subject: Unoccupied Property Insurance – Empty Homes Targeted by Thieves [print this page] Unoccupied Property Insurance Empty Homes Targeted by Thieves
A worrying trend for all those that are considering unoccupied property insurance is that thieves are targeting empty homes for what metal they can find and rip out.
Police are concerned that empty homes and many are not protected by unoccupied property insurance are quite literally sitting ducks when it comes to thieves on the prowl for metal.
A number of robberies have been reported in Lincolnshire and it's the copper in the empty properties that is being targeted.
With the price of scrap metals forever increasing, it's not hard to see why thieves see items in empty properties as so attractive. A number of Lincolnshire properties have had boilers, pipes and water tanks ripped out. Police are advising landlords to take extra precautions and remain vigilant to any weaknesses their property might have to breaking and entering thieves. A popular target has been properties undergoing renovation which are deemed easier to attack.
Copper on the scrap market is worth a lot of money and thieves are becoming ever more creative in the ways they can take scrap metal.
Residents in Leeds had their power supplies disrupted when thieves attacked overhead power cables in order to take valuable metal. In the end they got away with little, risked their lives through electrocution and created inconvenience for hundreds of residents, just in the hope they could retrieve the materials and sell them later for scrap.
If homes continued to be targeted in such a way and police fear they will as the trend catches on then rises in unoccupied property insurance are likely to happen.
Experts point out that the average house has many different types of metal that could be worth stealing.
Not only are the copper hot water taps, but there can be miles of copper piping and copper components in others parts of the house. And for ingenious thieves who plan their attack, a house could deliver up a complete central heating system for the taking. The boiler, radiators and control mechanisms alone can reap a nice reward to anyone who has somewhere to sell the stolen goods.
The companies who offer unoccupied property insurance policies are hoping that this is a passing fad and that the efforts of police and landlords will make it a stillborn practice. They believe that much can be learnt from the railways, who face the same problem on a daily basis. Thieves have long since targeted valuable signalling cables which lie alongside tracks and present a profitable target for the opportunist and well organised thief.
And as long as scrap continues to rocket in price, then the problem will remain. But industry experts most lament the black market in which these metals are traded. Anyone buying such material must know it has been stolen.
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