People who are planning on leaving their house empty for an extended period of time have been warned they may need to let their home insurance provider know.

The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) explained most policies stipulate the maximum amount of time a property can be left unoccupied.

It stated this is usually about 30 days.

Anyone planning on going away for longer than this was urged to contact their home insurance provider for further advice.

In addition to this, head of technical services at Biba Peter Staddon suggested there were other sensible precautions people could take when leaving a property unoccupied for some time.

"Switch off your utilities at the street level to avoid flood damage ... and set your heating to come on if the temperature drops below about 12 degrees C," he advised.

Biba represents the interests of insurance brokers, intermediaries and customers in the UK.

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