Q&A: National Home Security Month

Former_MSE_Zorica

What's it about?

For many of us, our home is our haven so we want to keep it as safe as possible, especially as we enter the winter months. Stats from Aviva show that as the clocks go back (this Sunday), there is a 20% increase in home burglaries, so now is as good a time as any to get prepared.

To help, and as October is National Home Security Month we're hosting a Q&A this coming Monday (27th October).

Answering your questions will be Fiona Hutchinson, Customer Service Team Leader for home security Yale, one of the companies sponsoring National Home Security Month.

What to do

Whether you have any burning questions on the best ways to keep your home safe or you just want to know the top tips, tricks and insider hacks [key things to bear in mind?] post below to ask and share.

Fiona will be around from 12 noon on Monday so please do feel free to submit your questions any time. She'll aim to answer where she can.

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply! Make sure you join in plenty of time for Monday.

Other MSE Help

Don't forget to check out other help for your home on MSE:

Cheap Home Insurance Guide

Home Insurance Best Buys

Insurance Board

vivatifosi

Crikey, my query is a little more straightforward.

For a small budget - say £50 or £100, what are the best investments I can make to improve the security of my home?

greatgimpo

If I buy a monitored alarm, what's the chances of police responding to an alert from my village home on a Saturday night 20 miles from a city?

nish50

greatgimpo wrote: »

If I buy a monitored alarm, what's the chances of police responding to an alert from my village home on a Saturday night 20 miles from a city?

We just had an alarm fitted after a recent burglary and the investigating police officer pretty much told me the response time is dependent on what else they have going on at the moment! So we chose not to pay out for police response and have four numbers it calls instead.

I have also just started to put in place a neighbourhood watch scheme and get all teh neighbours on board too which doesn't cost anything!

Hillbilly1

Thanks Nish50. We have been pondering the different types of alarms. That settles it!

JustinR1979

Is worth checking the screws holding the catches on the windows - don't know technical names, catches the locks slide in to.
I was burgled through kitchen window, had 2 sliding bolts, and the 2 catches each had 2 tiny screws, only one of each went into metal, other 2 into plastic.
I've changed to 3 sliding locks now, some big fat screws done up with an 18v drill as tight as it would go for the catches, and 2 of those locks you fit inside that swivel round against frame.

anotherbaldrick

Our house has been built to "Secured by Design " type approval
http://www.securedbydesign.com/housetypeapprovals/index.aspx
which I understand is a Police initiative to assure good standards of protection , we have also upgraded the intruder alarm . With this are we adequately protected or do we need to consider further precautions, particularly anti-snap, anti-bump cylinders ?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

vivatifosi wrote: »

Crikey, my query is a little more straightforward.

I suspect that this comment is in response to my query which appears to have been removed. I guess it was considered too difficult for Ms. Hutchinson to answer.

Winter_Phoenix

I bought an ultraviolet pen (and ultraviolet torch) to mark a few precious antiques, but find it is a complete waste of time on some surfaces (e.g. it soaks into some woods and becomes just a blurry smudge, and wipes off other surfaces as if it had never been there).

What is the answer to marking items permanently and invisibly when they are not made of modern plastic etc.? I've got photographs and sketches, but I've occasionally come across a near-identical antique item, so proving ownership from a photograph or sketch would not always work.

jamesd

What door, window and other standards are required to protect against a 2m tall karate expert using only hand tools like sledgehammers until a practical police response can be expected to arrive? Assumption in this case is that the previously suicidal individual is willing to die as part of the effort.

neilwoods

Winter_Phoenix wrote: »

I bought an ultraviolet pen (and ultraviolet torch) to mark a few precious antiques, but find it is a complete waste of time on some surfaces (e.g. it soaks into some woods and becomes just a blurry smudge, and wipes off other surfaces as if it had never been there).

What is the answer to marking items permanently and invisibly when they are not made of modern plastic etc.? I've got photographs and sketches, but I've occasionally come across a near-identical antique item, so proving ownership from a photograph or sketch would not always work.

Try smartwater. Can pay single payment or have yearly payments fee.

http://shop.smartwater.com/household.html