You may live in a house, flat, maisonette, apartment, detached mansion, cottage, villa, mobile home or terrace. Whatever you call it, this chapter explains how to review and improve the security of the place you live and for simplicity, we’ll call it your ‘house’.

Your house is a critical element in your safety and security for many reasons. For example:

• You are often in your house for upwards of 10 hours every day.
• You expect your house to be safe, which means you probably let your guard down when you are there.
• You are in bed and asleep in your house and therefore particularly vulnerable for an average of eight hours each day.
• You rely on your house to shelter your loved ones and keep them safe.
• Your house is often your biggest investment.
• You use your house to store all of your possessions, particularly when you are not at home.

For all of these reasons and more, you have to ensure that your personal security relating to your house is as tight as you can reasonably make it. I accept that you don’t want to live in a fortress, but using common sense and a little knowledge you can take steps that will make your house as safe as it can be without making it into a prison.

Though all houses are generally the same, shared accommodation and student digs present some unique problems. There are differences between a detached house and a tenth-storey flat, but all ‘houses’ have common elements. They all have access points, neighbours, doors and windows, approaches and a perimeter. Surveying the security of a detached house, which has gardens, garages, outbuildings and sheds, is considerably more complicated than surveying a flat because for example, with a flat, you can usually ignore the process relating to fences, gardens, sheds and other outbuildings.

Therefore for the purposes of this book I describe the process necessary to complete the most complicated review and that is for a house which is a semi-detached two-storey building. That house will have gardens, neighbours, garages, greenhouses, sheds, easy access via ground floor doors and windows, potential access to first floor windows, and flat roofs, etc. In comparison, completing a survey on a tenth-floor flat will be easy.

Some flats do have a garden or garage associated with them so you will have to read and understand the whole process and apply what is relevant in your case. When you have read each chapter, apply the appropriate approach to your accommodation.

Remember, when you have learned how to do it, some elements of this security review method could also be used to review the security of a property you are considering buying or renting!

The sub-headings below describe various issues that you can address to improve security and reduce threats and risks in your house.

Research Before Buying

The first part of your survey for the house you live in, or perhaps more importantly for one you are thinking of buying, is to do some research. Try to find out about the area, look for information about crime rates, threats and risks in the area. Look for anything that could adversely affect the security of a property or the people living there. When buying a house most people will check to see if a motorway is planned to run through the garden, or if the local airport management is planning to build a new runway past the greenhouse, but few people check on the security aspects of a house! I have listed a number of sources of information that are available to you to start you off.

Estate agents

The local estate agents could be worth talking to. It is their business to know the area, know the properties and to be familiar with the status of an area, which will affect the price no matter what the property is like. Of course, it is their job to sell properties so you have to find one you can believe! Try an open question such as ‘I’m thinking of buying a house in the area – what’s the Forest Park area of town like?’ (Or whatever area of your town you are interested in.) They should answer even if it is in estate agent talk. For example they could describe Forest Park in estate agent speak where the English translation is as listed below:

• up and coming = shabby and run down
• basic accommodation = a mud hut with an outside toilet
• scope for improvement = a dump that needs a fortune spent on it
• middle class = overpriced small houses
• new development = no character or a noisy building site
• student area = loads of noisy parties
• stockbroker belt = you can’t afford it.

Try talking to two or three estate agents. If all of their replies make you feel that it would be safer to move to a war zone, look elsewhere.

Neighbours

Ask around the area, carefully. Local shopkeepers are good sources of information in more ways than one. If you find that the local newsagent shop is reinforced as though they were expecting an armed assault, remember that they did that for a reason! If they have CCTV cameras, steel shutters, serious alarm systems and bullet-proof glass at the counter, you don’t have to be Einstein to guess why they invested so much money in their security measures.

You could get chatting to older residents, as long as you remember that they often appreciate the company and may keep you talking for some time!

The objective is to get chatting and listen to what comes out. Don’t ask leading questions. If you say something like ‘Is there a lot of crime around here?’ they will say yes. If you say something more neutral such as ‘It seems to be a nice quiet area around here’, you will tend to get a more balanced response. For example they may say Yes it used to be, until that night club opened. We haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in nearly two years!’

Remember, what the local people say is only one element in the evidence that you are gathering to build up a full picture of the crime levels in the area.

Insurance Companies

Talk to the insurance companies; they are in business to make a profit. It is therefore in their interests to know which areas have a higher crime rate, as they charge higher rates in high crime areas than they do in low crime areas. It is worth talking to your insurance company or insurance agent and asking them for a quote to insure a house of a similar size and value to your current house but in the area you are interested in. If where you live now your detached three bedroom £159,000 house costs £295 to insure for building and contents each year, and a similar house in the new area will cost £875, there has to be a reason. If they charge three times the rate, it may be that there is three times the risk in that area.

Talk to them. They may give you inside information – it may be crime but it could just as easily be flood or subsidence from old mine workings. Ask why the difference, but be aware of other reasons for differences in quotes. They may have mistakenly quoted for a thatched house when yours has concrete tiles. They may not have allowed for an introductory discount, which you are getting from your existing company. They may have included uninsured loss cover, new for old and a host of other extras that can have a huge effect on the quote. Talk it through, and understand what they are quoting and why.

Local authority

The local authorities are worth talking to. They know what happens in each area – they have to repair damage caused by vandals. They know how many problem families they have in each estate and they know where they have to regularly send the teams of workers to clean up drug taking debris.

Be honest and ask them outright. Ask if they have any reports describing crime rates and the cost of vandalism, etc. Some council managers are officious and obstructive, so if you don’t get an answer out of them, talk to some of the council staff!

Local newspapers

Buy the local newspapers or even visit their offices or the local library and scan through back issues. Local newspapers carry local news, exactly the sort of information you need. Vandalism, muggings, robbery, burglary, arson, assaults and any other crime you care to mention.

Taking an hour or two to check through back issues of the local newspaper will not only tell you what vulnerabilities, threats and risks you would face if your moved there, it could also give you an idea of crime trends. For example, as the local criminals get older, over a couple of years you might see a reduction in vandalism and an increase in street robbery and burglary!

Schools

You could try to make contacts at the local school; they would be well aware of the youth crime trends because they deal with the youths responsible for those crimes on a daily basis. If you have children, you want to know what the schools in the area are like anyway, so while you are there extend your questioning to crime in the local community.

Local community police officer

It may be worth talking to the local community beat police officer. What you would like them to say is ‘Don’t move into that road – the whole family at number 27 are criminals, Mr Jones at number 16 has convictions for violent crime and there is a drug dealer living in number 34.’ But of course, due to confidentiality issues they cannot tell you that. Apart from the legal issues, police forces generally will not allow their employees or officers to give advice about different areas. However, if you were to say you were thinking of moving into a house in Badger Road, then ask – as a friend – if the police officer would be happy to live there, I doubt if anyone would object to that. If they then replied that personally ‘I would never buy a house in Badger Road’, you can draw your own conclusions from that.

Environment Agency

In some areas, if not all, you should check with the Environment Agency to make sure that the house you are looking at is not subject to risk of flooding. On the Environment Agency website, you can type in a postcode and check flooding maps, which will give you a good idea of the risk of flooding for any given location and property (www.environment-agency.gov.uk).

Internet sources

Various other Internet sources are available for you to make your checks as well. Some local authorities and other organisations hold information about crime rates and trends. For example www.crimestatistics.org.uk holds information that you can search on a postcode basis.

Make a note of any relevant information that you find during your research. If you were thinking of moving into an area, the results of this survey may be all you need to decide to look elsewhere.

If the general crime levels are acceptable, there may be other areas that you will need to be aware of, for example because of increasing vandalism and petty theft.

Make a note of the problem areas and concerns and carry them forward to your house and possessions survey. You went to a great deal of trouble to find this information, use it!

House Security Survey

The most important way of improving the security and safety of your house is to perform a home security survey.

If you are proposing to undertake a security review of your house, go ahead and survey it.

If you are proposing to review security for a house owned by a close relative, make your arrangements and do it. I suggest that you do not try performing a security survey on a house you are thinking of buying until you have performed at least two or three other security reviews because lack of practice and the restrictions placed on you by lack of full access can invalidate the results.

If it is a house you are thinking of buying, you will have to discuss it and make arrangements with the current owner. You won’t be able to go into as much depth, so you will have to rely to a large extent on what the current owner tells you and will have to move quite quickly.

House Survey – External

Your first task is to undertake an external security survey of the area around the house. Read each section thoroughly, then when you think you are ready, take a notepad and complete an external security survey. If necessary remind yourself of the basic details needed to record the vulnerabilities, threats and risks you identify.

No matter where you live, the procedure is the same, but circumstances will change the content and scope of the external survey. For example, if you live in a 15th floor flat you probably won’t need to look at fences and garden tools. I say probably not – but when you have seen the relevance of boundaries and garden tools to your personal security, you may wish to keep that in mind and include a check for similar threats. For example, there may be a cycle cupboard on the landing outside each flat, or a cleaners’ or maintenance store on each floor – those cupboards are the equivalent of your fence and garden shed!

The objective of an external survey is to stand back and take a close look at the house and the immediate surroundings. You should make a note of any vulnerabilities, threats and risks that you identify. As you list them you should take a few minutes to consider and list any justifiable and workable countermeasures. The example threats and countermeasures described below should help you to think along the right lines, but never forget that you have a unique lifestyle. You know your lifestyle and you are the best person to recognise dangers relevant to you and to identify appropriate, justifiable and achievable countermeasures.

Area

Walk around the surrounding area. Walk along the main access routes that lead to your house and make a note of the impression you get. Is it for example ‘general light industrial units with some residential’. Perhaps your area is ‘run down and shabby residential’, or maybe ‘affluent commuter belt’.

When you tour the area with an open mind, the impression you get is the impression that the rest of the world gets when they approach your house. With a little consideration it also gives some useful pointers in relation to the security of your house. For example, though the interpretations are rather stereotyped, different appearances could mean different things:

Industrial means lots of people from 9 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday, deserted after that and also deserted on weekends and bank holidays. Therefore with no witnesses around a burglar would be free to pursue his trade at those times.

