Have you the right locks for Home Contents Insurance

With Internet comparison websites a barrage of adverts on television it can be very easy to buy on price only and not fully understand what is covered or the conditions to your home contents insurance policy.

One of the most common conditions to have a fully applicable home contents insurance policy is the type of locks you have protecting your house at different entry points. In better words there are often different types of locks needed for each type pf door, based on what that door is made of and where the door is located within your home.

Most recently insurance companies have found that some patio doors can be an easy entry point for burglars with some designs just requiring a screwdriver to unscrew the doors from the outside, or even designs where you can literally lift the patio door off their runners. If you have these types of doors, it would be wise to find out if your home contents insurance policy insists you have extra locks fitted inside to prevent the doors being lifted or moved from their positions. Not having these locks could make your home contents insurance invalid for any burglary claims, even if the entry point was not through these doors as they could argue that the conditions of sale were not followed.

Conditions on locks may not just apply to patio doors but normal wooden or even PVC doors too. Often a required is to have 5 cylinder doors on these types of doors. These doors have a lot more combination of keys and are more difficult to make a key to open the door. It is easy to oversee this point as your locks are hidden within the door itself. To clarify what type of lock you have, you could take your keys to a locksmith or even a quality hardware or DIY store, to find out. If you are quiet handy with DIY, why not take out your lock, which when the door is open is only a couple of screws, then take it somewhere who can identify the type of lock and offer the correct replacement.

It is true that any lock will not totally prevent a burglary and if a burglar is persistent enough he or she will gain entry. But time is of the essence and a good lock will take a burglar more time and therefore will normally look for an easier target. Home contents insurance service providers know this and therefore offer their premiums on these conditions.

It may not just be your home that these conditions or similar apply to. Outhouses such as sheds, lean-tos or garages that are covered in the policy may also have rules about what type of lock should be used to protect your belongings.

A conservatory may in some cases be classed as an extra room to your home or in others classes as an outhouse, depending on how it is built. This is important as some conservatories may still need a separate set of doors with the right locks in-between the conservatory and house. If the conservatory is deemed as part of the home, then the right locks will need to be applied to the entry door that sometimes are not supplied with the conservatory. Of course these conditions change between insurance companies, so check the small print to show that you are covered.

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