Burglar Proof your Home During the Christmas season, more than any other month, people are tempted away from their homes for a night out with friends.  Despite the colder weather and the inclination to stay warm indoors, we venture out to take part in the festive celebrations but how do you keep your house safe from burglars to prevent a nasty surprise when you come home?

• Preventing or Discouraging Access
• Dealing with the Insurance Company 

Preventing or Discouraging Access

1. Get automatic timers for your lamps and draw your curtains every night whether you are in or not, that way potential burglars won't know whether the house is empty.  You could also leave a radio or TV on so it sounds as if someone is at home.
2. Always lock your doors and windows before you go out.
3. Don't leave ladders or steps in the garden than can be used to climb on to gain access to upper floors and potentially less secure windows.
4. Don't leave things in the garden that can be used to gain entry into your property, i.e. screwdrivers, hammers, etc.
5. Don't leave your keys near or in the front door.  If the thieves have gained access through a window, having to leave via the same route will restrict the amount of things they can take with them however if your door key is in or near the door they can simply unlock it and take anything they can carry.  Similarly, don't leave your car keys visible, thieves have been known to take the opportunity to use your car as a convenient removal van/get away vehicle.
6. Do not leave your cash, cards, passports and jewellery in plain sight.  Ideally they should be kept in a safe but if you don't have one find an obscure hiding place.
7. Talk to your neighbours. Try to organise a neighbourhood watch scheme of sorts, even if it is only on an adhoc basis.
8. Get a good insurance policy.
9. If you can afford it, buy a good alarm system with remote notification to the Guardia. If that is not quite in your budget then how about some movement sensor alarms from your local ferreteria.  They will obviously not notify the police for you but hopefully they will make enough noise to scare off a burglar or alert a neighbour.

Dealing with the Insurance Company

There are a number of suggestions that you can carry out now to make it easier to deal with the insurance company if you do need to make a claim

1. The most important advice we can give you is to check your insurance policy, particularly with regard to:
   • Make sure that any valuables are covered and that you are complying with any specific terms and conditions regarding storage of jewellery or cash. 
   • Check whether any high value items need to be specifically mentioned.
   • Do you need to have independant valuations of any particular item in order to be covered
   • Check to see if there is a particular timescale within which to make a claim or a specific procedure to follow.
   • Make sure that you have adequate cover for the total contents as if you are under-insured they may refuse to pay all or part of your claim.
   • Check the terms of your policy, not all cover items on a "new for old" basis.
2. Photograph all your sentimental and valuable items so that you can quickly work out what is missing.  For example a photograph of your DVD shelves showing the quantity that you had will solve any arguments with the loss assessors on that subject.
3. Make sure that you have receipts for any valuable items as you may find that items over a certain age are not covered by your policy.  Similarly, we have come across some insurance companies who will not pay out for gifts since their opinion is that it didn't cost you anything in the first case.