Are you the person who uploads your flight tickets, takes pictures of your pre-flight cocktails, films the take-off to a sunny destination and then upload this onto social media? If so you could be putting your property at risk of thieves and invalidating your home insurance, if you get burgled, whilst you’re away.
Insurers are now increasingly checking people’s social media accounts following a claim for theft, to see if their clients have announced the fact they are leaving their house alone and increasing the risk to their insurers.
Most insurers have a clause titled ‘Reasonable Care’ in their home insurance contracts, so if the firms can prove you weren’t careful enough at protecting whatever is insured they don’t have to offer up compensation.
Police have warned that thieves will strike when they know no one is at home, and with constantly updated online public profiles this provides a useful resource to would be criminals.
If you post pictures of yourself on sun loungers, or announce you’re on the first day of a long holiday, you could be deemed to be helping criminals according to a recent report in The Sun.
The Association of British Insurers also warned home owners to ‘think carefully about what you put on social media, you wouldn’t put a poster up on your front lawn saying you’re going on holiday!’
At Sharrocks we specialise in home insurance and for advice on what is the best home insurance contract for you, call us on 01795 580800, email enquiries@sharrock-insurance.com or click on our Home Insurance Quotation Form
For more tips on how to keep your property safe this Summer we have designed our top 10 tips leaflet.
Article by Lindsey Jones – contact me at lindsey@sharrock-insurance.com
Sharrocks’ top 10 tips to keep your property safe this summer
