"With home emergencies, prevention is certainly better than cure and many claims could be avoided if householders spent a small amount of time preparing their homes for the winter," said Vicky Emmott, senior underwriting manager for Halifax Home Insurance.

Wednesday's warning from Halifax came on the day the Environment Agency (EA) said many Britons living in areas at risk from serious flooding were failing to take precautionary measures.

Five million people living in two million properties have homes in flood risk areas, but more than 40 percent are unaware of the threat, according to the agency's research.

"Although we're unlikely to see flooding in the UK like that caused by the Boxing Day tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, there is still a significant flood threat here from extreme rainfall and coastal surges," said EA chief executive Barbara Young.

"Whilst we can reduce the effects of floods through awareness, education and investment in flood defences, we can never prevent them. That's why we're urging people to try to reduce the massive financial and emotional costs of flooding," Young said.

Halifax's Emmott said big weather events may dominate the headlines but everyday occurrences such as frozen pipes, fallen trees and damaged roofs were also largely seasonal and affected many households throughout the winter.

Much of the damage could be prevented if homeowners prepared their homes for colder, wetter weather in advance.

The bank recommended people should check their guttering is clear and securely fitted to the house; roof tiles are all secure; trees are checked for low hanging branches and unstable root structures; and heating is set to at least 10 degrees celsius to prevent pipes from freezing.

The widespread floods in Britain in autumn 2000 caused damage to 10,000 properties and the total financial cost was over 1.3 billion pounds.