Shabby Residential depending on circumstances may mean several things. It could mean a community in decline, where they have little community pride so litter and vandalism are commonplace. It could just mean that the local authority has not yet implemented their refurbishment plan for the area or that the dustmen are on strike. Shabby residential could indicate high unemployment, which could mean alcohol and drug problems, which could mean high crime rate because the residents need to get their money from somewhere to feed their drug habits. It is only an indication though – it could just as easily reflect the recent closure of a major employer or bad budgetary management and incompetence by the local authority.

Remember, at the moment we are gathering general evidence, so keep an open mind. You should also remember that your knowledge of the area in which you live will give you an insight. You could always talk to people as you survey the area and see what additional information and ‘feeling’ they give you. Be careful what you say, of course, don’t offend or upset people by being too blunt or asking too many questions. Aim to be conversational and wait until later to write down anything that they tell you.

I was doing a commercial security survey once minding my own business, wandering around with a hand-held dictation recorder, when two large gentlemen approached me aggressively. It took a few minutes and some blunt comments from them for me to realise that they thought I was investigating fraudulent benefits claims, and a few more minutes for me to explain I was doing a commercial property survey.

Affluent Commuter Belt means large well-kept houses, equals wealthy residents with a lot of valuable possessions. Commuter belt might mean successful husbands at work leaving houses from 8 am until 6 pm each weekday, wives potentially at home. Worth a thief watching to see when the residents come and go. It could be worth breaking in just to see what is available. Large gardens, possibly containing valuable statues (some easily worth £1,000 each), garden machines (ride-on mowers worth up to £5,000 each), pond life (specimen carp worth up to £3,000 each). Large and mature gardens, designed to give the tenants privacy, at the same time shield the approach and work of a burglar. Large bushes and hedges could hide a burglar from passing traffic as he breaks a window and even mask the noise of the breaking glass. Wealthy means maybe two holidays per year, which is at least four weeks each year when there will be nobody at home at all (worth coming back with a van for that garden equipment – if anyone asks ‘we’re taking it for service’). Could also mean expensive cars left outside every night, some with valuable contents! Down side: probably alarmed (though false alarms are so frequent that often alarms are ignored and anyway drunks and drugged criminals might just ignore the alarm bells and carry on thieving).

New starter homes means young residents starting out on the property ladder. Probably both out at work though Mum might be at home with a new baby. Young and trendy so they may have latest electronic goods and gadgets, could be worth breaking in. Down side: starter homes packed closely together, small gardens, no mature plants and hedges, so criminal activity would be easily overlooked, heard or spotted.

Rural means a mixture. Some smaller homes – worth taking a look for money and portable valuables, some large estates packed with antiques. Most large country homes tend to have an alarm, but some don’t. Even if they are alarmed anyone responding to it will take at least five minutes to reach the property. (Don’t go breaking into large rural homes though – many of them have early silent alarms so the police will be there before you’ve got in the window.)

Rural properties of any size frequently have a range of outbuildings – offering a range of easily accessible valuables, from garden machines to vehicles, expensive horse tack (e.g. saddles and bridles) to sporting equipment (e.g. skis and fishing equipment), pedigree animals to tool boxes. Little passing traffic and no close neighbours are a huge benefit to a burglar. The down side is the possibility of 22 advanced alarm systems, CCTV and deserted roads! If the burglar is unlucky, a passing police patrol may stop him and ask why he is on a remote country road at two in the morning with a van full of garden machines, saddles and electric tools!

Look for signal crime.

As you walk around look out for vandalism, fly tipping, graffiti, broken glass and other petty crime. This is called ‘signal crime’ because it is a signal in several ways:

• There are criminals active in the area.
• There could be a lack of pride in the community and therefore an unwillingness to speak out against and prevent crime.
• Criminals will read it as an invitation to indulge in their own crime. Generally, where there is visible crime, there will also inevitably be more serious crime that is not apparent to a casual observer. Some see signal crime as the first step on the slippery slope to total lawlessness and decay.

Look to see who is around.

As you walk around you should also be looking to see who is moving around in the area. Unfortunately criminals don’t wear badges or uniforms so you are not likely to be able to spot ‘criminals’, but you can get a feel for the type and numbers of people you come across.

Just as people mature, communities tend to mature as well. A new estate is built and young families move in. They have children, so Dad leaves for work then each school-day morning the mums and kids leave the area to walk or drive to school. Later on the mums come home alone and the cycle repeats itself in reverse soon after three in the afternoon.

As the community matures, the children grow up and leave home, so generally parents live alone, the school run stops but the commute to and from work remains. For a really mature community you could expect little early morning activity because most of them are retired. There might be a flurry of activity each Tuesday when they all go to the post office to collect their pensions but otherwise the pattern of movement has become a pattern of no regular movement!

By observing who is around you could identify times of greater risk to you and your property. For example generally with a young community your house will be fairly safe between 8.30 and say 10 in the morning. During those times there are too many people moving around and as criminals don’t want to be witnessed and reported they will not be active in that area.

On the other hand, if you live near the local football stadium you might find that after the match on a Saturday drunken louts spill out of the stadium in unsociably high spirits. Having drunk too much, they vandalise cars and gardens and assault people as they move towards the railway station to go home.

Sometimes residents find that they live on a route which is habitually used by drunks. Consider a poorly managed public house that is located at the end of a dead end street. Clearly all of the pub’s customers would have to travel down that street to arrive; more significantly, at closing time they would be ejected from the pub late at night and have to travel back up that street when they leave the pub. In such circumstances it is common for residents to be plagued by petty crime and disturbance almost every evening.

Approaches to your house

When you have completed your review of the area in which you live, you need to review all approaches to your house. For example, a single house on a straight road that runs north to south has two basic approaches – from the north and from the south.

The approaches are important to you. You need to identify them and review them to perform a thorough security review of the property. You will have to walk along each approach and with your ‘criminal’s eye’ try to identify any actual or possible vulnerabilities. For example, walking along from the north you realise that pedestrians, including a passing burglar, can see into your lounge, where your new plasma screen TV, video camera, stereo system, top of the range home computer and laptop computer are waiting invitingly. He will also be able to see that there is nobody there on the ground floor. Other things that can be seen in an approach are:

• easy entry points and easy exit carrying your valuables
• low or broken fences
• unlocked sheds with expensive tools and equipment
• workshops and garages left open that allow the burglar to take a convenient inventory of what is there to be stolen
• expensive patio and lawn furniture
• expensive statues, urns, birdbaths and other garden ornaments
• ponds containing expensive specimen carp
• aviaries with expensive exotic birds
• greenhouses with expensive propagators and heaters
• garden tools (spade or fork) that can be used to force a window or door
• ladders left outside which will give easy access to roofs and windows
• any signs of any dog, or a burglar alarm
• any signs that the resident is disabled or elderly, such as wheelchair ramps and handrails
• any vehicles associated with the premises.

Visible vehicles

The vehicles visible can tell us a lot about the people who live in the house. For example, there is a transit van and a Ford Focus, so we know that the man of the house is an electrician because we can see the ‘Jackson’s Electricians’ van in the front drive. He almost certainly works on customer sites from 9 am to 5 pm. He probably has a lot of valuable tools and equipment in the van and garage, not to mention that interesting looking locked shed! Looking into the Focus as we walk past we can see a baby seat strapped permanently onto the front passenger seat, and a pair of low heeled women’s driving shoes left in the driver’s foot well. So, the Focus belongs to Mrs Electrician and she has a baby!

Our burglar can read your property as easily as that. He will walk or take a drive by and will read all of this and more – that is why you have to identify and review all approaches to your house.

Other possibilities

It isn’t often as easy and straightforward as that, however. The example we used above is simple, but now suppose that the house is on a corner plot. The presence of the side road gives us a few more approaches. The possible approaches are now:

• from the north
• from the south
• coming out of the side road and turning south
• coming out of the side road and turning north
• coming from the north and turning into the side road
• coming from the south and turning into the side road.

You should identify, walk, drive and review all approaches to fully understand what can be seen and what that might indicate to the passing burglar. As you recognise and add new access routes, the possible pattern of approaches can get very complicated. Spend a few minutes thinking about the variety and number of possible approaches for the new house described below.

• It is situated on a major crossroads.
• There is a petrol station forecourt to the left of the property.
• There is a public footpath running along the right-hand boundary.
• The public footpath leads to a public playing field at the rear of the property.
• There is pedestrian and vehicle access on all sides of the playing field.

Now assume it isn’t a house but a flat in a tower block, where people have to and are allowed to walk along the balcony within inches of your front door and open kitchen window. What about the country cottage, very picturesque but on a quiet country lane surrounded by open fields?

As you should be able to see, you can soon generate quite a long list of possible approaches and access routes to most properties. Because they are places where the burglar might approach your house, you should be aware of them, and have checked them for possible vulnerabilities.

I spoke to a senior scenes of crime officer who told me that he considered the following properties to be the most vulnerable to intruders and burglers.

• corner plot
• house with public footpath running down one side
• houses by playing fields, parks or other public areas
• end of terrace houses

Is anyone in?

Criminals do not usually want to be disturbed, witnessed or caught in the act. Though some burglars almost specialise in entering premises while the residents are asleep upstairs, generally to avoid being caught burglars prefer to carry out their crimes in empty premises. If there are clear signs of occupancy most criminals will walk past and look for another property to break into. After all, why should they take an increased risk when there are so many other more vulnerable targets just a short distance up the road?

Your objective is to take as many steps to protect yourself as you can justify, each of which will make your house just that bit harder to break into. Your aim is to reach the point where the burglar will decide that the obstacles and risks are too great and so he will pass on by looking for an easier target.

To illustrate this point, ask yourself one question. If you were a burglar faced with two houses, one has an alarm, a large dog, stout fences, prickly bushes inside the fences, and people seem to be moving about in several of the rooms, while the other house has none of those things, which house would you target?

Obvious clues

As mentioned above, most criminals would prefer to target empty premises. Some of the signs are clear, and can almost be an invitation to a burglar. For example, if it is after dark and you see a house with no lights on, the gates to the drive open, the garage open with no car inside, do you think the homeowner is out? If the car is missing we can be pretty sure that the residents are out and that they left the gate and garage open so it will be easier for them to drive into the garage when they get back. Unless they are sitting quietly in the dark, there is nobody at home, so should they be surprised if they come home to find they have been burgled?

