House Survey – Property Records

You would probably be surprised at the number of people who cannot name the make or model of valuable equipment when they are reporting a theft, let alone quote a serial number. The ‘valuable contents survey’ you have either just completed or will soon complete needs to be written up, stored safely and updated as your possessions change over time.

You should have a clear record listing a description, make, model, serial number, identification marks and reference to any photo or video footage you may have. For example:

Reporting and Finding Lost Property

If you have lost something valuable you must report it to the police. I have spoken to a lot of people who have assumed that once something is stolen there is nothing else they can do, they shrug their shoulders and give up on their property assuming they will never see it again.

In their work the police recover a lot of valuable items when they make arrests and raid premises, but a large proportion cannot be traced so it has to go back to the holder (the burglar). If you haven’t reported your property stolen and submitted details of make, colour, size, model, serial number and identifying marks, you can’t expect to get it back again.

When you report a loss or theft, the details are entered onto databases so that the police can check the identity of property that they recover. If the details of your stolen digital camera, Rolex watch, or other valuables are on that database, they will trace them if they come to light during investigations.

This has several benefits:

• The criminal can be asked why he is in illegal possession of your valuables, a fact that can be proved by the serial number and model, etc. that you supplied.
• The criminal may well be charged with the theft or handling of your valuables.
• Best of all, once the case is closed, your property should be on its way back to you – unless the insurance has already paid out, in which case the valuables become the property of the insurance company.

If you have lost anything it is worth checking with the local police. They also record details of items that have been found so they might already be holding your valuables. Remember, without a make, model, serial number, colour, size and distinguishing marks, etc., it will be hard to claim anything!

Apart from the police databases there are a few on-line databases that you can search, for example www.trace.co.uk and www.virtualbumblebee.co.uk.

Other Issues

Everybody is unique, so there may be additional issues that are unique to you or your lifestyle and which should be included in your survey. For example, you may own a stable and horses on a field over the road, or you may own a vintage car that you keep in a commercial store. It is possible that you could run dressmaking classes from a converted barn on your property, or that you have a public right of way that runs through your garden.

Your house security audit will be compromised if you ignore any of these unique issues relating to your house and lifestyle. Take some time to make sure that you have identified everything. It is easier to do that when surveying your own house because you have an intimate knowledge of it. It becomes a lot more difficult when you are performing a survey on a house you are thinking of buying, but you have to rely on the present owner’s answers. If they choose to hide the fact that a public right of way runs through the front door and out through the patio doors in the dining room, your security review is seriously compromised.

The fundamental concept is to be as thorough and conscientious as possible when completing your house security review, and keep an open mind as to other issues that you should address.

Medical problems

It is possible that you may have medical conditions that affect your life, mobility or even your use of the house. For example, an elderly disabled widow may stop using the upper floors of her house if the stairs begin to cause her a problem. An elderly man on limited income may retreat to live in the kitchen in a very cold winter because that is the easiest room to keep warm. A disabled couple may never go into their garage, and a deaf person wouldn’t hear any breaking glass or disturbance in the next room.

The reason changes from person to person, but the effect on the way people live and use their homes can be significant. Due to circumstances and frailty, some elderly people might not know that they had been burgled for weeks, for example if they never go upstairs, or never go into the front room in winter. Be sure to tailor your review to the way you live your life, and if doing a review for an elderly relative take all of their circumstances into consideration.

Building work

Remember that if you employ builders or decorators to work on your home, you will have a range of new security problems. For example:

• You will have to give reasonable access to the builders or decorators.
• They may well store valuable materials or tools around the property, which could attract criminal interest.
• If they erect any scaffold or ladders, they will significantly reduce the security of your house.

House insurance

If you have decided to take the time to make your house as safe as you can, I suspect you are the sort of person who would think that investing in insurance cover would be worthwhile.

The insurance industry operates on ‘chances’ and ‘odds’. If you want to insure yourself against a specific occurrence, an insurance company will look at the risk, calculate the chances of that happening, calculate what they would have to pay out if they had to pay on a claim and set a fee from there.

Broadly speaking there are two different types of household cover.

Building insurance

You can insure the structure of the building. This means if the house burns to the ground, the insurance company will pay for it to be rebuilt in the same style. Warning: you should check the coverage supplied by your insurer. In some circumstances an insurer might specify conditions under which they will not cover your property against damage.

The basis of payments following an insured loss vary. Generally with buildings insurance, the structure will be replaced, to the same design and style as the original house, though it will comply with modern building regulations. Don’t expect two extra bedrooms and a swimming pool, you will get a new house of the same size and plan as the original.

Potential problems include:

• Flood – with weather patterns changing and sea levels rising there is an increasing risk of flooding. In some areas on historical flood plains, properties have been built on areas that have often been subject to flooding. When these areas are built up and paved, there is even less chance for water to flow off naturally so flooding is ever more likely. In these circumstances an insurer might refuse to cover a specific property or area for flood damage.
• Subsidence – some areas are prone to subsidence. Properties built over old mine workings, or in areas where there are underlying clay beds, often subside, causing damage to houses. If an insurer knows that a high proportion if not all properties in a given area will suffer damage from subsidence, they will refuse to insure them against damage caused by subsidence, or charge huge premiums.
• Fire – though they are usually seen abroad, forest and bush fires can be a problem. In areas where bush fires are common insurers can refuse to insure a property against fire damage. With climate changes this could eventually become a problem in some areas of the UK.

Contents insurance

You can also insure the contents of the house. That is the carpets, curtains, beds, clothes, television, washing machine, camera, CD collection – anything contained in the house, the contents! If the house burns down, a ‘contents’ policy will pay for replacements for everything that was lost.

