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Crime Risk
Home insurance, like any other form of insurance, is calculated by balancing the value of the covered items against the risk (and therefore the likelihood) of the policyholder making a claim and the insurance company having to pay out. This means that you can have a significant impact on the cost of your policy, after all, you can do things to make your house more secure which reduces the risk, unfortunately it also means that your neighbourhood could have a sizeable impact on the cost of your policy.
Insurance companies take an average of the crime statistics in your surrounding area to work out the likelihood of you suffering a burglary (one of the most common reasons for a home insurance claim). They then factor this into their calculations. So, if you live in an area that has barely ever had a recorded crime, your insurance is going to be cheaper than in an area that is known as a hotspot.
New research has recently been released which has identified the top 20 most at risk areas. These are:
In addition the research suggested that Nottingham and London postcodes as a whole are considered by the industry to be ‘high risk’ and therefore have higher premiums attached to them.
If you live in such an area, you can expect your policy to be more expensive, but there are still things that you can do to reduce the costs. Any measure that improves the security of your home will have an impact on the price of your policy, but make sure you check with your insurance company before you go ahead with any work, as they may have certain specifications of things like house alarms that they expect you to meet.
Another thing that you can do is to make sure that you have the best deal out there. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to find a really good deal. Check out a comparison website for a benchmark, and then contact a few insurance companies to see whether they can offer you a better deal. Consider too the possibility of saving by purchasing a combined contents and building insurance from one insurer, this will often net you a worthwhile discount (Kwik Fit Insurance for instance offer up to 15% off – check the home insurance section of their website) just make sure neither of the policies is too much of a compromise.
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