4 important home safety tips when renting your property
Renting your property may look easy, but as you will not be 24/7 in your property, Owners might feel insecure to pass the responsibility of ensuring the safety of their property to the tenants. More often than not, the tenants does not really care about the safety and security of the property. Therefore, Owners are advised to also do some precaution to safeguard their rental property.
Change your locks
It is always advisable to change your locks every time you place a new tenant in your rental property. For Singapore context, it will be either changing your main door or gate locks. This will ensured that the previous tenant does not enter the property after they have completed their lease contract.
For smart locks, it is advisable to change the lock pin numbers as well as erase the finger prints database of the previous tenants.
Install/use bright LED or lights bulbs within the property
One of the best ways to deter break-ins is to install bright lighting within your rental property. As bright lighting gives the impression that someone is home and not vacant, even if the tenants does not have the practice of "always-staying-at-home".
If you can, install motion sensor lighting at the door steps so they only turn on when they sense movement. This type of lighting only required battery-operated and can be installed easily. It also add an additional light source for your tenants when they arrived home. Motion sensor lights give the impression someone is home and prevent your property from becoming a target.
After all, break-in does not happen overnight. It requires careful planning and if the property gives an impression that there are people staying in, the percentage of break-in will be reduced.
Install a CCTV at the entrance
Security camera (CCTV) give Owners and tenants an easy way to track activity happening on the property, whether they're home or not. Motion-sensing CCTV can alert when unusual activity is happening at the entrance, a prompt alert will be sent to Owners/tenants' hand phone. Recording of any activities/person who enter/leave the property, is the best option to deter any plan of break-in into the property.
Owners are also advisable to inform the tenants that the CCTV are only install at the entrance and not any other locations in the property. This is to protect the tenants' privacy.
Educate your tenants
Owners always have the knowledge and experience about your property and do not assumed that your tenants will have the same knowledge of keeping your property safe. Therefore it is important for Owners to help their tenants protect themselves and your rental property, especially when they're away for a long holiday.
Share with your tenants on some security tips so that they are aware of what to do when they travel. These are some of the security tips examples that Owners can share to their tenants:
- Ask the neighbor to help remove the annoying leaflets/brochures that is left at the doorstep.
- Ensure all doors/windows (yes, even those inside the property) are locked before they leave for their holidays. Even if the main door is broke-in, the doors inside the property will also stalled time for burglars to get to what they are looking for
- Check the CCTV is working (if installed) before they leave for their holidays
- Inform the Owner that they will not be around for that particular duration so that the Owner will react in any situation
- Arrange for a family member/friend/neighbor to help check or look after the property during that period
- Turn on some interior lights to give an impression someone is at home
- Store all valuables in a locked place
- Refrain from announcing their absence on social media for all to know, especially if their social media does not set their privacy to the public
The ultimate goal is to educate your tenants, especially those from overseas, to take a proactive approach to home security when they are away for a long time. For overseas tenants, what they do back in their country may not be the same as what we do in Singapore.
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