M&S Money has warned consumers that they should take greater security measures over Christmas to prevent themselves from becoming the victims of burglaries.

Domestic burglaries are at their highest during the darkest winter months of the year, and there is the added risk of having a large number of expensive presents left in homes before Christmas Day, which can be a very tempting proposition for thieves.

A recent survey by M&S Money found that 39% of homeowners leave presents under the tree long before Christmas Day, with only 7% of respondents waiting until Christmas Day itself to put the presents on display. If these are left in full view of passers-by who can see them through the windows then it could provide an incentive for thieves to target the house.

The insurer also highlighted the fact that many people may not have adequate cover for their Christmas presents. The survey found that 20% of those questioned were ‘very confident’ that they had the right amount of home contents cover, but revealed that many people actually do not.

Whereas 75% of home insurance customers have contents insurance, only 7.5% of policies have unlimited cover for their contents. This means that expensive presents may not be covered up to the full amount in the event of a burglary.

The head of insurance at M&S, David Wells, said that it’s easy to forget the need for home security at Christmas time, but that this time of year provides “rich pickings” for thieves.

M&S has now released a number of tips for keeping your home and presents secure at Christmas time, the full details of which can be found here.

Britons are failing to take basic security measures to protect their properties from theft, according to Esure home insurance. Esure conducted a large survey into our security habits at home, and the results are worrying.

It seems that people are simply not taking appropriate steps to prevent themselves becoming the victims of burglary, and this could have implications on their home insurance policies, should they need to make a claim.

Some of the most shocking results from the survey were that:

• 42% of homeowners often leave their homes without locking the back door
• 39% of respondents hide their keys in the garden in case they get locked out, with the most popular hiding place being under the door mat
• 64% have left their windows open when no one is at home
• 34% have gone out without securing the front door properly

Esure has warned homeowners that if they are not careful they could see claims to their insurance providers turned down. For example, if someone breaks into your house using a spare key found in an obvious hiding place, this may invalidate your insurance. Such an event is not at all uncommon, with 7% of respondents saying that they had been burgled by a thief who used a hidden key.

Esure has made a number of recommendations for homeowners to ensure they take greater security measures, which should in turn prevent burglaries. These include not hiding keys outside the house, fitting a strong lock to the doors and fitting a motion sensor security light outside the home at the front and back.

AXA has revealed that many of those who go away during the festive period are not taking adequate precautions to protect their water pipes from freezing. This time last year, more claims were being made for damage resulting from a ruptured pipe than for theft.

In January the average claim for water damage was over £15,000, with one in every 1000 homeowners making a claim. Yet only 8% of people worry about their water pipes bursting, compared to a massive 57% who fear that their homes will be broken into.

24% of people are concerned about fire, which is ironic given that a cracked, leaking water pipe is again more likely.

During last year’s festive period, an average of £4,200 was claimed on contents policies for water damage. This is particularly worrying because many people do not have contents insurance. Claims on buildings policies for water-damage were also high, averaging £10,900.

Apparently only 38% of people take simple steps to reduce the likelihood of a burst pipe; many do not think to leave the heating on, for example.

Head of Home Insurance at AXA, Nick Kidd, emphasised that it can be “very stressful” to return home after a relaxing break to find that many of your most valuable possessions have been destroyed by water. Even if the cost is covered by your insurance, many objects are irreplaceable.

To prevent such a catastrophe, AXA urges people to do all they can to keep their houses warm while they are away. This means ensuring that the loft and water pipes are properly insulated, and that the loft hatch is left open to allow warm air to rise.

It is also recommended that the temperature of the house falls no lower than 12°C; this may be costly, but is infinitely preferable to ruined carpets and soggy photo albums.

You might think that using an insurance comparison website ought to make the process of finding competitively priced motor insurance easy. However, the financial research company, Defaqto, has recently published its report “Web Aggregators 2009: The bubble is about to burst” and it seems that this is in fact far from true.

Mike Powell, the author of the report, found that consumers have an "immense and confusing choice", rather defeating the object of using a comparison website. One of the main problems relates to the voluntary excess applied to a policy. Many sites default to a high excess meaning that they are able to give a favourable quote. Although most sites then allow the consumer to change the excess, many people are often unobservant or simply do not understand what this means.

Best of the bunch, according to Defaqto, was GoCompare followed by TescoCompare. Others making the top ten were Confused.com, I4Insurance, Moneysupermarket, Q4Insure, Tiger.co.uk, Uswitch, CheaperCover.com and Comparethemarket.

Last year, Defaqto reviewed the comparison websites for the home insurance market and found several areas of concern. It now reports that, although some improvements have been made, there are still issues with the level of cover, excesses and exclusions, meaning that it is often up to the customer to contact the insurer direct to obtain further details.

Perhaps consumers should not be surprised by Defaqto’s findings; last month, consumer publication, Which?, found that using a comparison website is far from a satisfactory experience for most people. Again the thorny question of excesses was near the top of the list of grumbles.

The UK has been affected by some particularly heavy flooding recently, prompting the ABI (Association of British Insurers) to release some advice for worried homeowners. The advice was that, in most cases, homes should be covered for flood damage under a standard home insurance policy. But it also warned homeowners to take efforts to protect their homes from flooding as much as possible.

According to the ABI, flood damage has been quite standard on home insurance policies since the 1960s. However, it also warned homeowners that those living in an area that is prone to flooding should check their insurance details carefully to see if they are covered. In such areas they might have to pay a bit extra to get cover, or they may have to pay a higher excess.

However, spokesman for the ABI, Malcolm Tarling, said that flood cover is “an integral part of buildings and contents insurance”, and that only “very rarely” is it not obtainable.

This information from the ABI comes at the same time as statistics from the Environment Agency revealed that the average home would suffer £28,000 in damages if it was flooded. Despite the huge bill that homeowners could face, the research also revealed that only 6% of homeowners have taken precautions against flooding compared to 80% who have taken steps to protect their homes from fire damage.

Even if you are covered for flood damage, if you have to make a claim then this could increase your premium in the future. The best thing to do, therefore, is protect your home against damage as much as possible in the first place. You can find details of how to protect your home from flood damage at the Environment Agency website.