Keeping your home secure when on holiday

Check your home insurance

To have a stress free break you need to know you are keeping your home secure when on holiday. Before you go or are leaving your house for an extended period you should first check your home insurance. Make sure that the cover you have is sufficient. Check that there aren’t any exclusions in your policy that could render it void if, for instance, you are away from home for more than a certain number of days.

If you are having someone live in your home or visit for example to look after pets, check with your insurance to see if you need to notify your insurer of this. Although checking your home insurance isn’t going to keep your home safe whilst you are away, it will ensure that if something does happen to your home then you will be covered for that financially which should give you some peace of mind

Make sure your home doesn’t look unoccupied

Burglars target homes that they think are unoccupied or have the reason to believe that the occupants are away for a while. There are certain things you can do to make sure that your home doesn’t look unoccupied whilst you are away and they are the following:

• Leave at least some curtains or blinds open. Having your blinds and curtains closed all the time whilst you are away could give away that no one is in. So although it might seem like closing curtains is a good thing so people can’t see the goods inside it actually could cause someone to break in more.
• Cancel regular or one off deliveries for whilst you are away. If people see deliveries outside the home again that is a tell tell sign to show someone is away from the home. It can also lead to stolen deliveries.
  Install a light timer switch that comes on in the evening. This will make it look like someone is home and turning the lights on at night.
• Mow your lawn and water any plants that can be seen. A overgrown lawn or dying plants could give away that no one has been home for a while. Do these things right before you leave.
• Don’t post on social media that you are going on holiday or that you are on holiday. If you don’t have your social media set as private, then anyone could see your posts. Burglars could target those who post about being on holiday as they know the house will be empty. Even if your account is private it is still wise to not post about your holiday until you are home. Although it’s not nice to think that someone who follows you on social media could burgle you, you never know!

Leave your valuables out of sight

In the previous point we mentioned to keep at least some of your curtains or blinds open to make sure the house doesn’t look unoccupied. However, this means that people could potentially look in. Make sure you keep your valuables out of sight so that people aren’t attempted to break in whilst you are away. If you have a safe, make sure all smaller valuables are locked away in that.

Invest in modern safety technology

There is now a lot of technology available to homeowners to keep their house safe. The most widely known being a burglar alarm. However now you can also get security cameras and video doorbell technology where you get notifications to your phone when it senses movement or if someone rings your doorbell. Some of them even allow you to speak back through your phone so that if someone is there, they can hear you. This is a great deterrent for burglars and could also be used to identify theirs if there is a break in.

We also have our Smart KUBU lock which will give you piece of mind that your doors are locked, or so you can check if a neighbour has been in to collect your post each day.