23
Mar
2016
By Calvin at 11:19 GMT, 8 years ago
I know that a few of you reading this item are planning to move this year, but I wonder how many of you will have a good level of home security on your list of ‘new home attributes’?
I studied this aspect of security for newly built homes back in 1992, but I reckon my findings are just as relevant now as the day I discovered them. Essentially I found that people viewing a new home would rarely place home security in their list of ideal attributes unless they had been prompted to consider it. If prompted, three-quarters of respondents would include home security in the top three attributes of the home they had been looking at. If you’d like to read about this research in a little more detail please follow the link to Moving Home and Security below.
There is good reason to concern yourself about home security when searching for a new home, because Home Office crime data for burglary tells us that people who have been living in a home for less than 12 months stand almost twice the chance of suffering a burglary than someone who has been living in a place for a lot longer.
The reasons for this heightened risk will be varied and these are a few of them:
- A new home may simply not have the level of security you had been used to at the previous residence
- Moving causes a period of disruption to ones routine when things can get forgotten
- There are delays in spending on home security improvements because there are so many other competing needs.
- Crime opportunities, vulnerabilities and property targets can be more easily spotted by the thief due to a general lack of readiness, a lack of keys for the doors, an inability to use an existing alarm, a delay in putting up curtains or blinds and perhaps because packaging is being left out at the front of the house
So, if you’re planning to move this year do please make sure that home security becomes one of your most important considerations while you are: Looking for a new home; moving to it and then living in it - because it sort of makes sense.
Moving Home and Security http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/home-security-assessment/680/moving-home-and-security/
Moving Home – Are you really prepared? (My guide written with ADT) http://www.adt.co.uk/uploads/files/moving_home_security_guide_adt.pdf
