New Property? Tips on How to Properly Secure Your New Home

Becoming homeowners is thrilling, especially if it’s your first step onto the property ladder. Getting your first place that you can not only decorate, but change and truly make yours is wonderful, but unless you go in with a focus on making it safe and secure, you’re putting yourself at risk. Garda has documented a recent spike in wintertime burglaries, proving that thieves are becoming increasingly daring. Having home insurance alone isn’t enough in this case; you will also want to avoid undervaluing all your belongings within your home insurance policy and improving your personal security.

Points of Entry

In the summertime, points of entry for burglaries are more obvious. The weather is warmer and we want the warm breeze to enter our homes and make our property feel fresh. It is these very windows, however, that make homes an easy target for thieves!

In winter, however, things are different. There are no obvious points of entry, and yet burglaries typically increase by an approximate 25%. Thieves often come right in through the front door (29%), though, of course, first-floor windows (26%) and rear doors (22%) are also hot spots for thieves to break into your home. They also commonly break in between 5pm and 10pm. To help you better secure these areas, ensure that your door and your locks are made of tough material and, while you won’t be able to buy reinforced windows, you can add plant life like holly bushes outside your windows to detract any would-be thieves.

Securing Your Home

From there, of course, there are more traditional methods of securing your property. These include adding a home security system and an automatic timer to your lights. You should get into the habit of putting your security system on even when you are home and especially when you go to sleep for the night. That way, if a thief does enter your home, you and your family can wake up immediately and, most likely, the thief will leave before anything can be lost.

When finding someone that concentrates on your home security you hope they are a trustworthy and reliable company, check out fast keys, they have a range of different locks for you to choose from

Getting Adequate Home Insurance

The top three claims for stolen belongings include jewellery (on average being worth €2800), which is and remains to be the most targeted items, followed by money and then electronic devices. Televisions, computers, laptops, phones, and tablets are all at risk from being stolen. Other valuable items that are stolen are golf clubs, bicycles (which can total over €1200), electronic devices, and cash savings.

Undervaluing what you own is not a smart move. Though the average value of items stolen from victims is over €6400 most only claim for €4980 on average or €324 for individual items. This is a significant amount that you can lose out on, meaning all the difference between being able to replace the precious belongings that have been stolen from you. Instead, contact AIG insurance to get a new quote so that you can instead have comprehensive coverage on all your belongings and, if the worst were to happen, you could at least be covered financially.