Advice For Home and Car Owners As Cold Weather Approaches

With the earliest country wide snowfall for seventeen years about to arrive, More Than Insurance is offering timely advice for home and car owners.

The Met Office has issued warnings that heavy or drifting snow will soon arrive, and will affect the eastern side of the UK, particularly heavily.

This very cold spell is likely to last for a fortnight so here is some advice for home and car owners to help them travel safely in the bad winter and protect their homes and belongings from the cold and ice.

Protecting your home

• If you know you’re going to be away, either leave the heating on at a minimum of 12 degrees C, or drain your water and heating systems. If you have a property that is unoccupied, drain the system. To do this, turn off the stopcock, shut down the boiler and open all taps.
• Check the lagging on your pipes and water tank – pay a visit to the loft if you have one. If you have enough constant heating in the house, it will prevent the water tank from freezing. The most likely effect of the sub-zero temperatures in the home will be frozen pipes and water tanks.
• Leave your central heating running, not on a timer, but at a constant temperature (the coldest time is between 1am and 3am). If possible, leave it running in all rooms.
• Bring pets indoors and if you have fish in a pond, leave something floating in the middle of your pond – i.e. a ball – to prevent it freezing over. When you want to get air to them, lift up the ball.

Avoiding burst pipes is particularly important during freezing conditions. Statistics from AXA show that during the cold snap of last year, customers were three times more likely to have an escape of water claim than a theft claim and 13 times more likely than a fire claim.

“People often don’t realise the importance of protecting their water systems from freezing conditions. Not only does burst pipe damage have financial implications, especially if insurance is not in place, but it can also cause huge emotional trauma from ruined personal belongings.”, advises Amanda Edwards from AXA Insurance.

Travelling safely and looking after your car

• Check anti-freeze levels and carry de-icer in case the locks freeze
• For cars that are not being used that often ensure you regularly turn the engine over and keep it running to so the battery stays energised
• If warming your car up, don’t leave it unattended with the keys in the ignition. Many cars are stolen this way by opportunist thieves each year
• Keep a warm coat or blanket in the car in case of a breakdown, to keep warm by the roadside, as well as some emergency supplies such as some chocolate or a hot drink
• Take your breakdown telephone help-line number and mobile phone with you on all journeys