There’s nothing better than having the luxury of escaping from the city to a second property. Getting some much needed fresh air and a good night’s sleep away from the rush of things is a dream, but it can quickly turn into a nightmare – many holiday homes are prime targets for thieves, as they are usually packed with valuable possessions yet don’t have any occupants living their to catch them – so how can we secure our holiday homes to make sure this dreaded possibility doesn’t happen?
Today, we’re going to take a look at 6 effective, easy measures to better secure a vacant second property. These are all practical, relatively inexpensive measures to take, so don’t worry if you thought I was going to bring up 24/7 security staff on site or guard dogs.
1. Install Good Fire Alarms
Installing top-notch smoke and heat alarms might seem like a bit of a thankless task, if no one is in the home a majority of the time. In reality, fires in rural properties are notably bad, since it’s highly likely the property is highly flammable and full of wood, which is a perfect recipe for disaster should a small fire start. Consider opting for a fire alarm monitoring solution which, after a period of time, will automatically contact authorities. This should mean that even if you are away from the property for an extended period of time, either you or the fire brigade will be automatically contacted should a fire break out in your holiday home.
2. Install Wireless Security Cameras
Monitoring your property is easier than ever thanks to the emergence of truly great wireless security cameras. It’s important to note that the reason we are opting for wireless security cameras over traditional CCTV is that it’s a lot easier to access the footage without physically living in the property, thanks to cloud storage.
You can even access a live camera feed of your property and receive alerts to your smartphone, should any motion be detected. These are both standard features on a number of inexpensive wireless security cameras on the market, of which we reviewed the best ones here. Additionally, many cameras allow for two way communication through an inbuilt speaker and microphone set, so if you need to speak to someone on your property such as the postman, you can with ease.
There are a huge number of advantages to securing your holiday home with security cameras, but here are a few of the most compelling reasons:
- Peace of mind
- Ability to check on property in seconds
- Automatic recording of trespassers
- Security cameras are great thief deterrents
- Many come with built in motion-triggered security lights, which also deter nosy people
- Receive alerts whenever something is outside your property
- Two way communication is now possible through many security cameras
- If someone does steal from you, it can be a lot easier to find and identify them
3. Change Your Letterbox
A telltale signal to thieves that a property is not being actively lived in is a buildup of post – leaflets, bills, statements and junk mail – it all accumulates fairly fast over time, so it’s important to make sure that this isn’t obvious. If you frequently visit the home, every few weeks or so, this isn’t too much of a problem.
On the other hand, if it’s common that you don’t visit for potentially months at a time, it’s worth moving your letterbox. Either get a large one which can easily contain a ton of post without it being too obvious, or opt to have a letter box in the door, but make sure the door can’t be easily looked through.
In my opinion the best option is to make friends with the locals though. Find a trusted neighbour and ask them very nicely to keep an eye on your property, and (depending on how nice they are) they may also be willing to clean up your post occasionally. Just make sure you buy them a nice bottle of wine and invite them round each time you’re in to stay in their good books.
4. Use Trusted Neighbours
In most rural settings, the communities are absolutely lovely. It’s highly likely you will have some great neighbours you can depend on to keep an eye on your property and give you a ring if they notice anything unusual. As I mentioned in point 3, it’s definitely worth giving them a bottle of bubbly or a pint in the local for their troubles, as just handing them money for their service might feel a little offensive.
It’s really useful to have eyes on your property, as they are likely going to be able to spot any prying eyes or anything going missing in a heartbeat. It may take a few months to befriend them if you only recently purchased a second home, but don’t worry – people have this misconception that villagers take a disliking to anyone who buys a holiday home in their area – a vast majority of the time, this simply isn’t the case.
5. Use Light Timers
This is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to playing the game of “appear to be in when you’re not”. Having a couple of lights on timers for usual times makes it seem a lot more like there is a family living there. With smart sockets, such as the ones like this which have Alexa integration, you can easily switch lights on in a number of rooms and even vary it each day so there isn’t an obvious pattern.
Our neighbours own multiple homes as they often work abroad, and they never have their lights on, often for months at a time. This, paired with the fact that there is never a car in the driveway makes it super obvious that their property is vacant. I’m surprised no one has broken in yet in all honesty.
6. Assume The Worst
You’re not going to believe this. I swear to god this is true, but you won’t believe it. Just at the end of writing point number 5, I had this awful feeling I was being watched. I looked outside, and saw a man who was in my garden. I’m not joking. Now I’m pretty vigilant when it comes to home security, but that experience gave me a really nasty shock. I ran out to scare them and tried to chase them down, but they disappeared off into the dark.
I drove around for a few minutes looking for a man dressed in all black, but he’d completely disappeared. It’s not like the lights were off or anything. The living room lights were on, my office lights were on, and my bedroom light was on. Yet despite there clearly being people in the house, this absolute fool still had the nerve to trespass on my property.
It sickened me to the stomach, and I realised at this exact moment that I need to learn from my mistakes and make it my mission to make sure no one has to deal with what I just had to do. I’m just glad my girlfriend wasn’t in at the time.
And that’s point number 6 – it’s depressing, but assume the worst. Assume someone is going to try to break in, rather than taking the mentality that “it won’t happen to me”. Until about 5 minutes ago, I still had this mentality in the back of my mind to an extent. It makes me sick to the stomach to think about, and I know I’m going to have a pretty rough night’s sleep.
This all happened whilst I was in. It’s even more likely that a criminal will try to take advantage when you aren’t in your home, so make sure that you take this threat seriously. My next several posts are going to cover additional security measures I’m going to make to prevent this from happening again, so stay tuned for that.
Conclusion – Thefts Are a Sad Reality, but They are Preventable.
And there you have it, 6 practical tips for securing your vacant holiday home. This article didn’t quite go as expected, thanks to an unexpected visitor in the middle of the night. This just emphasises my point even further. If you’re thinking that people won’t try to steal from you, you would be most definitely mistaken.
Unfortunately desperate, selfish individuals are out there and are often willing to trespass, damage and loot their way through life. Preventative measures include security cameras, security lights, good locks on gates and most importantly, an understanding that some desperate thieves will still try to break in. This threat increases as the level of crime and amount of wealth is displayed, as well as how easy it is to steal from you. Make yourself a smaller target to make thieves move on.
Making use of Wi-Fi security cameras to monitor your property remotely is definitely the most cost effective step you can take in securing your vacant holiday home, especially when paired with good security lights and alarms.