Pets in the house can put home insurance policies at risk

Millions of pet owners risk their level of home security by switching off their home alarm systems, according to home insurance provider Swinton.

Pets often trigger alarms and so people turn them off. However, pet owners may not realise that they could be invalidating their home insurance policies as a result. A survey conducted by Swinton of two thousand of its home insurance customers revealed that only 33 percent of the households in the UK use their burglar alarms . Also, 72 percent of the people surveyed said that they switched off their alarm systems on account of pets who roam about at night or when they are not at home.

Generally, failing to activate a home alarm system, which may be mentioned on a policy, can render a home insurance policy null and void. This is because mentioning an alarm system in the policy may have brought the policyholder lower premiums to pay on their home insurance.