Landlord’s Home Security Guide for Rented Properties

Property security systems are vital for any home, and for a landlord, understanding what is and isn’t required for a rented property is an important part of managing a property and tenants. Another aspect of installing security systems for a rented property as a landlord, is ensuring that the highest quality is purchased and installed to suit the property and budget in question.

Why is security important for a landlord?

Security is important for a landlord to protect their investment. A secure property is a great selling point when attempting to attract new tenants, providing them with a safe space to call home. It helps to reduce long-term costs as a well-protected property is less likely to suffer a break-in and criminal damage. It is also very important to think about the potential vacant periods where there are no tenants present, especially for furnished properties. Ensuring security is tight helps to minimise the inherent greater risk of burglary when a property is vacant.

Here, we’ve put together a list of some of the important security aspects that will help a landlord protect a property:

Installing the right alarm system

The best way to protect a property is to look at the best alarm installation solutions to suit your needs and budget. Alarm systems come in a few different forms, but the basic principles apply to all, they are designed to alert the person living in the house when there is an incident of a break-in. Having a visible alarm system is often a good deterrent to criminals looking for a property to break into, whilst there are different features to choose from to suit different scenarios. For instance, some alarms have a loud siren, others are quiet and remotely alert the relevant people. 3rd party monitoring is where a third party or the police are sent an alert in the event of a break-in, and smart alarms can be monitored through a remote smartphone app. Alarms can be triggered by forced entry through a door, vent, or through the use of window sensors.

Consider CCTV

By installing CCTV cameras, you can keep a lookout for any suspicious activity that is taking place outside your property, and have access to the camera feeds from afar, if you are a landlord that wants to be proactive in home security. One important point to remember though is to always have CCTV cameras pointing outwards from the property, as you should never impact the privacy of your tenants through live camera feed footage of the inside of their home.

Robust door and window locks

The most common illegal entry point for criminals at any property type is through vulnerable windows and doors. This could be due to doors and windows being left open, but quite often entry is forced. This is why it is so important as a landlord to install the most robust locks for windows and doors to help protect your tenants and your property. Deadbolts offer robust security options, and it is advised that you put locks on all windows and doors to make it as difficult as possible for criminals to gain entry. A good approach to security is to change the locks when an old tenant moves out and a new tenant moves in.

Security lighting

Another great investment for a landlord to consider is security lighting. To protect the property at night, security lights in the form of motion sensors or floodlights are triggered when certain sensors are physically breached, leading to a bright light shining on the perimeter of the property, overlooking a doorway or a particular set of windows, whatever it is that you choose. This is a great way to scare off any potential intruders before they attempt to enter the property itself, whilst also alerting those inside and any neighbours.

Secure the garden and perimeter

It is unlikely that a criminal will attempt to go through the front door first (although some do), so that makes the security around the perimeter important. This means securing the garage or shed if you have them, ensuring shrubbery and trees are cut back to prevent criminals from hiding within them, and put up a tall, solid fence.

There are some home security mistakes that both tenants and landlords make when attempting to add another layer of security to a rented property. We hope that this security guide for landlord’s has helped to fill in any blanks and give pointers to the right direction for any person who owns a property with tenants and is looking to install a security system. Peace of mind for both tenant and landlord is important when it comes to the security of a rented property.