Tips on how to prevent your house from being burgled while you are away

Going on holiday can be such an exciting time for everyone, however do you think about home safety precautions before you go? In this post, we share with you our top tips and tricks to make sure your house is secure, in order to give you peace of mind, so you can enjoy your holiday to the maximum!

Before you go, it is important to make your house look as though it is lived in:

Use automatic timers for your lights in order to put a burglar off of your property. If the burglar decided to monitor the movement of your home, seeing the lights being frequently turned on and off will make them believe that there is someone in there.

Having friends or neighbours that you can trust can really help you out while you are away. Politely ask them if they wouldn't mind helping to take burglary precautionary measures by making your home looked lived in. You could ask them to:

• - Water the plants to keep them looking lively
• - Park their car on your driveway from time to time
• - Open your curtains in the daytime and close them at night time
• - Collect your post

Before you leave, hang out a couple of old clothing items or tea towels on the washing line. By doing this, it will look as though someone is living in the house. We advise that you place out older clothing items as you could experience some extreme weather conditions, such as a storm, while you are away.

Now this may sound like a silly point, but cutting the grass can be a really good deterrent. If you are away for a long period of time, having the grass grow in an unruly manner will show potential burglars that the house is empty and that it has been for some time.

Placing all of your valuable items out of site will help to deter potential burglars. Valuable items could include games consoles, computers and laptops, jewellery, DVD players etc. In order to make sure that they are well out of site, you could place your valuables in storage boxes, in cupboards, under your bed, in drawers etc.

Make sure you are careful with what you post on your social media accounts while you are away. Although we understand that going on holiday is such an exciting time, and that you want to share it with all of your friends, posting a picture of you on a yacht sipping on a cocktail will indicate to any potential burglars that you are away from your home.

This is one a lot of people tend to forget to do! Removing your spare key from under the plant pot next to the front door or under the welcome mat is one of the most important ways to prevent a burglary, as it could give the burglar an easy and direct way of gaining access into your home.

Make sure that you cancel your milk and newspaper deliveries in order to prevent a build-up on your doorstep. This build up will indicate to potential burglars that there is no one home to collect the deliveries.

Panicking about whether all of the doors in your house are locked, could make you forget about other vital doors on your property. Ensure that your all of your garage doors, side gates, and shed doors are locked in order to prevent potential thieves from using any garden tools, such as ladders, to get into your home.

If you have a CCTV system or a house alarm, then make sure that they are fully activated before leaving for the airport. Having a fully activated CCTV system or house alarm could play significant parts in getting any burglars caught for their actions. CCTV systems allow you to see where, when, how, and who broke into your home. House alarms are a great deterrent as burglars will be put off from breaking into a house with a visible alarm. Fake alarms and CCTV cameras can also now be purchased as a deterrent.

Burglars have been known to use a crowbar on houses with windows set on summer setting. Ensuring that all of your windows are off of summer setting can help to prevent a break in. In order to ensure additional precaution is taken, you could purchase further window locks.

Don’t forget, you can get your travel insurance from DirectTravel at either www.direct-travel.co.uk or ring our friendly team on 0330 880 3600.