Even if the homeowner wasn’t so obvious with the clues, it is amazingly easy for a criminal to find out if somebody is in – they just knock at the front door! If nobody answers they know that nobody is home so they are free to slip around the back and help themselves. If somebody does answer the door, the criminal will say something like ‘Does Jack the mechanic live here?’ You say no and close the door and the burglar goes away. He doesn’t care because there are plenty more vulnerable houses down the road!

There have even been cases where helpful neighbours have assisted criminals, for example when a neighbour saw somebody knocking at the door of a house and helpfully said something like ‘Mr and Mrs Jones are in Brighton visiting their daughter, they won’t be back until Tuesday!’ Guess what Mr and Mrs Jones find when they get back on Tuesday.

Finding your house

When you are performing your survey consider the identification of your house and how the emergency services will find it in an emergency. If you live at 10 Badger Road finding your house is quite easy. As a police officer I know where Badger Road is and maybe know that the numbering starts at the junction with Fox Lane. I can easily drive into Badger Road and shine a torch at a house. If I see that the house I am looking at is perhaps number 20 and the next house is number 19.1 simply accelerate and drive a few houses down knowing that I will soon be at the front of number 10 Badger Road!

Now consider how difficult that same process will be if the residents don’t like house numbers. The residents have decided to use house names instead of numbers so I am now looking for ‘Woodpeckers’ in Badger Road. Where is it? I have no idea. In the worst possible case I will have to drive along the whole length of the road looking at house names until I find ‘Woodpeckers’. Even then, as a police officer I have attended named houses where the owners have allowed the sign to become overgrown or to fall down. Just to make it harder, some house names are fixed to gate posts, some to gates, some on poles inside the grounds, some fixed to the front of the house. Some are carved into wood, some painted on metal and some in little plastic letters screwed to moss-covered brickwork.

Testing it out

Check your house at night in the rain to see how easy it would be for the police, fire brigade or ambulance service to find your house. To get a really unbiased view, discuss this with a colleague at work and offer to do a trade. Select somebody who doesn’t know where you live and then agree to meet them one dark and stormy night. When they pick you up, sit quietly in their car and watch them try to find your house. Don’t say a word, just monitor how easy or difficult it is for them to find it. Don’t give any hints or tips and don’t make your house stand out by for example turning all the lights on or leaving your white BMW in the drive – they 28 will know your car if they see it every day at work. See how long it takes them actually to park outside your house, that will give you a feel for how hard it is for the emergency services to find you when you most need them.

You might be surprised at how long it takes and if it does, remember that all the time your friend is looking for your house it could have been on fire, or somebody lying ill inside or a burglar running riot. Don’t forget to return the favour and try to find your colleague’s house to give them an idea of how easy it is to find it.

Next, imagine you are a police officer, ambulance driver or firefighter, who doesn’t know where it is and you have to find it in an emergency. Where do you look for the nameplate? Which side of the road is the house you are looking for? Reviewing the identification of your house will pay dividends.

Front view of your house

Stop at the front gate and spend a moment looking at what you can see with your ‘criminal’s eye’. Imagine you are a thief or vandal and try to see what seems open and available to you. Make a note of vulnerabilities. For example:

• unlocked or open garages, sheds, greenhouses and other outbuildings
• open windows and doors in the main house
• convenient ladders left beside the shed that will make getting in easier
• flat roofs with easy access to second floor windows (upper floor windows are almost always less secure than ground floor windows)
• vehicles
• signs of dogs (not welcome)
• signs of burglar alarms such as bell boxes or signs saying ‘these premises are protected by ...’
• visible signs of goods worth stealing, e.g. televisions, CD players, digital cameras, computers, etc.
• indications of lifestyle and patterns (for example, a works van missing means he is out at work, children’s toys mean mum probably does school runs each day).

When you have identified everything you can see, you have a ready-made list of simple, effective and free or inexpensive countermeasures. The following are just examples; you should be able to identify and list more countermeasures appropriate to your house and lifestyle)

The purpose of all of these countermeasures is to make you and your house a less tempting target. Try to remove all indications of vulnerability, and introduce as many indications of anti-crime measures as you can. Every step you take is one step closer to making the criminal walk past to look for an easier target.

Frontal access

In this section you are concentrating on looking at access. Frontal access to the property is quite important. It has been known for criminals to bring a removal lorry and clear a house of anything of value. Others have driven into a property in broad daylight and loaded an expensive car onto a breakdown truck and driven off with it.

If the criminal doesn’t have access they can’t commit a crime! You cannot build a 20-foot high concrete wall topped with electrified razor wire, but you can reduce access to an acceptable level.

Check the access to your property and make it as secure as you can, bearing in mind:

• Planning requirements – check to see what you are allowed to do.
• Ease of access – for genuine visitors, deliveries and emergency services.
• Aesthetics – though you may get planning permission for a ten-foot high chainlink fence along your front boundary, will the neighbours be happy about it and will you like living in what looks like a prison camp?
• Cost – will the cost of the measures you are considering be justified by the increase in the levels of security and peace of mind you will get from the work?
• Value – can you justify the cost of the work against the value of the premises? For example, if you own a cottage valued at £200,000, is it sensible to spend £300,000 making it more secure? Would you be better off moving and combining the money you get from the sale of the cottage with the money you would have spent on making it more secure, then buying a new house that is already more secure. (You can use this review method to help you select your new house.)

Fences

Check the boundary. You might have fences, hedges, walls or no boundary obstruction at all on some open plan estates. Tour the boundary of the property, and make a note of the type of boundary and the condition it is in.

The general rule is that you should have high fences at the back of the property to stop the criminal getting in. Once out of sight at the rear of a property a criminal would be free to take his time to find or make an entry point. If fences and gates prevent him from getting to the rear of the property he is less likely to target the premises.

At the front you should have lower fences so that a criminal or other intruder will be visible to neighbours and passing traffic if he attempts to enter your premises.

We are not in the business of designing gardens; our objective is just to make the property as safe as we can, as quickly as we can, with minimal effort and at a reasonable cost. Our aim is not to turn the property into an unapproachable fortress; it is to take reasonable steps to secure the property to the point that a criminal will see our countermeasures and walk past to look for an easier target.

A property is safer if anyone passing has an uninterrupted view of the front of the property. If they could be easily seen by anyone who walks or drives past, a criminal is less likely to attack a property. Fences and gates can be scaled or broken, but if there is a clear view to passing traffic the criminal is less likely to attempt to gain access to the rear of the property.

Points to note

Remember that you may need planning permission to erect fences and walls. Before you do anything, approach your local council planning office and discuss your proposals with them; they should offer valuable advice.

You should also remember that you have a duty of care and should not allow or cause harm to anyone on your property, whether they are a legitimate visitor or not (Occupiers Liability Act 1984).

Walls

Brick, block or concrete walls are very strong, but unfortunately they are sometimes a blessing to a criminal. Criminals might quite like your nice tall strong wall, because it gives them stout foot and hand holds to let them safely climb up and over. While they are outside, a wall protects criminals from dogs or easy surveillance from anyone inside the property. But once the criminal has climbed over, the wall now offers him good protection from surveillance and discovery by the public who may be passing by outside. Then, when he has finished raiding a property, the criminal can use the wall to hide from passing traffic, until it is clear for him to make a getaway with your valuables.

Expensive burglar alarm systems, approved and legal anti-climbing paint and spikes, etc. can deter the dedicated burglar. Walls will usually stop a passing opportunist thief or vandal, because they want to be in and out quickly and easily and a wall or fence will slow them down.

Wooden fences

Not as strong as a wall, they can be quite solid, flimsy or anything in between. Wooden fences are not as expensive as a wall, but they usually require more maintenance effort. They can be climbed, but a determined criminal will simply kick or cut a hole in even the strongest wooden fence.

Wire fences

Can be cheaper still and available in a variety of heights and styles. They can be topped with strings of barbed wire in some circumstances and they can also be alarmed, but that is an expensive option. Wire fences will deter a lot of intruders, especially if topped with barbed wire, but they have one fundamental weakness. When installed even on level ground, it is easy to scrape a hollow under the wire and slide through. To prevent that, wire fences can be installed with buried ‘aprons’, concrete footings and stakes set into the ground, but that makes them a lot more expensive. Whatever preventative measure you take with a wire fence their ultimate flaw is that anyone with a pair of wire cutters in their pocket can get in. Worse still, if someone cuts a vertical slice through the wire fence behind a bush or tree, a hole can remain undiscovered for weeks.

Metal Railings

Expensive to ‘very expensive’. Spiked railings are probably the most secure fencing there is, which is why they cost so much. The foundation required for some railings can also prevent access underneath, unless the criminal is going to do an awful lot of work to dig through. A hacksaw and plenty of time is needed to cut through railings, or a noisy and expensive mechanical cutter. A hole in metal railings is usually quite easily spotted. Again alarms and sensors can also be fitted to give an added level of protection but they are very expensive options.

Hedges

Rural in appearance, and favoured by people who don’t want to feel that they live in a prison. They range from cheap, decorative and ineffective, to expensive and impenetrable. Hedges are not as unsightly as some metal and wooden fences, so they may appeal to people on aesthetic grounds. They will prevent casual intrusion because they form a barrier. Select the right shrubs and with correct care, watering and pruning of the plants they will form a dense and to a large degree impenetrable barrier. Weaknesses are drought, disease, pruning shears and fire. Drought and disease can destroy a hedge in weeks. Fire can destroy a hedge in minutes. A single intruder with a set of pruning shears can cut an access point in minutes. They can be expensive to buy and plant. They usually take months if not years to reach maturity and therefore provide a real barrier. Cost of maintenance is therefore high, and the protection offered is variable. Prickly plants offer better all round protection, but if you have young children, you may decide that the prickly plants may be an unacceptable risk to the children.

Open Plan

A legal requirement on some properties, aesthetically pleasing to many and uncomfortably exposed to some. Open plan is quite common on more modern estates. Boundaries are sometimes marked by a few marker posts; other than that there is no barrier between properties or between public and private areas. It is obviously a cheap option. Some deeds and tenancy agreements specify that boundaries must be erected and maintained, while others specify that no boundary fences are allowed. Security against intrusion is non-existent, but the open plan nature does mean that a criminal will be totally exposed as he creeps around a property.