Note: The chances of an accident happening vary, depending on a huge number of variables. The easiest example is to look at a thatched cottage and a cottage with a slate roof. If there is a fire the thatched cottage will burn quickly and the cost of repair will be high. The cottage with the slate roof is less likely to burn and will not suffer such extreme damage from a roof fire because it will spread slower in a slate roof. In that case it’s fair that anyone with a thatched roof will pay higher insurance fees than if they had a slate roof.

But there are a lot of different variables that affect the risk of an accident happening and all of these are taken into account when calculating odds and cost, which are considered by the insurer to set their fees.

The basis of payments on contents insurance varies so much that you must carefully review what insurance you require then compare that with what you actually have. One problem is that insurance policies are written in such a complex way that they are beyond the understanding of an average person. You might think you know what it seems to mean in plain English, but in legal terms it may mean something different. I suggest that you should discuss the matter with your insurance broker, and get them to explain and answer your questions.

Potential insurance problems include:

• Inadequate cover. Most people steadily acquire new possessions and over time upgrade existing possessions. As new inventions come onto the market, many of us will buy them. Ten years ago, most families might not have had a CD player at home, they certainly wouldn’t have had a DVD player or an ipod. If you haven’t reviewed the level of your insurance cover for a while you should check to make sure that you are adequately covered.
• Not new for old. Some insurance policies specify that contents will be replaced on a new for old basis. That means that a 26 inch Sanyo colour television will be replaced by a new 26 inch Sanyo colour television. Without new for old, you will only receive what the insurance company decides was the value of the set at the time of the loss. For example, say you paid £500 when your television was new, but it is now three years old. Your insurance company might state that the value of that set on the day it was lost or destroyed was only £95, and that is all they will pay. You have no television, a new set will now cost £600, but all you receive from the insurance company is £95, so you cannot afford to replace the television even with the insurance pay out!
• Single item limit. It is possible that your insurance cover specifies a limit to the value of single items covered under the general policy. For example, an insurance company might state that all general items are limited to a maximum individual value of £750. That doesn’t sound as though it is a problem until you start looking at the items that cost more than that. Home computers, washer dryers and wide screen televisions are a few of the items that can easily cost more than £1,000. If your policy does state a limit, you will lose out if you have to make a claim.
• Valuable items not listed. Where an insurance policy has a general limit set on the value of single items, the insurance company might for an additional fee offer extra cover on named items. For example, you can insure the general contents of your home and accept the single item limit of £750, and then add the more expensive items such as your £3,000 flat screen plasma television as separate listed items. If you forget to mention to the insurance company that you have a work of art worth £2.5 million you will have to make special arrangements with the insurance company and meet their stated minimum security requirements.
• Exemptions. Some policies impose exemptions. For example, your flat screen plasma television will be insured only when it is in your home. If you take the television to work so that your colleagues can watch a cup final football match in their lunch break, the television might not be insured from the time you take it out through your front door until you bring it back. Bicycles, cameras, watches and jewellery may not be covered outside of the premises.
• Negligence. It is possible that the insurer has the right to refuse to meet a claim where they can claim that you were negligent. For example, if you go to work and leave the lights on and the front door open, you may not be able to claim if you come home nine hours later and find that your property has been stolen.

House manual

Not many houses have one, but if one exists take a look at it. If you are surveying your house and you don’t have a house manual, consider producing one!

A house manual contains important information about and relating to the house. I propose that a house manual should be produced using a four-ring binder. In that way sections that change can easily be replaced, and if a section is needed in an emergency, it can be taken out and used, then put back into the house manual.

Emergency pages should be laminated; that will keep them readable even if you do need to take the manual into the kitchen when the washing machine is flooding the ground floor.

I suggest that the house manual should contain the following sections, and any other information appropriate to you and your lifestyle.

Emergency information

This section should be in alphabetic order. One entry to a page and all entries in large print that will be easy to see when your eyes are blurry at three in the morning, your loft tank starts to leak and you have to read by moonlight because the lights have fused!

All pages should be updated when there are changes. Where explanations are difficult, you could include annotated photographs affixed to the laminated page, to illustrate a point – for example, which of five stopcocks at the back of the linen closet turns off the water supply to the central heating? As well as information such as:

• Water stop cocks – water supply, central heating, washing machine, etc.
• Mains power switch and other power isolation switches and fuses
• Emergency glazing service
• Veterinary surgery – assuming you have pets

Contact information

This section should contain contact information. It should be in alphabetic order and could be multiple entry. (By multiple entry, I mean that you put in ‘sensible’ entries. For example, you might put in an entry under S for Splatter & Son who are your decorators. In case you forget their name you could also put an entry under D reading Decorators – Splatter & Son, so you will be able to find the number if you look up ‘Splatter & Son’ or look up ‘Decorator’).

Any information you might require should be contained within the manual: decorators, builders, garden services, car maintenance, electricians, etc. The ‘contacts’ section of the house manual then becomes valuable to you.

Significant dates

This section is more like a diary for the house. In it you will record any significant events relating to the house. For example:

This information will be helpful to you if you need to remember when things were completed. If you have a problem you will quickly be able to check back to see if the gas fire is still under guarantee and who you need to contact.

Unique selling point

The house manual will be a unique selling point for your house should you ever decide to sell it. It will contain a lot of information that will be invaluable to the new owner.

Imagine how impressed you would be if a house owner presented you with a nice tidy house manual. It shows that you are organised and efficient. It shows that you have taken care of the house and the records relating to it, so you have almost certainly been as efficient in ensuring that all work undertaken has been of an acceptable quality and standard.

More than that, the manual contains the details of honest and trustworthy tradespeople in the area, which is a very rare and valuable commodity to most people.

Better than that, it lists who you use and therefore obviously consider to be the best and best value for money: veterinary surgery, pet store, butcher, fishmonger, garden centre, supermarket and any other local services.