Securing your Blacktown Apartment – Deadlocks are important

As housing prices  in Blacktown continue to follow the rest of Sydney in a seemingly ever upward spiral to all the people are choosing to give up pond or at least delay the great Australian dream of a three-bedroom house on a quarter acre block and are instead choosing to live in apartments.  The inner city dwellers this is very much the norm that out here in Blacktown we are still very much house and land people.

Securing a home is one thing that apartment security is another. Why?

1. It’s easy to spot intruders on your property if it’s a house.
   If you are living in a house it’s pretty easy to tell if the guy walking down your driveway has reason to be there or not but it’s not so simple when you live in a block of apartments. The man could live in one of the apartments at the rear of the building, he could be a landlord or a workman. Or it could be a burglar coming to rip someone off. Of course confronting someone who might have a completely legitimate reason to the on the property is something few people would do.
2. