Are you among the tens of thousands of homeowners who shut and locked their front door this summer, headed off for a two-week holiday and wondered if your home was going to be safe?
Home security should never be taken lightly, and you should always lock your home whether you’re about to leave for a holiday, go to work or just pop down the shops for bread and milk.
The truth is, most theft is opportunistic. And if someone notices you leave without taking precautions, that’s when you could be in trouble.
New research shows almost a third of Australians (31%) will leave their home vacant for up to a fortnight when they take a summer break.
Some 40% of us will rely on neighbours to give the impression someone’s at home.
We’ll ask them to collect the mail, put out bins and even mow the lawn so it’s not obvious the property is vacant.
The survey, conducted on behalf of insurance company Allianz, also found we could take our pre-holiday maintenance regime up a notch, too.
It appears we really don’t do a lot of pre-emptive maintenance to ensure nothing disastrous occurs while we’re away.
So, what maintenance is required?
Well, only 33% of us check the flexi-hoses in the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen.
And most of us don’t think about the fact that when problems occur in our absence they are more costly to repair.
A total $19 million in claims to Allianz were made for damage because of broken hoses in 2023 – so don’t think it won’t happen to you.
Allianz data shows the busiest time for insurance claims is January to March. And it says there’s been a 12% increase in the cost of these claims (excluding catastrophe claims) over the past two years.
The Allianz survey also found 35% of homeowners will only roll up their sleeves when something needs fixing urgently.
As experienced agents, we know maintenance is a fundamental responsibility of ownership. If you don’t look after your home, its value will diminish.
And there are only two outcomes from that scenario when the time comes to sell. Either, you’ll pay a small fortune to fix all the problems or resign yourself to a lower sales price.