A quarter of Britons are walking an insurance tightrope because they have not taken out insurance to protect the contents of their home. This is despite new research on behalf of Abbey National Insurance which shows that more than a third (36 percent) of us think our home contents are worth more than £35,000 - and nearly a fifth estimate them to be worth over £50,000. Only 35 percent of respondents feel the value of their household contents are £25,000 or less.

The results indicate that an alarming 6.3 million households would have no contents insurance cover in the event of significant loss or damage to their household belongings. This could easily amount to a total of more that £157 billion(3) of uninsured contents in the UK. The research was conducted by Mori on behalf of Abbey National.

Mike Hildred, Abbey National Insurance Marketing Manager said: "When people suffer a significant loss of their household belongings - anything from a CD collection to an expensive item of furniture, perhaps through flood, fire or theft(4) - they are suddenly faced with the costs of having to replace a large number of possessions, probably acquired gradually over a number of years. That period of time perhaps disguises the level of personal investment they have made."

When assessing the value of their home's contents a common error made by householders is to completely overlook everyday, but surprisingly costly, items such as clothing, furniture and fittings.

The survey revealed that Britons believed their most valuable household item was computer equipment (14 percent), followed by televisions and videos (12 percent) and jewellery (11 percent). But low-valued possessions such as CDs can easily add up too, with a modest collection of 50 titles likely to cost £700 or more to replace.

Mike Hildred said: "The message of the survey is to question the financial sense of not covering the possible loss of home contents on your household insurance policy. The fact is that most householders have a lot to lose - not least a standard of living that could have taken a family years of hard work to establish. But one in four householders seems willing to take a gamble."