Landlords: What you can do to protect your tenants from burglary

With a rise in the number of reported burglaries over the last few weeks, Let-Leeds is taking steps to help our landlords best protect their properties and tenants. A few simple precautions can ensure that your property is not only secure, but can save you money in the long term.

1. By ensuring that all doors and locks are correctly fitted, of a superior quality and of an acceptable working standard. Older door frames should be regularly checked and replaced if rot or excessive wear is present.

 Let-Leeds tip:  have you considered a Master key system? This stops tenants making extra copies of keys, meaning no extra copies lying around to be taken by potential thieves.

1. Windows and security grilles that do not form part of an escape route from the property should have key locks that can be secured when out of the property. Any that are used as escape routes need to be operated via non-key locks, such as thumb-turn locks. These should be checked regularly for wear, especially in the case of external security grilles.

Let-Leeds tip: Save yourself money by upgrading windows now – unsecure windows that are broken will need replacing, so why spend more money than you have to?

1. Exterior and interior lighting – for external lighting, this should be well maintained and adhere to regulations so as not to act as a nuisance to others. You can use timed switches for interior lighting to ensure that your property looks lived in to deter unwanted intruders.

Let-Leeds tip:  This is extra helpful during void periods, so consider investing! You can also advise tenants to get timed adaptors for their appliances that function much the same as timed lighting, turning on appliances such as radios/televisions at set intervals to make a house appear occupied.

1. Alarms that are mounted externally are a brilliant visual deterrence for intruders and should be well maintained so as not to look run down or deactivated. Internal alarms should also be well maintained, checked regularly and the tenants should be encouraged to use the alarm whenever leaving the property.

These are simple steps that can go remarkably far in protecting your tenants, your property and ultimately yourselves from a break-in that can be avoided. But why should you bother?

Tenants that suffer a burglary will often be distressed that they have suffered, even when they could have prevented the problems. This can impact how they feel about living in the property and give them a bad opinion of the area, meaning your property (and the surrounding area) will get a bad reputation from your tenants – which could in turn spread to prospective tenants down the line. Rather than suffer a loss down the line where tenants avoid the area, why not spend a little more up front to secure your property and give your tenants some peace of mind?

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