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Protect your home from theft and burglary with add on covers in insurance

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Published on March 24, 2021 | Est Read Time: 2 min

Home insurance is a basic necessity for every person who owns any kind of residential property in the country. Consider it as important as paying your municipal and property taxes on time or getting the home building in proper condition by regular repair and maintenance work. One big problem that many people face, especially those living in rather open or secluded areas are of thefts and burglary. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, theft is the most prevalent crime in India. Of the 2,49,000 crime cases reported in 2018, nearly 80% of the cases were of theft. Since people have almost all of their valuables stored at home, they need an adequate home insurance policy, which will compensate them in cases of these crimes occurring.

Cover offered by Home Insurance about Burglary & Theft

• Cover for the damage caused to the home structure: When the thieves come to your home, they will not enter peacefully. If they are coming in by force or by deceit, they will damage the doors and locks and in the worst case, even the walls and windows of your home. Getting a door replaced by itself can cost in thousands and if a wall is damaged, you are looking at many more expenses. Your home insurance will cover you for this.

• Cover for loss of home content: When a thief enters your home, they will steal things they can easily carry away. Many things may get damaged, but not stolen in the process. For example, a thief forcibly tries to take a TV off its wall mount. The locks do not give, but the TV gets damaged in the process. Similarly, they will damage other things looking for valuables to steal. All these will be covered by insurance.

• Cover for both burglary and theft: There is a difference between burglary and theft. A theft is done in secret, without any knowledge of the owner of the property. Burglary, on the other hand, involves a forceful entry into the premises of the victim. While theft takes the advantage of the element of absence and secrecy, burglary is just plain intimidation. Generally, home insurance policies cover both cases.

Add-ons you can buy with standard home insurance

In addition to this, you can buy certain add-ons for extra protection against any theft or burglary for items in your home:

• Jewellery and Valuables Cover add-on: Jewellery is perhaps the most prized possession of an Indian household, after the house itself. Since jewellery is small, highly valuable, easy to carry and complicated to prove ownership of, thieves always keep it as their first target. You can buy an add-on cover to protect the jewellery in your home by paying some extra money as premium component. Items made of precious metals like gold, silver and those encrusted with diamonds can be covered by this add-on. Commonly, you can buy the add-on to cover items worth around 20 percent of the total insurance value. If you have home insurance of 50 lakhs, you can buy this add-on for protection worth 10 lakhs.

• Portable Electronic Equipment Cover add-on: The latest smartphones from leading companies cost more than a lakh now. A good mobile workstation laptop, which is necessary when more and more people are working from home can cost almost 2 lakhs or even more. Many people tend to invest in high-end, audiophile-grade music and multimedia equipment. The cost of these can run easily into many lakhs. High-end sports equipment like golf clubs can cost lakhs of rupees per club when imported. How do you protect all these from theft or burglary? By buying portable electronic equipment cover add-on. The main condition with this add-on is that the insured item must not be more than 10 years old.

Conclusion

Theft and burglary are negative, but real part of our life. People tend to make bad decisions when they are not in a good state of mind. The best a person can do is to leave no stone unturned in ensuring proper protection from such eventualities of life. Not everyone can be expected to stay at home and stand guard round the clock. Even passive security measures like burglar alarms and CCTV cameras have their own limitations because they are more of a security theatre instead of an active protection system. What can one do in such a scenario?

Get adequate home insurance with the right add-ons to cover this unpredictable eventuality and keep your home and its belonging secure.  

Disclaimer- The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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