Keeping your Home Safe while on Holiday

In our article 'Keeping your Home Safe' we talk about things you can do to discourage burglars from breaking into your home. Often the most successful deterrent is simply having someone at home. Therefore it becomes quite difficult to protect your house while you're away on holiday.

So the solution? Make the house look like you never left. An overgrown lawn, pile of newspapers, constantly closed curtains and mailbox full of unread letters are almost an open invitation to burglars.

The following is a list of how you can remove these thief-tempting signs to ensure your home's security while you're away.

• Set your lamps onto a timer so that they'll come on in the evening and then turn off around bed time
• Try not to publicise the fact that you're on holidays - no signs on doors, etc
• Either cancel your newspaper's delivery or organise for a neighbour to collect them
• Ask if your neighbour can also collect your mail
• If you're going to be away for longer than two weeks organise for someone to mow the lawn
• Organise for the bins to be put out on the appropriate days - even if they're empty
• Ask a neighbour to park in the driveway
• Leave old washing on the line and an old pair of shoes at the door

Other things you should always do to ensure your home's security while you're away include:

• Checking that all windows are securely closed and locked
• Solidly lock all doors, including garage and shed doors
• Set your alarm systems. If you have a monitored system inform the monitoring company that you will be away and give them a list of contact numbers
• Lock your power box to prevent alarm systems being cut off at the power supply. You can organise with your power company for an electricity authority lock so that if they need to get into the circuit board for some reason they'll be able to.