The majority of people who move into a new house do not change their locks, says the UK-based company Brighouse, highlighting the gap in home security from a recent study.
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Another research, undertaken by Avocet Hardware and Neighborhood and Home Watch Network (NHWN), revealed that around 4000 out of 6000 respondents admitted that they do not change their locks when they relocate to a new home. Nearly 40% of those who told NHWN that they had their locks changed before moving, did so for the reason that they were not confident that the old ones were durable enough, plus they were scared that other people might have spare keys. Of those 4000 people who don’t change their locks, 86.2% admitted that they didn’t even think about it.
The chairman of NHWN, Jim Maddan, said the figures were quite alarming. On the other hand, when one considers that 11% of the population moves from house to house in the UK per year (and that the average Briton moves approximately eight times during the lifetime), then it lends the question as to just how many people might have had access to one’s front door key.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 92% of all domestic burglary in Wales and England were committed as a result of the perpetrator entering through the front or back door. The obvious conclusion is that every possible security measure should be put in place, to secure those focal points.
The security statistics highlighted by NHWN do not mean that people are putting themselves and their possessions at risk by not changing the locks when they move. The real problem is that the majority of the respondents are not even aware of the dangers that can result from ignoring basic security measures, such as rekeying the home doors when moving into a new house. They are also running the risk of having their home insurance negated, in case of a possible burglary.
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Recommendations
When moving into a new home, one of the first things to consider is locks rekeying or replacement (depending on their condition). Why? Because it’s hard to know who has a key, or how many people might have had an access to that house in the past.
It could be friends and neighbors of past tenants—not to mention workmen, housekeepers, and/or grown up children, who still have their own sets of keys. Yes, there is no way to escape the fact that a new home might be a sort of a “public” building and numerous people could still have the keys to the front door locks. Therefore, to be on the safe side, take care of this loophole as soon as possible. It’s better to do so before the moving date.
Employing the services of a qualified residential locksmith can help in that regard, since the majority of people usually don’t keep their knowledge regarding locks up to date and don’t know what to look for when shopping for a durable lock. In the case of rekeying, only someone who understands that line of work can actually get it done the right way, so it’s better to let a specialist do the job, in both cases.
Last but not least, in general – it’s better to start paying more attention to the extremely important factor that is security, because otherwise – someone might take advantage of the fact that you don’t do so!
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