Gates

Any fence almost always has to have at least one gate built into it. The fence then becomes as good and secure as the gates that have been installed. Gates should be as secure as any section of fence, but they also have to be simple and convenient for authorised people to unlock them, open them, use them and secure them again afterwards.

No matter how good a gate is, because it is designed to allow access through a fence or other barrier, it is a weak point. There are a number of design criteria and considerations that must be taken into consideration when erecting fences and gates.

Paths

Footpaths can add to the security of a property, or at least the positioning and construction of footpaths can. I doubt if anyone could walk on a gravel path without making a noise during the day, and at night the sound of somebody walking or even sneaking over gravel sounds like an express train passing. If you lay a gravel drive and a gravel path surrounding your house, it acts like a mediaeval moat, preventing unwanted visitors from approaching the house without announcing their presence by walking over the noisy gravel.

Remember, when considering these countermeasures you don’t have to adopt all of them immediately. You can keep some countermeasures in mind and use them later on at appropriate times. For example, though your current house does not have a gravel path, when you consider moving you could look for a house with gravel paths because you know that will be an additional layer of protection.

You can also keep some countermeasures in mind and possibly introduce them later when the opportunity presents itself. For example, if the gas company engineer wants to dig up your driveway to lay a new mains pipe, you could agree, but ask them to lay a gravel drive when they fill in the trench!

Given a choice build a path that takes a direct line from the gate to your front door. Don’t make a path that meanders around the property giving a criminal an excuse or opportunity to do anything other than come and go to the front door. Try to avoid putting the path across the front of the house, especially if it will give visitors the opportunity to walk past and look into windows. Don’t let them look in to see who is or is not at home, and don’t give them the chance to look in to see what is worth stealing.

Feel of the property

Now you have had a chance to check the property over from out on the street, try to think like a criminal. What is your feel for the property? I will use two extremes as examples to illustrate what I mean by your ‘feel’ for the property.

• Open House. The open house is a criminal’s delight. Quiet road with little or no passing traffic, windows left open and with a spare front door key under the doormat. Family members are careless, they come and go leaving the front door unlocked and open, there are cars with valuables in clear sight and keys have been left in the ignition. Gates left open, lots of unattended overgrown shrubs and bushes in the garden, the fences are broken down leaving a dozen ways in and out. From the street we can see unattended valuables, handbags, cash and wallets, no pets, no alarm and apparently no idea of how to protect themselves or their property.
• Fortress. The fortress has strong secure fences, and prickly shrubs, side gates that are locked with no view of or access to the rear. They have two German Shepherd dogs, which are loose inside the house and back garden. The house is alarmed, windows and doors clearly protected by professionally installed locks. There are gravel paths and a gravel drive, with sensor-operated flood lighting. From the street we can see no valuables at all. The residents are obviously very careful and meticulous about household security.

Given these two properties, if you were a criminal which house would you target? Hopefully you would walk past the ‘fortress’ and head for ‘open house’. Having taken a while to look at your property, given a scale of ‘open house’ to ‘fortress’, where do you think your property stands?

You now have a ‘feel’ for the impression your house is giving people who pass by. Carry on with the survey but keep your impression of the property in mind. If your house is closer to open house than fortress, criminals will be taking a greater interest in it, so you have to work harder to bring it closer to the fortress assessment.

Back garden

Explore the gardens or grounds of the property. Check the side and back fences. What state are they in, what is on the other side of the fence? How easy would it be to get into and or out of the back garden from the side or rear of the properly? What access is there across any fields, allotments or other gardens to houses that don’t have side gates or fences?

Is the garden cared for? Are there unruly bushes and wild plants in which a criminal could hide unseen? Are there any overhanging branches that could make it easier for an intruder to climb over the fence? What work needs doing to make the garden a safer and more secure environment? Make a note of countermeasures you could take.

Children’s bikes and toys

This section raises a security issue and touches on behaviour. In security terms, the value of the bikes, toys and equipment children own can be considerable. That being the case they should be valuing their possessions and taking care of them. If the house is secured and the residents are out, you should not be able to see (and easily steal) expensive bikes, or other toys or equipment.

Teaching children the value of possessions is character building. Teaching them to care for their bike and other toys, to respect their own property and to behave in a reasonable way plants the first seeds of maturity, with a balanced view of care, concern, value and respect.

Whether you support that approach or not, you should not be able to see hundreds of pounds’ worth of children’s bikes and toys laying around a garden waiting to be stolen.

Outbuildings

Many houses have one or more outbuildings. For a complete household security survey you should also survey any outbuildings you may have.

Garages

If there is a garage, walk around it and assess its vulnerability. What is it built of? Bricks or concrete are quite secure, but wooden planks can be cut through or prised off in minutes. Are there any windows? If so where are they located – out of sight at the back or in full view of people passing by? How big are they? Are they big enough to climb through if they can be opened or broken? What sort of doors does it have? Are the doors locked? Are the doors actually secured when they are locked, or is the lock useless? What sort of lock is used? How many locking points are there? With a three point locking system on barn style doors, i.e. bolts top and bottom and a central lock, the door is very secure. Using just one single central lock on the doors allows too much movement; the door can be bounced in and out and that can easily break open a large door.

Can you see what is inside? Is what you can see worth stealing? Could a criminal easily make off with the contents if they manage to get into the garage? (Remember you should always lock your car and put the steering lock on, even if it is in a locked garage.) Out of interest, ignoring any cars, do a visual inspection and add up the estimated replacement value of the contents of the garage. I am sure that the total will surprise you when you add the value of tools and garden furniture, etc. It will make you realise why the garage needs protection.

Check the contents of the garage. Do you know the make, model and serial number of the valuable tools etc that are usually kept in the garage? If not, make a note of the details as soon as possible. Use a table such as the one suggested above to record details.

Make a note of any problems or vulnerabilities that you discover in relation to the garage before you move on.

Sheds

If there are any sheds in the garden, perform a similar survey on them. Check the location, construction, windows, doors, locks, etc. Can you see what is in the shed? Do a quick calculation of the estimated replacement cost of the contents of the shed. If it’s like most sheds, I think you will be surprised at the value of the goods you have stored there.

Greenhouses

Even greenhouses can contain valuable tools and equipment! Good quality garden tools are very expensive, not to mention propagators, greenhouse heaters, petrol lawnmowers, etc. Check the contents and add up the estimated replacement cost of the tools and equipment stored there. The total soon adds up.

House Survey – Close Perimeter

A close perimeter survey is the area where you are almost within arm’s reach of the house. Criminals are only likely to get that close to your house when you are out. To perform an effective close perimeter survey, you will have to make sure that the house has been locked and secured just as if the residents were all at work or out shopping.

You have already viewed the property from a distance; for the close perimeter survey walk around the perimeter in touching distance of the building, paying particular attention to potential access points and other threats.

Threats and access points to look out for include:

• Doors are the favoured access point for most criminals. Pay particular attention to all doors. The strength, fit and locking mechanism should be noted and you should check to see if keys have been left inside door locks – if you break the glass you can reach in to get the key, and with the key you can open the door.
• Drainpipes and service cables – giving foot and hand holds to an intruder to climb in through upper storey windows.
• Solid trellis and climbing plants – giving access to windows and balconies for an intruder.
• All windows should be closely inspected from outside. The strength, fit and locking mechanism should be noted. Also check to see if keys have been left inside in window locks. (You should consider the option of installing laminated or wired glass in any windows that are particularly vulnerable, such as windows in hidden corners or at the rear of the building. The laminated and wired glass is a lot harder to break through, needs more effort on the part of the criminal, takes more time and makes more noise. All of these factors are likely to make a criminal decide to move to an easier target.)
• Check for hidden corners where plants or outbuildings could allow an intruder to wait or work unobserved. It is possible that a back door or ground floor window could be positioned in an awkward corner where nobody can see it from neighbouring houses or from the road because of sheds, garages or shrubbery, etc.
• Check for the obvious presence of phone lines, which could be identified and cut by an intruder.
• Check the state of the brickwork, tiles and cladding which if badly maintained could make it easy for a criminal to gain access.
• Check for access to flat roof areas, which could in turn give easy access to possibly less secure windows on upper floors.
• Check for access to first floor roofs. I once attended a house where intruders had climbed onto a fence, climbed onto the roof of the house, lifted a few tiles and dropped into the house through the roof! (Fit a lock to the loft door.)
• Walk around any outbuildings such as stables, etc., and perform a similar review on them.
• Check for the presence of exterior lighting. Where is it installed, what area does it cover and how is it operated? Remember, if you have a remote property where there are no neighbours to see what is happening, if an automatic light is triggered by a criminal, all you have done is help the criminal by providing him with light while he breaks into your home. Lights are generally only effective where people are at home, or better still where neighbours and passing traffic will be able to see any criminal activity if a flood light switches on.

You may well discover a variety of potential threats that are not strictly speaking security related. For example, you could discover a pile of cardboard and paper piled up against the wooden cladding at the rear of the house. On bonfire night a stray firework could ignite it and block access or exit from the back door of the house.

Keep an open mind and look for any potential access points, threats and risks that could realistically affect you. If after a little consideration you think they are worth noting, record them on your survey form with appropriate possible countermeasures. For example, a large tree with a rotten-looking dead branch that overhangs the footpath at the side of the house is clearly a threat. Make a note of it, and see to it.

Remember to make a note of any threats and vulnerabilities, and if possible resolve those vulnerabilities immediately. For example, lock the ladder away now, close the garage door and tell everyone to lock the utility room window (the cat will have to wait outside until somebody comes home).

The external survey should now be complete. You might want a moment while it is fresh in your mind to go back over your records and check the threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures you have noted. Add any additional explanation you might need. For example ‘Cat’ might have been enough to remind you that you always leave the utility room window open so that the cat can climb in when he gets cold or hungry. On checking your notes you may decide to add ‘Cat – close and lock window’ just to be sure you remember that when you have finished.

Please remember that the report you are compiling would be a blessing to a burglar if it fell into his hands. It will list all the vulnerable points on your property and all of the possessions worth taking, so make sure that you keep it very, very 44 secure, and destroy it when you have acted on it!

House Survey – Internal

The internal survey begins to look at the actual security of the premises perhaps checking some of those doors and windows that didn’t feel too secure.

