Going Away This Summer? Keep Your Home Safe With These Tips

Summer is now in full swing and the holiday season is right around the corner. This means that thousands of families all over Australia are about to embark on well deserved holidays and weekends away. However, if you are planning on going away on a holiday this summer, it's important to keep your home safe and secure.

Many burglars deliberately target houses whose residents they believe have gone away, leaving innocent families with the terrible experience of returning home from a dream holiday to the nightmare of a ransacked home. To ensure your peace of mind when you're on holiday, we've put together some handy (and easy!) tips to help protect your home against a break-in, so that you and your family can focus on relaxing and having fun in the sun this summer.

Leaving one or two lights on while you are away is an easy yet effective way to deter burglars, as it gives the impression that there's someone home. Alternatively, set up a timed auto-switch system that turns lights on and off periodically throughout your trip.

When you're about to leave for your holiday, check that all doors and windows are secured and that everything is in place. More importantly, make sure you do a visual sweep around the outside of your home as well, to ensure that there are no open garage doors, gates, or other potential entry points for a thief.

Before you leave for your holiday, make sure your valuable items, such as cash, jewellery and electronic devices, are kept out of sight. By keeping valuable or expensive items visible to those outside your home, you may entice burglars to strike. 

Check that your security system is fully functional and turned on, including testing the sound of the alarm and cleaning the lenses of your security cameras. Also, make sure that you have security system warning signs displayed to make potential thieves think twice.

If you don't have a home security system, get one installed before you go away, as they are by far the most effective way to protect your home from a break-in. So much so that improved security is the most significant factor in decreasing property crime (1). 

Arrange for a friend or family member to check on your home a few times while you are away, including bringing in any mail and newspapers, which would otherwise signify the absence of tenants. 

Did you know that more than 50% of households that experience an attempted break-in do not have damage to or tampering of their doors or windows? In fact, some of the most common methods of entry are through doors and windows that are already unlocked (2).

So, before you go away, triple check your doors and windows to make sure they are locked securely. Leaving spare keys in obvious places, such as under the doormat, is a recipe for disaster. Don't make it easy for burglars to break into your home by avoiding these common slip-ups.