5 Ways to Protect Your Home While On Vacation

If anything can go wrong it will happen while you’re on vacation, right? – which is perhaps the reason 80% of burglaries take place when their owners are away.

Coming home from a Mediterranean cruise, honeymoon or safari can be gloomy. But nothing spoils a good vacation more than coming home to find you’ve been the victim of a crime.  All those hours of careful planning, scrimping and saving for your dream vacation will be quickly undone if you have to start filling in a claim to your home insurance.

To better prepare yourself for the vacation of a lifetime, we spoke to the experts at Select Garage Doors, the UK’s leading manufacturer of home security accessories and garage doors, who gave us the following checklist to ensure your property is left in safe hands:

1) Garage Door Safety

Garage doors are perhaps the weakest point for thieves looking for easy access to your home and belongings. Not only are they a weakness, but provide shelter once inside. To a passer-by an open garage with a works van parked in the driveway is not screaming break in.

For this reason, you should never leave your garage unprotected when planning a vacation away from home. You might as well roll out the red carpet for them and put the kettle on while you’re at it! Having a system in place will stop those pesky thieves in their tracks as they look up to see their face plastered across a security camera.

If however after saving up funds for your dream vacation, you are a little strapped for cash and less inclined to purchase a security camera for your house, don’t worry. You can still protect your home with the addition of some stand alone accessories such as Euro-Locks and Bars, Hinges and Handles to minimise the chance of a break in.

2) The lights are on but no one’s home

Don’t switch your lights on for the entire time you’re on vacation in an attempt to make it look like someone is in the house. Aside from an extortionate electricity bill greeting you when you return, you’ll find a house blazing with light on a night is a little odd.

Instead, purchase a light switch timer with the option to automatically turn your lights on and off according to a preset schedule. Criminals keeping an eye on your house will see the bright lights going on and off and will assume there is someone inside.

3) Lock that door/window

It might seem like an obvious one but time and time again people will forget to close the upstairs window or not bother to turn the deadbolt in the kitchen. Well now it’s time to clean up your act and check, everything! If you lock up all possible access points it will make life much harder for a burglar when looking to enter your house.

4) You got a friend in me

A quick and painfree way of securing your home while away on vacation is to ask a close friend or neighbour to keep an eye on the place in your absence. Give them a spare key so they can pop in and collect all mail, water the plants and feed the cat etc. You may also want to give permission for someone to park their car on your drive. These may seem like minor actions but they will make a big difference in the long run.

5) No vacation posts

Keep the #summer2016 posts on hold until you return. This includes social media, blogging and online forums where anyone could be reading about your fun in the sun… away from home. That’s not to say you need to suspect everyone you happen to meet, but you should be mindful of that information falling into the wrong hands. Wait until you return to brag about your travels. Instead leave your family and friends in suspense for a little while longer – it’s your vacation after all, enjoy it while you have the chance.
Guest Post by Emily Cocker. Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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