Secure your property with our home security checklist

As much as we always stress the importance of home security here at Yale, it’s not always a top priority for homeowners. With other more enjoyable renovation jobs like painting and upgrading your home interiors often taking precedence, home security is typically pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.

But ensuring your home security is up to date as we approach the cooler months is essential, as longer nights allow for burglars to creep around the area undetected.

So, to ensure your home security is up to scratch as the new season starts, the home security experts at Yale have shared their top tips and advice in a handy checklist format. This simple audit will help to ensure your home security is sufficient to secure your family, home and belongings, offering the highest level of protection for your property.

Step 1 – Keeping security simple

If you ensure that one area of your home is protected, we recommend prioritising the outside of your property, as this provides a first line of defence against criminals.

By having a quick walk around your property, you will be able to see if there are any weak spots that could mean a burglar has easy access to your home.

Firstly, you should check that your home is well-lit, not offering any easy hiding spots for burglars. A dark exterior allows criminals to operate under the cover of darkness, so keeping the front of your home lit up and visible is essential. A security light is a great investment to ensure any motion illuminates your home, signalling to you if anyone is trying to get close to your property.

Once your home is well-lit, it’s also important to ensure any access points, including side gates, are secured using high security products. It’s key to ensure any fencing around your home is up to scratch, with no gaps or broken panels that could offer easy access, and any gates around the perimeter should be secured with a high security padlock.

A high security padlock from a trusted brand will provide the best protection for your gates, ensuring that any attack methods by opportunists will be unsuccessful.

Overgrown bushes, shrubs and hedges can also provide great hiding places for criminals, so it’s worth checking that greenery is trimmed and cut back ready for the new season. Low hanging branches should also be cut or removed to prevent people climbing over fencing, and hawthorn bushes are a great addition to prevent opportunists from taking a look into your home from afar.

Step 2 – Lock it up

In the off chance that the outdoor security protection you have in place isn’t successful, it’s also important to make sure your front door has sufficient protection to protect against a range of attack methods. Alongside the front door, window locks are also essential in ensuring your home security is up to scratch.

Starting with the front door, you should ensure that your lock and cylinder is up to scratch. The front door is a key point of entry for most opportunistic criminals, so it’s important that this area of the home is securely protected with a high security cylinder. Different types of doors have different lock requirements, and we’d always recommend opting for the highest level of security protection available to protect what matters most to you.

We’d also recommend homeowners checking that their window locks and handles are in good working order. A weak or flimsy window handle is an obvious sign to a criminal that you don’t take your home security seriously, and, of course, allows for them to easily attempt a break in. And after the summer months have come and gone, and we’ve enjoyed keeping our windows open, it’s easy to forget to lock these up securely. Our experts would recommend keeping your windows closed and locked at all times, but most importantly at night and when you leave the house.

Step 3 – Go outdoors

And whilst you look to protect your home and garden, it’s also essential to check that your shed, garage and any outbuildings you may have are secured.

Garages and sheds house some of our most expensive household items, including lawnmowers, garden furniture and expensive tools. And in some cases, these tools can even be used against you in the case of a burglary, where an opportunist will use anything they can get their hands on.

For easy, simple protection of your garage and sheds, you could look to invest in a high security padlock, as this provides secure protection against a range of attack methods.

Alongside this, you could also up your security game in the garden by investing in a range of smart security solutions. For example, smart alarms with an increased range are the perfect addition to ensure both your home and garden are covered, whilst CCTV and security cameras are also a great investment.

The smart security cameras on the market today allow for remote monitoring of the home via a smartphone, ensuring that homeowners can easily check in via an app to see what’s going on in and around their home.

Step 4 – Step inside to secure your home

And whilst the front of the home and garden is secure, it’s also worth ensuring that you’re protecting the inside of your home too.

A great security investment you can make to your home is introducing a smart alarm to your property. A smart alarm allows you to not only protect your home, but also your shed or any outbuildings, allowing you to secure all areas of your property. Alongside mobile notifications when the alarm is triggered and remote control via a smartphone, a smart alarm is a great addition to allow homeowners to monitor their property and garden at any time, from anywhere.

Indoor security cameras are also a great investment too. These handy ‘plug and play’ products allow users to monitor any room in their home via their smartphone – a useful gadget to allow for remote monitoring of your belongings and pets.

So, as the new season approaches, ensure your home security is up to scratch by ticking off everything your home needs in our home security checklist.

For more advice and information on how to protect your home with security products from Yale, please visit your regional site. 

Checklist

o   Ensure your home is well-lit by investing in a security light

o   Check any fencing is secure and not broken

o   Gates should be secured with a high security padlock

o   Trim trees and cut back hedges to remove hiding spots

o   Upgrade to a maximum security cylinder

o   Ensure window locks and handles are up to scratch

o   Secure sheds and garages with a high security padlock

o   Invest in smart security cameras to keep an eye out on your garden

o   Try a smart alarm to allow for remote control over your home security from anywhere

o   Place indoor security cameras in key locations to monitor the goings on around your home