Yes, it’s great to know that your home is covered by home insurance. But there are steps you take on your own to prevent your home being burgled.
- Alarms and cctv: the last thing a burglar wants is a loud noise that alerts the neighbours. Alarms and cctv work as effective deterrents, especially when you place warning notices and signs on your property.
- Radio, lights and curtains: leaving a radio station on with more talk than music can confuse burglars by making them think that people are home having a conversation. You can also now buy timers that switch on the lights in various areas of your home. And counter-intuitively, burglars regard closed curtains are a sign that someone’s home.
- Small home safes: use your imagination to think up different ways of deploying small unobtrusive safes around your home for storing valuables, passports, cash, jewellery and keys.
- Locks: even though most home insurance policies stipulate a minimum level of security, you can enhance your chances of keeping burglars at bay by installing extra security for your windows, doors and french windows.
- Ultraviolet marking: you can increase the chances of recovering stolen items by using ultraviolet marking that contains your personal identifying information.