How to make rented property more secure?

If you are living on a rented property, there is little you can do to when it comes to making changes to door locks or installing security systems. More often than not you rely on the security arrangements, sometimes bare minimum, provided by your landlord.

How do you get your peace of mind? How to feel secure?

1. Ask your landlord to get the locks rekeyed. It is fairly inexpensive and doesn’t take that long too. If they refuse, it doesn’t hurt to pay for it yourself. It is very much possible that someone living here previously still has the keys. For your peace of mind, you don’t want any spares floating around. If you ask us, this is the first thing one should take care of whether moving into a new house whether it is a rented property or our own.
2. It may also help to ask your landlord if they can reinforce your door and window locks. Ask them to install sturdy deadbolts and use those locks. When leaving your house, double check you have secured all the locks on all exterior doors and windows.
3. If the deadbolt strike plate looks flimsy or worn-out, you can also ask them to replace it with a new, sturdier strike plate assembly with a deep metal pocket. It is definitely worth a shot.
4. Take renter’s insurance, if you already don’t have one. The best part of a renter’s insurance is that most of them covers for a lot of situations besides a burglary or a theft. Depending on your policy, you can also get coverage for water or fire damage. While you can’t exactly call this as a preventive security measure, but it can reimburse for your losses if your house is vandalised or broken into.
5. Install exterior lightings. Wait, what? Yes, you heard us right. Invest in portables one that you could easily remove and take along when you move. Motion sensor flood lights are ideal if you have a yard or a garden to deter thieves.
6. Make efforts to know your neighbors. It always helps if you can rely on a trustworthy neighbor to keep an eye on your house when you are away on vacation or a business trip. You can reciprocate the gesture likewise.
7. Install portable security systems. They need not be installed permanently, and you can take them where you go next.
8. Go for fake or dummy security systems, if your landlord doesn’t install or allow you to install those. They don’t cost a bomb and are amazingly effective in deterring thieves and intruders.
9. Make sure you trim down the overgrown shrubs and bushes around your house from time to time. It won’t give any camouflage for criminals to blend in and hide.

Just because you are living on a rented property doesn’t mean you have to compromise on your security in any way. Before you take a house on rent, do some basic research, check out the house and get your communication with your landlord straight.

If you have rented a house in Racine and looking for a reliable residential locksmith in your area, you can give Racine’s Lock & Key a call at (262) 509-0366.  We specialize in new lock installation and lock rekeying. And we can also recommend inexpensive security solutions that should meet your requirements without spending hundreds of dollars. There is a deluge of portable security solutions that you can install in your rented home to beef-up your home security. And our residential locksmith in Racine can help you.