With burglaries on the rise, tenants need to take cover

The impact of a burglary in your home can be devastating, resulting in stolen or damaged property and leaving you with unsettling feelings of intrusion into your safe haven.

And yet, according to recent figures, three in four of all break-ins were unsolved in the year to September 2023, with only 6% resulting in the suspect being charged. This was a total of 213,814 unsolved burglaries, up 4% compared to the previous year and an average of 586 burglaries a day.

It’s scary reading, especially since, if a burglary goes unsolved, then it means the chances of recovering your stolen items are more remote. And it means that having Contents Insurance is vital to help cover the potential losses associated with a break-in.

The risk of burglary is also heightened by the time of year. Dark evenings and mornings can make your home more vulnerable. Even if you take precautions such as leaving lights on it can be obvious when you are not at home. And that can make you a magnet for thieves.

The tendency to put much of our lives on social media doesn’t help either, especially if you are sharing your location and such information is set to public rather than private. Holiday snaps posted while you are still away or plans for nights out revealed online ahead of time can be an unwelcome invite for a burglar to come visit.

If you’ve also shared images of shiny new gifts received at Christmas or Valentine’s Day online you may have given them even more incentive to come calling. Similarly, leaving out the packaging for recycling of high-value items such as TVs can be another magnet.

Don’t forget that potential burglars may be watching your regular patterns too, for example knowing when you might be out for the school run or leaving for work. Be aware of this and be extra vigilant around these times of day.

Thinking about how you might be able to deter burglars, such as securing all windows and doors, adding gravel to the driveway and path so visitors make a noisy approach and installing motion sensor floodlights can be additional tricks to scare them away. 

No matter how careful you are, sometimes a burglary will happen regardless. Tenant Content Insurance can provide extra reassurance against such risks. As well as theft, such policies will cover your personal possessions in case of fire, accidental damage and other insured risks depending on the policy you have taken out.

Don’t assume that your items will be covered by your landlord because that’s not the case and so protecting your belongings with your own contents insurance policy is essential.

HomeLet’s Tenants Contents Insurance offers £50,000 of contents cover as standard, giving you peace of mind that whatever happens your possessions will be protected in your home. The policy also includes £10,000 tenants’ liability cover which protects you for accidental damage to items belonging to your landlord that you use in your property, such as furniture, fixtures and fittings.