Landlords across the UK are being urged to ensure their property insurance is not just confined to their buildings, as thefts from gardens show a dramatic increase.
Although most landlords, be they single home owners or investors with massive portfolios, routinely take out landlord insurance on the homes they let out to tenants, they may not be covering items that are stored outside or pieces of garden furniture. A report out earlier this month from a leading property insurance provider suggests that landlords need to get outside cover as quickly as possible as up to 1 in 5 homeowners have experienced thefts from their gardens in the last 12 months.
Burglars are routinely gaining easy access to outside spaces and stealing furniture, pots and plants, and in some cases residents have woken up to find trees have been removed from their gardens overnight. The value of the goods stolen averages just over £70 which may not seem a lot but police forces across the country are getting more and more calls from irate homeowners who have been burgled and the overall cost to homeowners and the police forces who have to investigate the thefts runs into millions of pounds.
Apparently landlords in the North East, East Anglia and the North West have most to worry about as they are the crime hotspots, but landlords everywhere in the UK need to be on their guard. A spokesman for one insurance provider said: “Homeowners should just take time to work out what level of cover they need before they buy a policy. The old adage of walking from room to room with a pencil and paper and noting down the cost of items is still a good idea but they must remember to class their gardens as just another room that needs to be assessed and made as theft proof as possible.”