How To Make Sure Your Home Is Safe And Secure

Having a safe and secure home is the ultimate goal for all homeowners and renters. Therefore the starting point for you is to do a home audit.

No matter whether it’s your home or you rent it’s your right to have a residence free of hazards that compromise your enjoyment. You may be wondering if you’ve got the right to ask for maintenance to be done while in a rented property. The answer is a resounding ‘yes’ you do the right to a peaceful, secure abode.

Landlords must adhere to the tenancy agreement that regulates the tenancy in your area which is more than an obligation to make sure that your home is safe, but you also have a role so you can alert the landlord or property manager on maintenance issues.

If it’s your own home you’ll want the small jobs remedied, so they don’t become a much larger challenge later on. So what is a home audit and how to do you do it? It’s a checklist of items that are not in good condition, for example, plumbing, wiring, the building, decks, and outbuildings e.g. garage.

All you’re doing with an audit is creating a checklist and this is done with a routine walk-around to acknowledge the status of items that over time degrade and these also include appliances which have a shelf life, e.g. your toaster will not last forever.

Fix Broken Appliances

For many people, a broken appliance might just seem like an expensive nuisance, but actually, it can lead to severe problems if it is not fixed in a timely manner. Appliances such as washing machines and tumble dryers are more likely to catch fire when they are poorly maintained or improperly installed.

The risk of a fire in your home can be minimized by fixing your appliances, see that blog post (USA only) for great tips on DIY vs get a professional, or here for our global readers. If you’re just not the DIY type then you can cover all of your appliances with home protection and use the professionals.

Install The Right Detectors

With a smoke detector, you will be alerted to a fire within your home, but this is not the only home detector that you can have installed. A carbon monoxide detector will inform you when you have unsafe levels of carbon monoxide within your home. Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer because you cannot smell it.

Not only do you need to ensure that you have the right detectors installed, but you also need to check and maintain them regularly so that they are working as they should and are not putting your life at risk.

Prevent Burglaries

Keeping your home safe means preventing people from entering your home that could pose a threat and/or are trying to steal your belongings. There are several ways that you can minimize the risk of burglaries in your home. Start by educating yourself and your family on safety practices, such as locking all the doors and windows, especially at night.

Burglaries are more likely to occur when you are home, so you will need to ensure that you are not providing an open invitation to those looking to take advantage of an opportunistic situation.

Install an alarm system to alert you when intruders are on your property, as well as security lights and CCTV cameras. The presence of security systems that are visible from the home’s exterior i.e. cameras on the roof or cladding, the presence of an external alarm, is often enough to ward off burglars.

Watch Out For Broken Outlets

It is likely that you use your outlets every day to charge your phone and keep your appliances and devices working. Therefore, it is easy to forget that they can pose a danger if they become damaged. Look out for loose receptacle slots, cracked plates and faces, and a damaged outlet body. If your outlets are posing any of these dangers, you need to get them replaced immediately to prevent fires occurring within your home, or children coming into contact and inserting objects into them.

Summary

You can never be too careful with your own and the lives of other people who share your home. Therefore use these tips to keep on top of maintenance around the home so you can get back to what you’d rather be doing!