To make sure that you check through all the rooms in your home methodically, without missing anything, start at the front door and turn left. Move around each room, beginning on the left, as if your left hand is kept on the wall, turning left whenever there is a gap or doorway.

Adopting this approach you should not miss any rooms. When the ground floor is done do the basement if there is one, then work your way through upper floors surveying each floor using the same method.

Read to the end of this chapter before you start your internal survey. If you don’t understand what you are looking for, you may miss important things.

Shared occupancy

Some accommodation is shared, such as boarding houses and student accommodation. For anyone in accommodation with shared occupancy, the security risk is 20 times greater than single occupancy.

With single occupancy buildings, you can lock the door and keep the world outside, with shared occupancy any number of people have access to the building. The smaller the private area that is controlled by the multiple occupancy resident, the higher their security risk. For example:

• In a single occupancy house, you can lock the door and the only persons allowed in the garden, let alone the house, are family members and guests.
• In a shared block of flats, the tenants of 20 other flats, their guests, visitors, delivery men and others can prowl the building without causing undue concern. That means that the front door to your flat is all that is between you and potential criminals.
• As a lodger or in student accommodation, you may share a kitchen and bathroom and only have a single room under your control. That means that your bedroom door is the only barrier between you and the world, and bedroom doors are not usually noted for being solid and secure. Will you always lock your bedroom door if you go to the toilet, or make a drink in the kitchen? It may be an insult to other residents and their guests but you should! Never leave the keys in the door, they could be borrowed and duplicated. Never assume you will only be a minute nipping down to get the post – a conversation with the postman may delay you for five minutes which is plenty of time for your wallet, cash, credit cards, watch and camera to go missing!
• In some cases you may share one room with several people! With friends and relatives, partners, lovers and visitors wandering around shared occupancy your security barrier is you. You can only guarantee security when you are in the room and awake; other than that you can only guarantee security of items that you carry with you at all other times.

Fire

It is important to remember that fire is a threat as well. You are already committed to undertaking an internal survey, so it would be sensible if you also took the time to do a fire safety assessment of the home at the same time.

I am not an expert in fire safety. If you are in doubt, local fire and rescue services will sometimes come to do a fire safety check on the premises. The following common sense checks should be useful, but make a note of anything you find in relation to any unique threats and hazards you find relating to your premises.

Smoke Detectors

Smoke detectors can be battery or mains operated. They can be independent, where each unit sounds an alarm if and when it detects smoke, or they can be linked, where all units sound an alarm if any of them detect the presence of smoke. The linked system is clearly more expensive and more difficult to install, but independent units can usually be installed by anyone with a drill and a screwdriver.

Some expensive monitored burglar alarms also include smoke detectors. They are wired into the system, and if a smoke detector is triggered the alarm company will often call to check with the householder that they have not just burnt some toast or opened the back door to let smoke from a bonfire into the kitchen! If the householder doesn’t answer, or confirms that there is a fire, the alarm company will call the fire and rescue services, even if the householder has already done so.

Smoke detectors can contain just the detection and alarm units, but for a small additional cost you can obtain a smoke detector that has a built-in emergency light which operates when the alarm is triggered. The ‘emergency’ lighting can be a big help when trying to evacuate at night to help people get out in a hurry.

When installing any smoke detectors, make sure that you follow the siting and installation instructions on the packaging. Experts can advise on the number and positioning of smoke detectors, but as the battery units are so cheap and so easy to install, I always install one in every room, plus light alarms at the top and bottom of the stairs and inside front and back doors. In that way, wherever a fire started, I am assured that alarms will soon sound even if one or two units failed. To me the bottom line is that a handful of smoke detectors is a cheap way to protect my family.

When doing the internal survey of each room, take a moment to check for the presence of smoke detectors.

Check for threats

Take an extra moment to check for fire threats in each room. There are hundreds of potential threats. A few example threats are described below.

Some paraffin heaters are poorly maintained and leak paraffin. Some are badly positioned, for example being placed at a point where people often have to squeeze past, or on an upper landing where they can get knocked over and where any fire will cut off the escape route to people on the upper floors.

To dry laundry indoors in poor weather, people are sometimes tempted to put washing too close to a heat source to accelerate the drying. Unfortunately the closer they put laundry to a fire or heater, the greater the risk of a fire.

Some people use electric or other heaters, and try to get the most heat out of them by placing them as near as they can to where they are sitting or sleeping. A badly positioned heater can soon ignite bedding, curtains or armchairs causing a serious and life threatening fire.

Electrical wiring

Old wiring can be a threat. Most people rely on an increasing number of electric appliances to make their life comfortable, to help them with their work or to entertain them. All of those appliances need a source of power, all of which has to be drawn through the existing wiring in a house. It is surprisingly easy to overload these circuits. Imagine a modern teenager’s bedroom, where we could find a television, hi-fi system, computer and associated printers, scanners and modems, not to mention a separate computer games console! Now what if there are two teenagers and add on Mum’s hairdryer – how much power do you think that circuit can supply before it blows a fuse, melts or bursts into flame?

Occasionally you will still see single sockets, with multiple adapter blocks plugged in so that half a dozen or more plugs can be plugged into and supplied with power from one socket. You are more likely to see extension leads with an adapter block capable of taking two, four or six plugs all running off one wall socket. Sometimes extension leads are daisy-chained and plugged into each other to run a dozen computers, hi-fi systems, televisions and computer game consoles. All of that use potentially overloads a single socket and could cause a fire. As a rule of thumb, if there are not enough sockets for all of the appliances you want to use – the house needs rewiring to bring it up to a standard where you can safely plug all of your appliances into sockets that have been installed by an electrician.

If you are surveying a house that you are considering buying make a note of trailing cables and multiple plugs in a single socket. They are an indication that the wiring is not adequate, which is a leverage point to bring down the price and make a reduced offer.

From 1 January 2005, people carrying out electrical work in homes and gardens in England and Wales will have to follow the new safefy rules in the Building Regulations. Visit www.odpm.gov.uk/electrical safety for more information.

Cigarette smoking

Insurers have been known to increase the insurance fees payable by smokers for life, health and property insurance. Worst of all, cigarette smoking is the cause of house fires that kill hundreds of people. About one third of fire-related household deaths in the UK are attributed to smoking and smokers are nearly twice as likely to have a house fire! If you cannot eradicate smoking from your house, make sure that the fire risk is minimised by taking steps to ensure that cigarettes do not cause a fire. Remember, the fatal Kings Cross station fire and the fire in the Mont Blanc road tunnel were caused by discarded cigarettes. Careless smokers kill!

Household rules

By establishing standing rules and procedures in your house you will increase your security. The purpose and benefit of rules should be explained, discussed and agreed by everyone in the house, because the rules will benefit everyone who lives there. Though you should set your own rules to meet your own unique circumstances, they could include:

• Never leave electrical appliances on when they are not attended.
• Never smoke cigarettes in the house (or at least in bedrooms or living rooms).
• The last person to leave the house will make sure all windows and doors are locked.
• Smoke detectors will never be disconnected, or have their batteries removed (to be used in portable CD players or portable games consoles, etc.)!
• Smoke detector batteries will be replaced on the birth date of the head of the household, or before if weekly tests show that the batteries have failed!
• When preparing meals, cooking pans will never be left unattended.
• Valuables and other property will never be left on show in an unattended car.
• Cars will always be locked when left unattended.
• Car keys will never be left in an unattended vehicle even for a minute.
• Inform local relatives or close friends if you are going to be away from home for more than a day or so.

Practice escapes

Most people do not realise how disorienting a dark and smoke filled environment can be. You think that you know your way around your house and could evacuate under any circumstances, but take away the light, add smoke and a little panic and things look a lot different. As a police officer I was invited to attend BA (breathing apparatus) training with a fire crew, and was totally disoriented when the lights went out and the practice smoke filled the practice house. (Smoke is toxic so they use harmless ‘practice’ smoke in their exercises.)

To be ready, I suggest that you should practise escapes, especially in houses where there are younger children. When only adults are involved, it is easy to introduce more realistic conditions. For example, doing it at night and declaring ‘fires’ at various points in the house, checking to make sure that people leave by a ‘safe’ route.

You could also blindfold an escapee to mimic the disorientation of darkness, smoke and heat. Blindfold the person, turn them around a few times and then tap them on the shoulder, which is the signal to escape. If you do try this method, each blindfolded person must have a minder at hand. The minder will check to make sure that the blindfolded and disoriented evacuator doesn’t try to walk off a balcony or flat roof, or otherwise injure themselves or damage anything. Remember that nothing will be as disorienting as a real fire, but blindfolded evacuation can be dangerous if minders are not in place.

Practice escapes with children

With children it is more difficult, as you have to maintain their trust in you and their feeling of safety within the home. Don’t push too hard and don’t scare them. Though you have serious intentions, make it fun, make it a competition and ‘grown up’ game for younger children. Award them prizes for remembering what to do and doing it right.

You could start by sitting and gently explaining what you are going to do. This is easiest after they have had a fire drill at school, because they then know that this is something that people do sometimes. Start by asking them to tell you how they did it at school, then tell them you want to see how clever they are and how quickly they can get out of the house if there is a problem. Start gently by sitting in the lounge and tell them the competition has started and that they must get out and stand by the front gate or wherever you define as your meeting point.

Remember that nothing is more frightening and disorienting than a building on fire. People will leave by the nearest available exit and you want to know if they are all out. The only easy way of doing that is to agree a meeting or rally point where everyone who gets out of the building gathers. Then it is easier for the leader to check who has escaped and who may still be inside the building – so you can report that to the fire services when they arrive at the scene.

With children’s practice evacuation, offer them plenty of praise and support to encourage them. (Older children can skip ahead to more realistic exercises.) Make sure that the children are rewarded – chocolate, a trip to the cinema or their choice of day out, anything that reinforces the exercise as a pleasant experience and nothing to be worried about.

When the first exercises have been successfully completed, increase the complexity. Get them to lie on their beds and then knock on the doors and tell them to leave. Over time with plenty of praise, you can make it more difficult and more realistic by doing it in the dark. If they get it wrong or make a mistake, never tell them off or get angry, just point out where they could do better. For example, tell them not to bother collecting their favourite teddy bear next time, or going to the hall cupboard to collect a coat.

