Why you should expect higher insurance premiums | MoneyWeek

As James Daley of Fairer Finance points out, “accidental damage is not included as standard in most home-insurance policies”. Using the rise in self-inflicted combustion to justify baseline premium hikes looks unreasonable. 

Burglaries will bounce 

These are hard times for criminals. Ed Magnus on This is Money reports that the average burglar is thought to have lost £12,954 last year as robbing and thieving became less lucrative. A “burglary bounce” is expected as we spend more time out of doors, so it’s time to “turn your home into a fortress”. 

Install reliable door locks – “cylinder locks”, commonly found on UPVC doors, can be snapped in seconds. Basic Yale locks are also not much of a challenge for a thief. New property owners should change all the locks: you have no idea how many keys are in circulation for the current ones. Think about putting a few lights on a timer if you are going away, and don’t post your holiday snaps on social media until you get back home. 

New technology offers extra ways to keep your house safe, says Colin Baker in The Sunday Times. A keyless door lock is not too expensive and will convince opportunists that “you’ve got the place wired like Nasa”. Video doorbells are even better. When someone rings, a smartphone app alerts you and begins to record: “You can talk to the caller as though you’re just busy out the back or upstairs, no matter where you are in the world”. 

There are downsides to being too tech-heavy, though, says James Max in the Financial Times, who was burgled last year. Remembering “all the codes and keeping track of the keys and fobs” can be a “kerfuffle”. 

Electric security gates are said to add 5% to a property’s value, yet “they have been nothing but trouble. The remotes use batteries that are impossible to find in most high-street shops… And you will need a PhD in computer science if you want to ‘pair’ them with your car”. A slug found its way into the circuit board, frazzling both itself and the gates.