December has become synonymous with surf, family time, sunshine, summer fun… And crime.
Unfortunately, our beautiful land is somewhat afflicted by an increase of burglaries and other serious crimes over the festive season. Coming home from your well-deserved time off can be a little sad. After all, it signifies the end of a memorable time. It can only be more devastating if you walk through your front door to see the place ransacked.
A little planning can go a long way to give you peace of mind while you’re away on holiday, so remember these 5 things when going on your travels to keep your home and your belongings safe and sound.
- Alarm
Make sure that your alarm is in a working condition and armed when you leave the house. The battery needs to be checked to ensure that your alarm is in a working condition even when they cut the power. Contact the armed response to ensure that your contact details are correct and that the radio is functional.
- Lose the litter
You’re probably going to give and/or get some amazing goodies this December. They might even come in delightfully large boxes, which you might then leave outside your home to be escorted to the rubbish land (that’s what they call it, right?) by the wonderful rubbish collectors. Our tip is to break them down and take them out to the collectors when they arrive to avoid giving potential thieves any ideas of what might be inside your home.
- Keep it low key on social media
Ah yes, the harmless posts on social media, telling 1 and all about the wonderful things you’re doing, eating, drinking, and seeing… Far away from home. Of course, depending on the privacy settings selected, once a friend ‘likes’ any of these posts these can be shared with their friends and so on until a loosely connected stranger is helping themselves to your TV.
It’s best to avoid posting details about your holidays and totally worth fixing your privacy settings so that no 1 other than your friends can view your personal info and that it can’t be shared by others.
- Don’t make it easy
There was a time when you could leave your keys close to the front door, but just like Justin Bieber, we’ve all grown up and now we know better. It’s best to leave your keys with a trusted friend, because thieves will hunt around and even go so far as to get them from hidey-holes, like your letterbox, via a ‘hook’ method, using a coat hanger.
- Out of sight
Draw the curtains and keep valuables out of sight. There’s no need to treat prying eyes to a window show and give them the inside scoop on what is where, including your valuables, the general layout of your home, and even the kind of alarm your house uses. You can buy and install Roman blinds if you want to enjoy the cool outside wind without letting other people know what’s inside your house during the festive season.
It’s not just a good idea to put these measures in place to avoid burglary in your home. It’s also good to make sure that you have the correct level of household insurance. According to ADS Automatic Door Specialists, this last step is vital for the safekeeping of your personal belongings.
Check out our royal buildings and home contents insurance so that you can cover damage to the physical structures of your property, such as your home and its outbuildings, as well as items that belong to you and members of your household, that are stolen or damaged at your home or outbuildings.
Whatever is most valuable to you, is valuable to us too, so this festive season, relax… We’ve got it covered!