When they are a little older, you could try getting them to take a turn as the leader, where in consultation with Mum or Dad they choose where the ‘fire’ has been discovered and so define the safe escape route.

As long as you remain calm, don’t pressurise the children, don’t scare them, give them a lot of praise and support for ‘winning’ and being clever there shouldn’t be a problem. You know your children so only you can decide how far you want to go with the exercises. Any practice evacuations you do arrange will pay off if there is an incident and you have to evacuate.

Key points

Some key points are:

• Evacuation awareness will prepare your child and family members for fire alarms and evacuations elsewhere. They will know that when the fire alarm sounds they should leave quietly, if it is at home, in the cinema, at the football stadium or sports hall.
• ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS make sure that everyone involved knows when there is a practice evacuation. By doing that, they will automatically know that if nobody has planned a drill, any alarm and evacuation is the real thing. Having experienced the real thing, I know that there is an edge, a sense of purpose to a real evacuation, where practice evacuations generally tend to be a little too relaxed and complacent.
• Don’t have a practice evacuation too often. The impact of the alarm will have reduced effect if too many practice evacuations are scheduled. When a small fire started in the workshop of an office block I was attending they sounded the alarm. Generally people looked at each other for a few minutes, then when the alarm wasn’t turned off employees began to amble out of the building. The managing director had just started a sales presentation to a dozen potential clients, and he reacted to the clanging alarm bells by sending his secretary to turn the alarm off. She was sent to the third floor in the lift to see the building supervisor and pass on the message from the MD. When she couldn’t find him she went down to reception and was rather surprised to see firemen. The managing director’s presentation was then quickly terminated when firemen told them they had to leave because there really was a fire. People must and should always react to an alarm as though it was real!
• With any evacuation, somebody should know, or have a very good idea how many people are in the building at any given time. They should act as leader, or fire marshal. They should attend the rally or meeting point outside with some sort of notebook or clipboard. As people evacuate the building they should report to the leader or fire marshal, so that he or she can make a note that they are out and any new information they can give. For example ‘top floor clear, no sign of fire’ or ‘kitchen staff out but there is a fire in a chip pan’.
• When the fire brigade arrive at the scene, the fire marshal should be able to brief them on what has happened and give them any information on possible hazards. For example ‘There were seven people in the building but they are all out. My husband says that he was doing some welding on his old motorbike and a fire has started. There are welding gas cylinders in the garage, a motorbike with a full fuel tank and a two gallon can of spare petrol.’
• The fire marshal should also make notes on how the evacuation went. It is vital that these notes are reviewed and acted on after the practice. For example, if nobody could find the key to the back door and the meeting point was underneath three feet of floodwater, you have to review and change your plans. In this example you should find out where the back door key went and why it wasn’t where it should be, then make sure that in future it is always where it should be, or that there is a spare key permanently ready for an emergency. Take another look at the meeting place: if it is subject to flooding in heavy rain, select a new meeting place that will be dry.
• Practice the evacuation procedures too. For example:
  • Keep low. Smoke and heat rise, so in a fire, the air will be clearer lower down. Smoke coming from burning plastics can be highly toxic. Find and use the cleanest air supply you can, even if you have to crawl along the floor towards the exit.
  • If possible, and without delaying your exit from the building, consider covering your mouth and nose with a wet towel or sheet, that should help to protect your face and to filter out some of the smoke and fumes when you breathe.
  • Try to protect young children. In a real fire make sure that they have not become scared and hidden from the smoke and flames under the bed or in a wardrobe. Don’t assume they have left, look for them.
  • >Where at all possible cover all exposed skin with natural materials, for example a woollen blanket or a folded sheet. Don’t use man-made materials unless that is all that is available. The heat inside a building that is on fire can build up very quickly, and you will suffer more serious burns if a nylon sheet melts onto your skin. A damp woollen blanket offers considerable protection.
  • Always make sure that you have some footwear available. Remember, when evacuating a burning building you may be walking through red hot cinders or broken glass while still inside the building. Slip-on shoes with a solid sole are ideal; avoid fluffy nylon slippers that could catch fire, or shoes that may take some while to put on!
  • When you approach a door in a burning building, feel the door with the back of your hand. If the door feels hot there may be an inferno on the other side. You will feel heat through almost any door, including a wooden one. If the door feels OK, carefully touch the handle with the back of your hand. (The natural human reaction when touching something hot is for the hand to close and grasp the object. If you use your fingers to touch test a door or door handle and it is hot, your natural reaction could make you grab and hold that red hot handle. If you use the back of the hand, the natural reaction will be to close your fingers and pull safely away from the door handle.) If the door is hot and the handle is red hot, assume there is a serious fire on the other side of the door, especially if there is secondary evidence, such as smoke and flames coming under and around the door. If that is the case, find another exit route.

Torches

In case of a fire (or power cuts) a torch will be handy. I suggest that people keep a torch with working batteries beside their bed, so that if they do need one, they have it to hand and are so familiar with it that they can even reach out and get it through thick smoke.

Windows

The best and safest escape route is through a door. If you are upstairs, the best route is down the stairs and out of a door. If the stairs were blocked by fire, a window might be your only escape route. Be warned, although current regulations require that double glazing units should open fully to allow residents to escape through windows on upper floors, those regulations are quite new. Check to make sure that all upper storey windows will open fully, should they need to be used as an escape route.

Doors

Though security is our primary consideration, remember that in an emergency you may want to leave the property very quickly. I have advised you not to leave keys in locks for security purposes, but at night the rules change a little. If a fire starts at night, it will be dark, it will be smoky, you will be half asleep, disoriented and scared. If there is a fire, you don’t want to have to hunt around the kitchen trying to guess where whoever locked up last night has put the key. The front and back doors are fire exits, make sure that they can be used quickly and easily. At night I would advise you to leave door chains off and consider leaving the key in the lock, or very close nearby to allow you and your family or guests to open doors at short notice.

Flood

Flooding is a hazard that more British families are facing. While you are reviewing your security, if you have any doubts as to your vulnerability to flooding you should make a note to check with the local authority and the company that supplies water locally. They can usually tell you if your house is susceptible to flooding. If you are performing a security check on a house you are thinking of buying, it is even more important. Insurance companies are likely to refuse to insure a property where there is a history of flooding or where flooding is likely. On the environment agency website www.environment-agency.gov.uk, you can type in a postcode and check flooding maps, which will give you a good idea of the risk of flooding for any given location and property.

Front door

The front door is important because it is usually the access point that faces the world and the access point that is used most. As you enter, check the quality and strength of the door.

Keys hidden outside

Most people have experienced the annoyance of being locked out of their own home for one reason or another. It is very easy to do, popping out to get something from the car and finding that the wind has blown the door shut. Alternately you may have had the annoying doorstep conversation with your partner when you get home from shopping that has you both saying ‘But I thought you had the door keys’.

To avoid this problem many people are tempted to hide a door key somewhere outside the house. Don’t do it. Criminals know that many people do that, especially where there are children in the family.

People used to leave a door key fastened inside the door on a length of string. To get in all you had to do was fish through the letter box, pull the string out and use the key tied to the end to open the door. That ‘clever’ trick got to be as well known as leaving a key under the front doormat so people stopped doing it.

Hiding keys in or under a flowerpot, bricks and gnomes won’t fool a criminal either. I have even seen adverts for ‘secure’ key hiding places made to look like cobblestones, gnomes or other garden clutter. To my mind anyone who uses one of these plastic containers which are ‘cleverly disguised’ as something or other is recklessly stupid. Why spend a lot of time and money making your house safe and secure, then break your own security by leaving a key out for the criminals? No matter how clever your hiding place is, it will be discovered.

If you were a criminal watching a target house for a few days and saw a child come home, move a brick near the garage door, open the front door then return to that brick, how long would it take you to guess where a hidden key might be? Do you think that criminals don’t read the newspapers? They will have seen the adverts for disguised key stores in the shape of garden frog, cobbles and logs and will have made it their business to know what they look like, because finding a key makes it a lot easier for them to get into your house.

Softwood door

Many wooden doors are cheaply made and have little strength; one kick will break them open. By swinging the door shut you will feel the weight of the door. Grasp the door on the edge opposite the hinges, one hand near the top and the other as low as is comfortable. Then try to twist the door (gently pull with the right hand and push with the left. A softwood door will often flex showing how little strength there is in it. A cheap door feels light, and you can easily mark the wood by gouging at it with a thumbnail (do it on the edge just above a hinge where it will not be seen). This softwood has little strength and is very susceptible to rot and decay as well. Kicking it will splinter the door and often the frame too. (Don’t do it to test it, just be aware that a softwood door offers little strength.)

Door panels

You should be aware that the design of some less expensive doors could include a weakness that is well known. Where a door includes panels set into the door, the panels sometimes have very little strength. At worst the panels may be thin plywood, and only let into the frame in a shallow groove, so that one good kick often makes the door panel fall inwards. The criminal has the option of crawling in through the hole he has made, or reaching inside to release the lock to open the door. A flimsy door panel doesn’t even make much noise when it is smashed!

Hardwood Door

A hardwood door is actually hard, and gouging it with a thumbnail will break the nail rather than the door. Swinging it back and forth you will be able to feel the weight. Trying to twist it is usually futile, they are so rigid that there will be little movement, but you are welcome to try. Remember that no matter how strong the door, if the frame, hinges and locks are cheap or badly installed, you will reduce the protection that the hardwood door provides.

UPVC (double glazed)

UPVC (plastic) double glazed doors seem quite secure because of the standard multiple point locking mechanisms built into the door, but many of them suffer from panel weakness. As with wooden doors, the door panels are particularly vulnerable – one kick or a blow with a weight will smash the panel out, leaving a nice access point, or at least free access to reach in and open what’s left of the door from the inside! Newer and more expensive doors have steel frames built into the carcass of the door, which combined with the multiple locking point mechanisms do make them very secure, but they are not widely used and rarely found in older doors.

Doorframe

Remember to check the quality and fixing of the door frame. If the frame is weak and badly fitted it will give way and the strength of the door is irrelevant. Weakness can be found for a number of reasons, such as:

• The frame is constructed of cheap wood or is rotten.
• The frame is secured with the wrong fittings or not enough fittings were used.
• The structure of the wall to which the frame is secured is substandard.
• The frame is the wrong size for the opening it has been used in.

