Protect Your Garden with Home Insurance

Protect your garden with home insurance

Spring is in the air and with the Easter holidays approaching many green-fingered Brits will be planning to spruce up their outdoor space. However, it’s not just homeowners that have their eyes on the garden - its opportunist thieves too, making home insurance crucial.

While Brits love to spend time and money in the garden it’s vital they consider security too or they could be left out of pocket when an unwanted visitor decides to tread on their space.

How can home insurance protect a garden?

The majority of home insurance providers now offer protection for garden contents as part of their policies. However, property owners should not assume that this cover is automatically included as many only offer the cover as an add-on to a policy for which you must pay an additional premium.

Even if your home insurer does cover your garden automatically you should be careful to check the policy limits. Some providers will only offer cover in the region of £250 which could leave you seriously short-changed should a theft take place, particularly if you have an outbuilding full of expensive contents such as lawnmowers, garden tools and garden furniture.

It is possible to find a handful of insurers that will offer cover in the region of £2,500 worth of garden contents and will offer separate cover for outbuildings so you have real peace of mind about the items you treasure. If your existing home insurance provider does not offer extensive garden cover then use a comparison website to compare quotes and you may be able to find a deal better suited to your needs.

For many this has taken on added importance with around a third of homeowners (30 per cent) admitting to using their gardens as additional storage space, placing non-garden items in outbuildings due to a lack of room within their home.

How you can avoid a home insurance gardening claim

Home insurance can provide vital peace of mind in case the worst happens, but even if you have a comprehensive policy in place it shouldn’t stop you taking steps to boost your garden’s security.

Make sure you tidy up each night, trying to avoid leaving contents on display. Store as many items as possible in your home or in a secure outbuilding and if you do have a shed or garage, make sure they are suitably padlocked. Any padlocks you use should be strong enough to not be easily kicked or broken into. It’s particularly important to store away tools and ladders because they can be used by thieves to perform break-ins on your property.

To further enhance your garden security, pay close attention to your hedges. Make sure they are compact and provide a good barrier but are not set so high as to obstruct your view. Check that there are no holes that are easy to crawl through low down and even consider placing prickly hedges along your borders as these will act as an ideal deterrent.

Similarly you should check fences for missing or loose panels so as not to give thieves an easy ride. Consider installing high fences and walls that are more difficult to get into.

Pay close attention to your shed too – beginning with how you place it in the garden. Make sure that any windows in the shed are facing the garden rather than the street so it’s not easy for thieves to see what is inside. Make sure that the windows are secured appropriately too – laminate glass can be a good alternative.

There are several more steps you can take to make life more difficult for thieves. These include using crunchy gravel to create ‘noisy surfaces’ that will make a thief think twice about their movements. Also consider weighing down any valuable potted plants with bricks and securing ornaments or furniture to the ground. It can be well worth investing in security lighting for the outside of your home and even adding security cameras to monitor the garden area if you can afford the initial outlay. There can be financial benefits to this too, as many home insurance providers offer discounts the more security you add.

Just to be on the safe side, keep an inventory of the items in your garden with photographs if possible. That way if a home insurance claim is necessary, the process should run smoothly.