The biggest scourge of a homeowner has to be the threat of burglary. The thought of someone invading your home will strike fear into most homeowners in the UK.  Now to scare us fearful Brits even more, Direct Line Home Insurance has revealed that one in ten UK households have either been burgled or suffered an attempted break in within the last five years, a total amount of 2.4 million homes.

Areas

Londoners were the worst hit but unfortunately this has been highlighted as a nationwide phenomena. The rest of the list comprises of the North East followed by the North West, Wales and the South West of England.

Direct Line’s head of Home Insurance, Andrew Lowe, commented, "opportunistic thieves may well be on the prowl as winter approaches security arrangements must be put into place."
"Research reveals that people living in areas with higher rates of burglary are less likely to carry out simple security measures, such as locking windows at night." He added.

Holiday

Homeowners are obviously more at risk when leaving their property unguarded for any numerous reasons. Those that go away on holiday potentially suffer the worst, with an estimated £3,288 worth of goods stolen during this period.

Goods which are at risk include DVDs, CDs, jewellery games consoles, laptops, mobile phones, cameras and MP3 players.

Claire Foster, spokesperson for Churchill Home Insurance, commented: "Arriving back from a holiday or a quick break to discover your home has been broken into is an awful experience for anyone to endure. Whilst insurance cannot prevent burglary, it can provide reassurance that the monetary value of anything stolen is covered.

"We would urge homeowners to ensure their contents insurance is fully up to date and high value items are individually listed." Churchill went on to recommend that removing valuables from view when going away for an extended period would very advisable.

Contents

Unfortunately for some policy holders, theft is not necessarily covered on home insurance covers despite the obvious risks. Halifax Home Insurance have revealed that there is a total of £52 billion's worth of jewellery in homes across the UK and that much of it might not be covered by insurance policies.

The leading home insurance company have revealed that five million people in the country have over £5,000 of jewellery, but nearly 50% of them have not had their collection valued within the last decade.

What’s worse is that over a quarter of those who have had a recent valuation have not informed their insurance companies for an update.

Martyn Foulds, a senior claims manager at Halifax Home Insurance, commented: "It seems many people with expensive jewellery collections may be selling themselves short by not getting their articles valued fully and insured for the correct amount."

"We would advise anyone wearing particularly valuable items outside the home on a daily basis to make sure that they are fully insured for loss, damage or theft when outside their property."