You should test the security and strength of the frame. Grasp the frame firmly and try to move it. If there is any movement re-fix it to make sure it can withstand attempts to gain access.

Locks

No matter how strong the door is, it has one fundamental flaw and that is that doors are designed and built to swing open easily. Their function is to give easy access to people and that makes them vulnerable. They have to open easily, but they should also be easy to shut and secure when required and that is achieved by fitting locks and bolts to the door. The effectiveness of the security of any door depends on the quality, number, fixing and placement of locks and bolts.

A night latch is convenient because it secures the door and the owner only needs to carry a small key to allow them to open and close the lock. The night latch

usually screws to the surface of the door so offers minimal protection against physical assault. As a single point fastening the night latch offers poor protection because one solid kick will break the door open. A two-point locking scheme offers better protection, especially if it uses what is called a five lever mortice deadlock and even better if it is to British Standard BS3621.

Locks and fittings are available from good hardware stores. Those illustrated are shown courtesy of Screwfix, a large company which sells locks, tools and materials (www.screwfix.com).

A mortice lock is a stronger fixing method because it is installed inside the door. A suitable slot has to be cut into the edge of the door, and the lock is buried within the wood where it becomes part of the structure of the door. Holes are cut through to accommodate the handle and key slot, which allow the lock to be operated. As with most locks a catch plate is secured into the doorframe, reinforcing the point where the mortice bolt engages the frame.

Different locksmiths give different advice as to the type, location and fixing of door locks. Technically, the advice will differ depending on a number of factors. For example, considerations that will be taken into account when proposing adequate protection for a door will include the following:

• The premises in question and what they hold. For example, a paper bag storeroom will require less protection than an electronic goods storeroom.
• Access to the door. If it is only open to pedestrian access the threat is reduced, but if it is open to vehicular access a secure locking scheme may include strategically placed anti-vehicle bollards.
• Length of time the door will be exposed to a threat. If a night patrol checks the door every 15 minutes, the maximum exposure time of that door to a threat will be 15 minutes.
• The material used in the construction of the door. Softwood doors are not as strong as hardwood doors. A UPVC door is not as strong as a hardwood door with a steel skin on both sides.
• Skills and experience used to install the door. A strong door badly sited and installed is of questionable value. If a tradesperson installs a door, securing the frame into the surrounding masonry, the door and frame take on the strength of the surrounding wall.
• Design and presence of windows. Some doors are designed to allow ventilation and so are fitted with louvers, and it is easy for a criminal to cut or break through a series of louvers to gain access. Similarly, the presence of glass in a door reduces its effectiveness as a security barrier. A door that has a window beside it is as secure as the window! It is pointless fitting the world’s strongest door if any lout with a brick can break the window to get in!

French windows and patio doors

French windows are probably the most vulnerable door in any property. They are usually located at the back of the premises, so a criminal can work on them unobserved and uninterrupted. The doors are designed to let in light and be easily opened wide to give access to the garden on a warm dry day and as such are designed more for looks and wide access than solid security.

Patio doors are often newer and of a better build and design quality, but they are still vulnerable to a criminal who manages to get to the back of the premises.

Both types of doors can easily be levered open with simple tools, unless the owner has taken steps to secure them.

Other door furniture

Depending on their use, doors may need other fixtures and fittings, which are collectively known as ‘door furniture’. For example:

Letterbox

A letterbox makes a door vulnerable. Cutting the hole weakens the structure of the door. Criminals have been known to use long poles to fish through a letterbox to remove car keys and valuables from the hall of a residence. Garage letterboxes and car-key drop off bins have been raided by criminals who drive away in hire cars that have been returned out of hours, or cars that have been left at a garage for services.

If required a letterbox should be fitted by a professional. Door manufacturers often recommend locations for letterbox slots for specific door designs. If they do, take their advice, but remember that a letterbox should:

• be large enough to accommodate postal deliveries
• be conveniently situated – the postman or woman will not be happy to bend to use a letterbox at the bottom of a door
• be fitted with an appropriate external flap and internal draft guard, to avoid wasting heat in the house
• possibly be fitted with a wire cage to catch mail and prevent foreign material being pushed through (there should be a smoke detector in the hall – it is not unknown for brainless louts to push fireworks through letterboxes).

Window bars

In some circumstances, where glass windows are fitted to a door or beside doors, fitting window bars or grilles provides an added deterrent and an extra measure of security. See ‘Windows’ below.

Door viewer/spy hole

Where a solid door is fitted, you may wish to install a viewer, which allows you to see who is outside the door. The viewers are usually fitted with a wide-angle lens on the outside, which presents you with a view of everything outside your door, allowing you to decide whether it is safe to open the door or not.

Weather strip

Not really a security item but included because many doors need them. It is fitted to the bottom on the outside of the door and it is designed to prevent water from running down the face of the door and running inside under the door. A weather strip will also help to prevent rot on the door, and avoid water penetration and swelling of the wood.

Hinge bolts

These bolts reinforce the hinge side of the door. They are fitted at intervals along the hinge edge of the door, I usually advise fitting at least three. They are quite easy to fit. Drill a hole on the centre line of the hinge edge of the door to an appropriate size and depth as per the installation instructions, then screw the bolts home. When all bolts have been fitted, I gently close the door until the hinge bolts touch the doorframe. Applying gentle pressure, without straining the hinges, you

can easily mark the frame where the hinge bolts will engage. Drill a hole for the bolt, mark out and cut a rebate for the catch plates then screw them in and the job is done. When hinge bolts are fitted, a door cannot be kicked off its hinges without totally destroying the door, and if that much force is used, nothing Hinge bolts and catch plates then screw them in and the job is done. When hinge bolts are fitted, a door cannot be kicked off its hinges without totally destroying the door, and if that much force is used, nothing will protect the property.

Internal door furniture

Other door furniture can be used inside the door, some of which is primarily used to increase security while some have secondary security benefits. For example:

Mail basket

A metal basket fastened to the inside of the letterbox will catch mail that is posted through the door. The primary purpose is to collect the mail, keep it tidy, prevent it being caught under the door and possibly being damaged when the door is opened and finally, making it convenient to collect incoming mail rather than scrabbling around on the floor for it. The secondary security benefit is that a basket prevents or hampers access through the letterbox, so criminals cannot hook car and door keys off hall tables. (Make sure that no keys are available or visible through your letterbox anyway.)

Letterbox covers

Positioned inside a letterbox they will at least stop draughts and can prevent rodents and insects from entering through a letterbox, especially if it is fitted to the bottom of a door. If they are spring-loaded they can stop or at least hinder visibility and access if a criminal does try to hook car keys or anything else through the letterbox.

Draft excluders

The presence of draft excluders shows that the property owner has taken steps to make the house as comfortable as they can, but as a security consideration they ring an alarm bell to me. The need for draft excluders indicates to me that the door is poorly fitted or poorly maintained and so is evidently a potential weak point, open to attack. Draft excluders make me look further at the strength, fitting, quality and security of a door.

Weather strip

Similar to the draft excluders, additional weather stripping indicates to me that the door is not as sound or well fitted as it could and should be. Weather strips tell me to look closer at the door and consider replacement!

Door viewer/spy hole

If a door viewer/spy hole is fitted – try it. See what you can see from inside the door. Get some help, ask somebody to hide to the right or left of the door, and see if you can still see them using the wide angle lens on the outside of the door. This will tell you if there are any places where a potential attacker could hide and not be seen using the viewer. Late at night if there is a knock at the door, and all you can see is what appears to be an old lady asking to use the phone because her car has broken down, is it safe? Could a burly robber be standing two feet to the right or just out of sight in the alcove on the doorstep? Check now to be sure. Identify any blind spots at your leisure and remove them now! For example, if you find that a criminal could be hiding to the left of the doorstep, put a trellis there, if somebody does hide there you will have time to slam the door before they can get around the trellis and thorny trailing rose you plant there. If criminals could hide in the shadows of the alcove on the doorstep, fit a light which you can turn on and off from inside the door so that they have no shadows to hide in.

Door chains

Door chains can be fitted to allow a door to be opened a little way to see who is there, without giving easy access to criminals who might be outside. Because the chain is short and engaged in the locking mechanism, it can only be removed when the door is shut, giving the resident an opportunity to lock the door and call the police if they are worried that a caller presents a threat. There are many different types of door chains, but they all have the same limitations. They have to be fitted properly, and they only work if they are used. It is pointless having a door chain fitted if you do not attach it before opening the door. If you have one – use it.

Remember, a door chain should ONLY be used to check to see who is at the door. Ordinarily it should not be engaged. They usually have some sort of hook that will let you hook the chain safely and tidily out of the way. With the chain in the safety, storage position if there is a fire or other crisis, you can get out of the door easily without fumbling to take off a security door chain.

Notices and signs

Notices and signs can be a deterrent, and so can help to increase security and prevent nuisance. Signs such as *We do not buy from doorstep salesmen’, ‘No free newspapers or circulars’, ‘Door Alarmed’, or ‘CCTV In Use’ can deter unwanted callers.

Notes

Notes can be an invitation to a criminal. Leaving a note stuck to the front door saying ‘Gone out – deliveries to number 42’ is a Christmas present to a criminal. Writing and leaving that sort of note tells the criminal that your house is empty and unattended. Worse, if number 42 is several houses away, that probably means that the neighbouring houses are empty too or they would have taken the delivery. Similarly, leave a nice friendly and quite common note for the milkman saying ‘On holiday, no milk until Saturday 27th’, and you may as well leave your valuables in the street. Think security!

Top and bottom locks

Additional security can be obtained by fitting sliding bolts or security rack bolts to the inside of the door at the top and bottom. These additional fixings make it a lot harder to break down a door, but I question their value if the door is already fitted with hinge bolts and a two-point locking system. Additional bolts undoubtedly make the door more secure, but they cause me some concern. Firstly they can only be used from the inside, which means they can only be used when you are in the house when the house is a lot less likely to be a target for criminals.

