Summer Home Safety Guide: How to Avoid 3 Common Summertime Risks

Summer means warm weather, long days, and plenty of three-day weekends. But if you’re a homeowner, summertime may also introduce new hazards. Without the right risk mitigation plan, you could put your loved ones and property at risk.

Our summer home safety guide can help you stay safe this summer. Here, we’ll look at some summer home safety tips to avoid three seasonal risks.

Secure Your Home to Avoid Break-Ins While on Vacation

There’s a travel rebound this summer – over 80 percent of Americans have vacation plans. If you’re among them, take the right precautions before you leave as a break-in can happen while you’re away.

The average burglary victim loses $2,661 in property. To keep your property safe, follow these theft prevention tips before you leave:

• Keep your travel plans private. A third of burglars know their victim – and you’re more vulnerable when folks know you’re away.
• Pause your mail delivery. To keep porch pirates away, ask your shipping carrier to deliver your mail once you’re back. (USPS makes it easy with online requests.)
• Secure all access points. Lock your doors, windows, and garage – and close all blinds.
• Lock high-value items in a home safe. Hard-to-access storage may deter theft.
• Put lights on a timer. Time your lights to turn on around sunset and off around bedtime. This creates the illusion of someone being home – a major burglary deterrent.
• Install a home security system. DIY systems offer affordable security. And with smart devices, you can monitor your home while away. Some home security systems may even qualify you for a reduction in your homeowners insurance premium – but be sure to ask your agent for details before you upgrade.

What happens if you still get robbed? In case of theft, your homeowners insurance should cover your losses.

Standard personal property coverage can help you replace stolen belongings, typically capped at 50 to 70 percent of your dwelling coverage limit. If you have lots of high-value items (e.g., jewelry or expensive art), consider purchasing scheduled personal property coverage. 

With your home and belongings secure, you can vacation worry-free.

Grill Safely to Prevent Grill Fires

Warm weather means grilling season. But grills create a fire risk, causing an average of 10,600 home fires per year.

Don’t wait for a grill fire to mitigate your risk. Instead, be proactive about grill safety. These tips can help:

• Place your grill far from your home and any nearby greenery.
• Check for gas leaks before using propane grills.
• Only use grill-specific lighter fluid with charcoal grills – and never add more once the fire’s lit.
• Never leave your grill unattended.
• Keep kids and pets away.
• Clean your grill after each use.

If a grill fire does break out, there’s good news: your homeowners insurance will likely cover the cost of fire-related damage or injury.

Your dwelling coverage can help you repair structural damage to your home. And with personal property coverage, you can replace damaged belongings.

Your medical payments coverage may kick in if a grill fire burns or injures a guest. Standard policies usually cover $5,000 to $10,000 in medical expenses. That’s likely enough to get your guests immediate care – and keep lawsuits at bay.

While your homeowners insurance can cover you after a grill fire, it’s better to avoid one in the first place. When you’re grilling safely, you can spend more time getting the right char on those burgers.

De-Risk Your Swimming Pool to Prevent Injury or Drowning

A home swimming pool is perfect for cooling off on hot summer days. Pools can also be dangerous, though: people can easily injure themselves or drown.

Pools pose the greatest risk to kids. In 2021, pool-related injuries spiked 17 percent among children under 15. And two-thirds of fatal child pool drownings happened in home pools.

Because of this child-specific risk, most insurers consider pools an “attractive nuisance” (i.e., something children dangerously flock to). That means you’re liable for any related injuries – even if you didn’t explicitly grant the injured parties access to your pool.

To mitigate your risk, practice these pool safety tips:

• Fence in your pool on all sides.
• Make sure your fence has a lockable gate.
• Never let anyone swim alone, especially children.
• Keep obstacles away from the pool perimeter.

Even with the right preventive measures, a pool-related injury can still happen at home. In that case, your homeowners’ liability coverage may cover associated costs. Standard limits start at $100,000. But that may not be enough to cover something like a fatal drowning – the payouts will quickly add up. For adequate coverage, consider purchasing an umbrella policy.

Appropriate pool safety practices can keep your guests and family safe this summer.

The Right Insurance Can Give You Peace of Mind

With our summer home safety guide, you can guard against common seasonal risks. But if you need to file an insurance claim, it helps to know you’ve got the right coverage. This way, you can rebuild and recover with ease.

At We Insure, our agents have the insurance know-how to assess your coverage needs. And with plenty of carrier options, WE can guide you toward the best policy at the most affordable price.

Interested in learning more? WE’d love to chat.

The information contained in this page is provided for general informational purposes only and may not be applicable to all situations. We Insure makes no guarantees of results from the use of this information.