As a nation we in the UK are becoming wealthier. With the rise in our overall wealth has come a desire to spend our money on certain luxuries we enjoy. And one of the boom industries when it comes to spending this money is on the second home – the cottage in the countryside where we can spend the weekends. However, as this is considered your second home, and not your principal residence, the home insurance is going to cost you more than it will do for your principal residential home. To avoid this expense becoming burdensome, however, you may want to consider taking the following steps:
Security
The Number 1 reason why your second home will cost you more to insure than your principal home is because you are not there as often. As such, your lack of presence providers potential thieves with more of an opportunity to steal items from your home. In order to mitigate the chances of this happening, and so as to placate your home insurance provider into lowering your home insurance premiums, you will need to make sure that your second home has a sufficiently good security system. In effect, what this means is that you second home should have:
- a central alarm system
- a smoke detector
- deadbolt lock systems on your doors
- no area of the garden should be obscure, so you may need to cut back trees
- adequate lighting, which you should have on a timer system so that you second home is not consistently in the dark
- secure main entrance and back door
- secure garage area
Home insurance loss assessment advisors calculate that you are 20 – 30 percent less likely to have your home broken into if you have a good security surveillance system in place than if you do not.
Employ and agent
Employing an agent or friend to check in on your house daily and clear away any junk mail or local newspapers that may be delivered to your home can also help to reduce the chances of your second home being broken into, thus reduce your second home insurance premiums. Keep in mind that nothing makes a house look unlived in more than a collection of mail on the floor mat.
Select a relatively crime free neighbourhood
Finally, when looking around to buy your second home, make sure that you select a neighbourhood where the crime figures are relatively low. Crime figures are a major factor in calculating home insurance, so if you chose to live in an area where the crime figures are high, you should automatically expect to be paying more in home insurance premiums for that home.
Joseph Kenny writes for the Loans Store and offer more information on personal loans and other loan topics available on site.
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