Securing your home during the holidays: the right precautions!

When you are away from your home for several days or even several weeks, concerns remain about possible incidents or burglaries. Simple means – human or technological – exist to reassure yourself and intervene quickly if needed. Let us explore the precautions to adopt, to be selected according to your own situation!

Entrusting your home to a relative

The safest way to avoid the dangers of absence is to be… present! Not you, but a relative available to occupy the home and thereby prevent any temptation of theft as well as any domestic accidents (power outage leading to loss of frozen products, water leaks, etc.). This solution has the advantage of completely reassuring you and also facilitating certain constraints such as pet-sitting.

In the absence of full occupancy, a neighbour can play the role of the relative by coming to open the shutters in the morning and close them in the evening, and perhaps also switching on a light from time to time. Giving the illusion of occupancy can prove just as effective!

Having your home guarded by a third party

In the absence of a relative, you can quite easily invite a third party to live in your home during your holidays. Two solutions are available to you: paid services for which you will find numerous listings on specialised websites with rates starting at €50 per day and decreasing for longer periods (€170 per week for example), or a reciprocal arrangement: you make your home available free of charge to holidaymakers wishing to visit your own region.

Obviously, in both cases, you will need to place your trust in strangers, and make some space in your cupboards for their belongings.

Organising as vigilant neighbours

In many municipalities, neighbours organise themselves to ensure the security of neighbourhoods. Without speaking of patrols, surveillance is carried out, particularly regarding unknown vehicles and persons appearing to take too much interest in an empty property.

This practice makes it possible to alert the authorities as quickly as possible of a malicious act that is being prepared or committed. It also has the advantage of being dissuasive, when signage is installed that communicates about the scheme.

Equipping yourself with an effective security system

Once human measures are in place and if concerns still remain, why not equip yourself with a modern surveillance system? Alarms and other security cameras primarily play a deterrent role for burglary attempts, and can alert the police if needed. Connected to a monitoring centre for which you will pay a subscription (expect a minimum of around twenty euros per month), this ensures you benefit from direct, human surveillance of the property, with the ability to intervene directly by voice most of the time.

Regarding incidents, you can rely on a multitude of detectors, capable of triggering an alarm in the event of a fire starting, flooding, or excessively high CO² or humidity levels in the home. From this perspective, the alarm protects your possessions but also human health, and proves a valuable ally in your absence as well as in your presence.

Home automation as the culmination

To go even further, and have complete peace of mind, do not hesitate to call upon home automation, which will allow you to manage everything remotely yourself! In this regard, it all depends on your personality: the most anxious will want to open and close their shutters from their holiday location, will switch on a lamp remotely in the evening, will monitor the property via cameras connected to their smartphone several times a day, etc. Be careful not to ruin your holidays with a mind too preoccupied!

Home automation also offers you the possibility of avoiding any worry in the absence of an incident: it will alert you to any abnormal event in the home, whether an intrusion or an incident. Thus, you know that as long as your smartphone does not alert you, everything is fine at home. True holidays can begin!

It should also be noted that this technology also allows you to carry out various operations remotely, such as thermostat management or deactivation of the alarm or even unlocking the door if a relative needs to pass by your home and does not have the key. If a stranger rings the doorbell to verify your absence, you can even answer the intercom as if you were present.

Countering burglaries with secure access points

Of course, your home will be less likely to be targeted for burglary if the access points prove difficult for intruders to penetrate. The common point among all burglars is that they are in a hurry: do not therefore make things easy for them!

First and foremost, ensure that your front door, through which statistically 41% of burglars enter, is fitted with a 5-point lock, or even a reinforced door. Windows can also benefit from additional security, particularly on shutters (anti-lift system). Manually lock the garage door, with a padlock connected to the floor for example. Disable the electric opening, which is easily hackable. Block the opening of the patio door with a wooden or metal bar.

Finally, avoid storing too many things outside. This constitutes an invitation that could push malicious persons to take an interest in your garden, and then your home.

Peaceful holidays are possible when the mind is free from concerns about what is happening at home during this time. By taking these few precautions, you maximise the chances that nothing unfortunate will happen, and you will in any case be notified immediately if it does. Now, have a good holiday!