4 Tips to Make Your Home More Secure
When you’re concerned about how secure your home is and need ways to make it safer, it’s difficult to know the steps you should take. It’s easy to overreact and try to do too much, but equally, you don’t want to ignore the issue completely either. Finding a balance is useful to feel safer in your home. Here are four things to consider if you want your home to be more secure.
1. Are the Door Locks New?
When moving into a rented or purchased home, it’ll come with the locks that the last homeowner or tenant used. You get handed the keys and hope that they haven’t fallen into the wrong hands. If they have, you could have an unwelcome guest in the future.
The best thing to do for peace of mind is change the locks on the front and rear doors. This covers you if a previous owner or disgruntled tenant still has a copy of an old set of keys. The best locks are often certified, usually including a powerful deadbolt system, and are better than the majority on the market.
2. Become a Member of the Neighbourhood Watch
The Neighbourhood Watch scheme is made up of a group of community-minded residents who care about the safety of people in the local area. They talk with neighbours on a semi-regular basis to check on any happenings and whether there’s any suggested action to take.
It’s been found that people living in homes covered by this type of scheme tend to suffer fewer burglaries than other properties. The vigilance pays off as does greater attention paid to security worthwhile measures.
3. Be Properly Insured
Home insurance doesn’t always provide the cover that you’d expect. When taking out building and contents insurance, it’s important to have enough cover for the value of the building and everything of note inside it too. With the rising valuations over the past few years, it’s very easy to end up underinsured. Similarly, if you have purchased quite a few items recently, it may have pushed you over the contents limit.
When confirming whether you have enough insurance cover, why not check out some home insurance quotes while you’re at it? Also, verify whether you have the right level and type of cover – read this guide to home insurance to be sure. It’s from Quotezone.co.uk who provide competitive insurance quotes to help their customers find the best deals.
4. Avoid Keeping the Same Routine
Try to avoid keeping a similar routine. Thieves can learn from them and know exactly when no one will be at home. Instead, try to mix things up where you can.
Use lighting solutions like Wi-Fi controlled light bulbs or timer switches to turn the lights on and off at different times. It’s an old trick, but it can create doubt in their mind as to whether someone is home or not.
For security-conscious homeowners or renters, it pays to take reasonable precautions, increase your vigilance, and avoid being predictable. Talk to your neighbours to have them look out for questionable people loitering around and do the same for them too.