat will be rising into the loft from the rest of the house. Make sure you use a substantial pipe lagging (between 50-75mm) if you can't find anything suitable at your local DIY store try a local builders' or plumbers' merchant.
• You can get preformed pipe insulation which is easy to use on pipe runs, and you can use strips of insulation for any bends or akward bits. You can also get preformed plastic tank insulating jackets, but make sure these are fitted securely and do not insulate underneath your tank. If you place insulation underneath any water tank it is actually more likely to freeze as warm air rising from beneath will blocked from keeping it warm. The only exception is if you have a central heating header tank, these are usually raised above the joists in the roof space and should be completely insulated.
• If you are away from home especially if you are going on holiday during the cold winter months leave your heating to come on at its usual settings, including temperature, this will help prevent any pipes freezing. You could also open your loft trap door, this allows some warm air from the house to circulate in the loft and again will help prevent pipes freezing, particularly if your pipe lagging is not as thick or well maintained as it should be. Ask a neighbour to keep an eye on your property if you are away, or get a friend or relative to pop in at some point, that way if any pipes burst or freeze it will be noticed earlier and this could help minimise the damage caused.
• If your pipes or tanks do freeze or burst make sure you turn off the water at the stop cock immediately, also if you have a header tank with a stop valve on the outlet pipe turn this off as well. This will reduce the amount of water which can escape if your pipe if it has burst and minimise damage. Make sure you protect anything which may be damaged by water running from a burst pipe when it thaws, pay particular attention to any electrical wiring or junction boxes.
• Thaw any frozen pipe gently using a hairdryer or hot water bottle (not a blow lamp). Open the tap closest to the frozen part of the pipe and begin thawing the pipe at the tap end first and work back.
• If the damage is so bad you have water coming through a ceiling, collect as much as possible with buckets or bowls, if you see a bulge pierce the plaster with a bucket underneath to release the buildup of water.
• Do not touch any wiring or electrical appliances you suspect may have been affected until you can have them checked.

Subsidence

Many shudder even at the hearing the word, and the dread at seeing cracks appear in walls of your property is something no homeowner wants to think about. However, most buildings suffer some minor cracking at some time and this does not necessarily mean you have a subsidence problem. What may appear to be large cracks in the exterior of buildings may not be a major structural issue. Cracks are also not uncommon in new properties or new extensions to a property, these are usually the result of the building settling and are generally nothing to worry about. Similarly you can find fine cracks appear on newly plastered walls as they dry. A lot of minor cracks can appear where wall and ceilings meet as a result of a building naturally shrinking and swelling in response to changes in temperature and humidity.

Subsidence occurs when the ground supporting a building moves in a downward direction, problems arise when the movement varies from one part of a building to another. It can be caused by a variety of factors such as certain soils which may shrink or swell depending on their moisture content, trees and shrubs can also cause problems as roots extend, leaking drains can soften or wash away the ground beneath the foundations.

Heave occurs when the ground supporting the building move in an upward direction.

Landslip is the movement of ground down a slope.

What should be noted if you are worried about cracks in your property being as a result of subsidence, heave or landslip, are small, usually diagonal cracks which may suddenly appear. These can be in plasterwork and bricks, check weak points such as the areas around doors and windows. These may indicate movement, especially if they are quite thick (compare it to the edge of a 10p) and possibly wider at the top.

If you think there may be a problem contact your buildings insurer. You generally need to inform them of any potiential claim as soon as possible, as the sooner the problem is checked out, usually investigated by a structural engineer, the quicker any necessary action can be taken. Firstly the cause of the damage would be identified and any movement would be stabalised and then the necessary repairs carried out.

The investigating of any potential problems could seem to take a long time as they include digging holes to check soil type, the depth and condition of the foundations and to check if any tree roots are causing the problem. They may also monitor the width of cracks over a period of time, this could be longer that a year so that the extent of the problem can be firmly established before any major work is carried out.

Fortunately even if you do have a problem with subsidence it is quite likely your property would not need to be underpinned. Generally damage can be halted by the pruning or removal of trees or repairing of drains. Then the brickwork and any internal decorations and plastering can be repaired.

Your buildings insurance will normally cover the damage caused by any of these problems, you may not be insured for damage apart from the main structure for example garden walls or fences, patios or drives and swimming pools. Your buildings insurance policy should set this out clearly check with your building insurance provider if you want to check anything in specific. The excess for this sort of claim is usually quite substantial and will be specified on your policy.