I’m not trying to put a downer on buying somewhere abroad (anyway, let’s face it, Home Alone is still a brilliant film) but remember that if you’re leaving your home back in the UK empty for an extended period of time, it might attract the attention of some less-than-savoury characters.

If you’re going abroad to search for a holiday home to buy, chances are you’ll be pretty excited and all your focus will be on that. But you’ll be leaving your home here empty for weeks, possibly months. Returning to find it burgled would be a really nasty experience. So how can you keep your UK home safe while you’re abroad?

- Ask someone to look in every so often. If your house is being staked out as a potential target, seeing someone come and go will deter would-be burglars from breaking in. Even better, get someone to house sit for you.

-  Cancel your papers. Yes, having your paper sticking through the letterbox and piling up outside the front door for three weeks straight is a bit of a giveaway that you’re not there. 

- Don’t tell everyone you’re leaving! Talking about your holiday to all and sundry might seem like fun, but if you’re telling strangers on the bus (or talking loudly on your phone) then you don’t know who is listening. I’m not suggesting you don’t talk about it, but just think sometimes who you’re talking to. The dodgy builders up the road probably don’t need to know that you’ll be abroad for a month buying a house on the Costa Brava, now, do they?

- Watch your tweets! Unless you’ve got a protected account, you don’t know who is reading your tweets. It’s very easy these days to find out when people are going on holiday – you can even do searches to find out. So a social-media friendly burglar looking to break in knows exactly when you leave, when you board your flight, when your friend is going to feed your cat. They might even know when your housemate is at work. Think before you tweet. 

- And while you’re at it, keep your Facebook private too.

This might seem like drastic action when you’re meant to be enjoying yourself, but wouldn’t you rather that you didn’t have to come back to a nightmare?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.