Setting Home Security Rules for Family and Guests
Do you have children or do house guests visit on occasion? What about extended family who often stay with you? If so, do they all know the basic home security rules to keep you safe from burglars and criminals? For example:
- Do your children know what information shouldn’t be shared with friends?
- Do your house guests and older children know how to activate and deactivate your alarm system?
- Does everyone lock the door behind them when they come and go?
Sometimes, extended family or guests have different ideas about home security. If they live in a place or grew up in an era when there was little crime, they may not think the precautions are necessary. And children and teens are often focused on convenience, not security.
For these reasons, it’s a good idea to set some ground rules and make sure everyone follows them.
Activate the Alarm When Leaving
The best security system in the world isn’t worth anything if it’s not set!
It may be challenging for elderly guests or those who don’t have an alarm to activate and deactivate your system. Start by teaching them the basics. They should also know the correct code words to give the monitoring service in case of a false alarm.
If having your guests use the alarm isn’t feasible, you can disarm the system remotely from your phone. You can also schedule auto-arm and disarms for certain times.
No Sharing Passcodes
While it may seem harmless enough to have your teen share your garage or alarm passcode with their best friend who is over often, it’s just not a good idea. Be sure younger children know the code is private family information and not to be shared with others as well.
The more people who know your passcode, the less secure your home is. Your teen may drift apart from the friend over time. Or the friend may share the information with others. Kids may innocently give the garage code to the exterminator or meter man, not realizing the implication.
You should change your passcode regularly to avoid having too many people wandering around with it. You can also set up different codes for different people, which allows you to see who is disarming the system or unlocking the door.
Share your Emergency Plan
Does your family have an emergency plan in case of fire, a burglary or home invasion? If not, you should.
Read guidelines for an emergency fire plan and home invasion defense plan and set these up if you don’t already have them.
For guests who may be staying for more than a day or two, fill them in on the emergency escape and home invasion plans. Everyone being on the same page is the best way to safely make it out of those dangerous situations.
Don’t Open the Door for Strangers
You might know not to open the door for strangers, but do your children or house guests know not to? This could be especially difficult for guests for whom everyone is going to be a stranger. They might assume you or your children know the stranger at the door and open it.
And worse, there have been dozens of cases in which intruders disguise themselves as sales reps, cable repair technicians, electricians and other service providers, just so they can gain entry into the home. We covered what to do about door-to-door solicitors in a previous post.
If you know a service worker is scheduled to come to your home on a certain day and time when your family members or guests may be the only ones home, make sure they know from exactly which company the person will be from. When the worker arrives, they should ask to see an ID before allowing them in.
Share Your Rules
The bottom line is to not be afraid to share your home security rules and ask family and guests to follow them. It’s in their best interests, after all!
