If you or your family were lucky enough to be showered with valuable presents this Christmas, it may mean that you no longer have adequate home insurance cover.
After all, the combined value of the whole family's festive treats is likely to push up the amount for which your home contents should be insured.
Many standard home insurance policies also have limits on how much they will pay towards replacing high-value items such as bikes and expensive jewellery - particularly if they have not been made aware of their existence beforehand.
Even if your Christmas was a very frugal affair, it could still pay off to check your cover is sufficient to protect you - especially as recent figures show that close to seven million homes across the country are underinsured.
In fact, one in five homes in the UK has no contents insurance at all, and the inhabitants of about a quarter of households are thought to be risking heartache by underestimating how much it would cost to replace their stuff.
Pete Harrison, insurance expert at MoneySupermarket, said: "While nobody wants to pay more than they have to for home insurance, failing to properly evaluate your home contents could cost you dear in the event of you having to make a claim."
Here, we investigate the potential consequences of being underinsured and explain how to ensure that you are not caught out.
What am I risking by being underinsured?
If you are targeted by unscrupulous thieves, or unlucky enough to be hit with flooding or a house fire, knowing that your insurance will pay to replace your cherished belongings can make a horrible experience easier to bear.
However, while research shows that the average family of four estimates the contents of their home to be worth £25,000, the true value of the belongings in an average family home is actually closer to £55,000.
Should your home contents be destroyed in a fire, you could therefore find yourself £30,000 short when it comes to paying for replacements.
Given that figures from Chubb Insurance suggest that the buildings part of home insurance is also often short by between £75,000 and several million, the bill for rebuilding the property could prove even more.
You might think that the probability of this is very low. But the financial consequences of under-insurance can be severe even if you do not claim for the full amount.
A claim for £12,000, for example, could be reduced to £9,000 if your total sum insured is found to be 25% less than the actual value of your total belongings when you make a claim.
In addition, most standard home insurance policies have a single article limit for valuables set at £10,000, and a total limit of £20,000.
If you have to make a claim for a single valuable item that has not been added to your policy, you are also likely to end up out of pocket as a result.
How can I ensure that I am not underinsured?
To make sure that your contents insurance will be sufficient to cover the cost of replacing all your belongings should disaster strike, it is a good idea to make a list of everything in your home and work out how much you would have to pay to buy it all over again.
Items that are often left off the list include clothes, carpets, curtains and linen, but by taking the time to tour your home with a pen in hand, you can avoid missing out anything major.
If your home contents include very valuable items, it may also be worth considering specialist cover with an insurer such as Hiscox, and getting these items revalued on a regular basis to ensure that they are properly protected.
If that is not the case, then it is also possible to give yourself peace of mind by paying a bit more for a policy that offers unlimited cover for contents.
Marks & Spencer home insurance, for example, offers unlimited contents cover, although the supermarket chain does require people to let it know if any individual items or collectable sets are worth £4,000 or more, while there is also a £500 limit on cash.
How can I keep costs down?
While increasing the amount your contents are insured for can often push up the cost of your cover, there are still ways to keep your premiums to a minimum.
Many insurers will, for example, offer discounts to customers who equip their homes with above-average security. Possible ways to benefit from this include installing a burglar alarm, investing in a movement-activated or dawn to dusk lights, and fitting doors and windows with appropriate locks and hinge bolts.
The way you house valuable items can also have an impact on your home insurance costs. So think about installing a safe to keep your most expensive belongings to keep them out of harm's way.
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