Prevention is better than claiming – Insurance tips on keeping your home safe this festive season

The holiday season is upon us, which means many South Africans will be looking forward to taking a well-deserved vacation, for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, criminals don’t take holidays. Which means that your home and possessions could be at risk if you’re not there to look after them. And while having insurance is an excellent way of ensuring that you can replace items that are damaged or stolen, a better approach is to do whatever you can to avoid that loss or damage in the first place.

Christelle Van Den Berg, Head of Broker Channel at Nedbank Insurance offers a few useful tips on how to do that, based on their many years’ experience helping clients safeguard their homes and assets:

Don’t advertise your absence. Don’t post your travel plans on social media. It lets criminals know when your empty home is an easy target. You should also make arrangements with a friend or neighbour to remove any post, flyers or subscription deliveries from your post box. An overflowing post box is a sure way of attracting criminal attention.

 Pack smartly. Try to not pack your car or trailer when there are many people around. Also, do your packing behind locked gates if possible. Parking your car in the road while you’re loading up your holiday gear is a recipe for disaster.

Before you head off, give your home a thorough once-over. Make sure that your alarm system is working and if you have a response company, tell them you’re going to be away. Trim bushes or trees in your garden that can serve as hiding places for uninvited guests. And check that all windows and doors are securely closed or locked.

 Call in outside help. If possible, hire a professional house sitter or ask a trusted friend or family member to stay at your house while you’re away. If that’s not possible, ask someone you trust to come around every day and check on the property. Maybe they can even open and close the curtains and switch lights on and off at various times. This gives the impression that there’s someone home, which is a great way to deter criminals.

Ms. Christelle Van Den Berg explains that it’s not just your home that needs to get the pre-holiday check-up, it’s also a worthwhile exercise to make sure that your insurance itself is in tip-top condition. For starters, it’s a good idea to make sure that you have the right amount of cover based on the correct replacement value of your possessions. “It may be tempting to under-estimate the value of your assets to try and save a few rand in premiums,” she says, “but when the time comes to claim, being underinsured could result in your claim pay out being too little to replace or repair your lost or stolen items.”

Ms. Christelle Van Den Berg also recommends making sure you have correctly insured your assets. “Insurers have different categories of insurance for different items, she points out, “so, for example, if you have portable items like bicycles, laptops, or musical instruments, and they get stolen while you’re using them away from home, you won’t be able to claim for them from your normal household goods cover. They need to be insured as portable items – often called all-risks cover.”

Taking precautions to prevent loss is always a better approach than having to deal with unpleasant surprises when you get back from your relaxing holiday. And one of the most worthwhile precautions you can take is getting cover for your valued personal belongings from a reputable insurer you know you can depend on to always have your back.