More importantly, if top and bottom bolts are secured at night they are a potentially fatal barrier to your quick escape if there is a fire! Under normal circumstances an adult can easily slide back a top and bottom bolt to open the door, but what about unusual circumstances such as the confused panic of a house fire at night? What if there is a child in the house and the adult has already been overcome by smoke, could the child reach the top bolt? What if the adult is partially overcome with smoke, would those bolts be so easy to release if you were in a state of collapse? Bolts do increase security, but I always advise people to think long and hard before fitting and using them.

Windows

Glass used in and beside doors can be used to make the hall lighter, to see who is at the door, or for decorative purposes. Standard glass is fragile, and as such is a security risk. Apart from the threat of injury to children running up to the door or tripping and falling down stairs into the glass, windows are a security threat. It is far too easy to break glass to gain access. Wherever possible I advise against installing doors with glass panels, and given the choice would prefer not to have windows beside doors. After all, why install a really solid and expensive security 64 door, when the window next to it can be removed with half a brick or an automatic centre punch? (An automatic centre punch is something used by engineers. It makes a small dent in metal at the point you want to drill a hole. Unfortunately criminals use them because they are easy to obtain, pocket sized and easy to hide, and used on a house or car window, they easily and fairly quietly break glass.) If at all possible avoid having glass in or beside a door.

Entrance hall

You should now start reviewing each room, paying first attention to the access points to the room. The entrance hall is unique in as much as you have considered the front door and any alarm system separately.

You should now be looking at the hall with security in mind.

Keys

Make a note of any keys you can see, and check those notes when you reach the

Lighting

An entrance hall should have bright lighting, and if possible a switch that operates an external porch light to help you see who is at the door. The brighter the light you install, the more exposed a criminal will be and the less likely he is to target your house. If you go to switch on the external porch light and find it doesn’t work, assume that there is a criminal on your doorstep! It is of course possible that your visitor is innocent and the bulb has simply failed, but it is also possible that they removed the bulb so that you couldn’t see and identify them. Be cautious and be safe.

Letter box

Check the location and quality of the letterbox. If it is located at waist level, it is ideally placed for a criminal to look through to see what is inside, even if they don’t bother to push a stick through with a hook on the end to take your car keys off the hall table. An internal draught excluder in the form of a top and bottom brush will prevent easy viewing and make it more difficult to ‘fish’ things through the letterbox; an internal flap is even better – especially if combined with the brush draft excluders, and possibly with a mail basket.

Indications

I have in the past advised elderly people to ‘dress’ their hall, as in ‘stage dressing’. Let us assume that we are in the hall of an old lady who lives alone. A visitor can see a lady’s coat, a lady’s umbrella, a headscarf and maybe a pair of an older woman’s walking shoes. Remember that a criminal will be looking for and reading the clues, and in this case all he sees are clues that point to a frail old lady living alone. I advise the family of elderly people who live alone to help them to dress their hall, to introduce some evidence of other occupants. For example, a strong used dog lead on a side table hints that there is a large dog around somewhere. A pair of men’s walking boots left in the hall with a man’s jacket and baseball cap indicate to a caller with less than good intentions that there may be a younger man around somewhere or due back soon!

I have seen a large pair of men’s running shoes casually tossed under the stairs in plain view of the front door in the hall of a 96-year-old woman, hinting at the presence of a big and athletic man.

The entrance hall is or should be as far as strangers will get into your house, especially with the door chain fitted and used, so anything you can do to make it secure and put off a criminal the better. What could you dress your hall with to indicate that the house and resident is not an easy target? If you are elderly, ask younger relatives to donate some items, or even visit the local charity shop for some appropriate items to leave on view!

Alarm system

If there is an alarm system fitted, the control panel is usually near to the front door in the entrance hall, and sometimes incorporates one or two panic buttons around the house that the householder can hit to instantly activate the alarm bells. Questions you should be asking about alarms are:

• If there is an alarm system, check it. Is it working? How often has it been triggered, and what triggered it? A badly adjusted alarm may be set at a sensitivity level that will not go off even if an intruder holds a party in your lounge, or may be so sensitive that it is triggered a dozen times each night by passing moths!
• What points of access are covered by the alarm and by what method? (Contact breaker, pressure pads, movement sensors, heat sensors, light beams, noise sensors, etc.) Are any access points not covered? For example, a new patio door installed after the alarm was installed may not be alarmed! (Of course the owner of a house you are thinking of buying won’t give you this information because that would be a security breach.)
• Is the burglar alarm system monitored by the company who supplied it, or does it rely on neighbours and people passing by to call the police?
• Are there any panic buttons? If so, where are they located?
• How often is the alarm used – that is, turned on rather than left off? A lot of people can’t be bothered to spend a few minutes setting an alarm, so they have it installed and rarely use it.
• Who has the combination, key or code to turn the alarm off or on? Remember that previous tenants had the code, cleaners, builders and other workers may have been given it. Children are often careless in the use of a code, and forget to shield their hands when keying a number in when a stranger is present. If in doubt, change the number and then restrict the number of people who have that number or code.
• Does the system have a record of activating for no apparent reason?

Telephone access and locations

Check for telephone access and the location of phone cables and plugs. Often the phone line enters through the entrance hall and then feeds to any other phones in the house. Having a phone in the bedroom allows you to summon assistance if you think there is a fire or an intruder downstairs; without it you will have to come downstairs to risk the potential threat to summon assistance. The widespread use and availability of mobile phones can do away with the need for a phone in the bedroom, as long as they are not left on charge in the kitchen at night!

Ground floor rooms

You should now check all ground floor rooms in order. With your back to the front door, follow the wall to your left, turning into rooms on the left and following the wall around that room until you exit and continue the tour, eventually returning to the front door. Don’t forget to look into all cupboards, store rooms and wardrobes etc.

In each room pay particular attention to doors, windows and skylights in external walls and ceilings because that is where intruders might find access.

Ground floor windows

For all ground floor windows, check to see if the window is closed and locked. Are window locks fitted? Is the key to any window lock in the lock or removed and held in a safe place? Check the fit of the window – is it loose, does it rattle? Is there sign of rot in a wooden frame? Just as we checked the quality and fit of the front door we have to check each window to see if it will keep intruders out. While you are there take the opportunity to review the level of maintenance of the windows – will they keep the cold and weather out as well?

At night I advise you to leave bedroom windows unlocked, or perhaps leave the window lock keys in upstairs windows when you are in the house. If there is a fire, you want to be able to escape quickly and easily. If the window is locked and the key is in the kitchen you could be trapped.

Unlock and open the window, and check to see how easily it operates. Check to see how easy it is to shut and lock. If the window is stiff and the lock is temperamental you may be tempted to leave the window insecure if you have to leave in a hurry. Windows and doors should operate easily, and be easy to shut, lock and unlock.

Note any problems with maintenance, installation, fit, operation and locks, and make sure that problems are attended to as soon as is practicable.

Ground floor doors

As with the front door and ground floor windows, patio doors, back doors, french windows and any other doors on the ground floor are most vulnerable to attack. Remember that criminals prefer to use doors. Using a door makes it easier to get in and out. If they are seen, somebody using a door isn’t anywhere near as suspicious as somebody climbing in or out of a broken window. Make the same checks for fit, strength, operation and locks as you did with the front door, note any problems and resolve them as soon as you can.

Basements

When you have finished checking the ground floor, if there is a basement or cellar, go down and check it now. With your back to the stairs, follow the left wall and tour the basement or cellar. Pay particular attention to access points, coal delivery chutes, windows and doors. As with all doors and windows, check them thoroughly. Remember that any external stair well with steps down to the basement will be ideal for a criminal, because they can slip down the access steps and work on a basement door or window unseen, giving them plenty of time to break in.

Upper floor doors

When any basement and ground floor checks are finished, work your way up and around each upper floor again following the left wall (which should make sure you don’t miss any rooms). Check all windows and doors, paying particular attention to doors and windows that open onto a flat roof, a balcony or anywhere an intruder may have easy access.

In multiple occupancy buildings a balcony or flat roof that gives access to another flat or room is particularly vulnerable. These doors and windows should be treated the same and be made as secure as the front door to any property. If they are hidden from passing traffic or pedestrians they should be made even more secure than a front door while still allowing for escape in a fire.

Where there is a balcony, you will have surveyed it in your close perimeter survey, but it is worth checking for access routes and hand and foot holds from above, below and to the side. Note any problems and take action to resolve them.

Loft/loft conversions

If the loft has been converted into accommodation you will check it when you work your way up to that floor level. However, even if the loft is not converted you should check the storage space in the roof. In an old terrace I surveyed, I found that the dividing wall was incomplete. There was a gap large enough for me to climb through the roof spaces of the whole row of houses, giving easy access down into each of the houses in the terrace from their lofts.

Be careful. Most lofts are not boarded – that is, there is no floor! The roof timbers of the top floor have plasterboard attached to the underside to make a ceiling for the top floor rooms. In the loft the top of those rafters is not covered with floorboards. You can only move around in the loft by using the rafters as rungs or stepping-stones to walk on. Between the rafters there will only be a thin layer of plaster between you and the room below so don’t stand on it. If in doubt or unsure, do your survey from the ladder using a torch and standing in the loft access, without actually climbing into the loft.

Check the end walls, especially if you are in a terrace or other property that shares a common wall or walls. With a party wall, there is a risk of unwanted access but there is also a fire risk. If the property next door catches fire and the party wall is incomplete the fire will travel through to your property, and if undetected could burn your house down as well, or at least seriously damage it.

While you are in the loft area do your maintenance checks as well. Check for signs of water ingress, damp patches, woodworm or other infestations to the fabric of the building as well as wasp nests. Check the quality of any water tanks and pipe work. You don’t have to be an expert plumber to do this, just look for the obvious. Is there a lid on any water tank? Can you see any signs of stains or white scale around joints and connections that may indicate leaks? Are the tanks and pipes lagged to prevent them freezing in cold weather?

Make a note of anything that causes you concern and get an expert in to check it and correct it as soon as possible. With house maintenance, ignoring a problem is not an acceptable option! If you ignore a problem you will eventually have to pay to resolve it and it will cause you a lot more trouble and cost you a lot more to fix the longer you leave it. If you are thinking of selling your house, potential buyers will find structural problems and either refuse to buy it or offer a reduced price because of the defects.

Some houses have windows set into the gable end of the roof, and some have 70 windows set into the roof itself. If so, check their quality, repair and security.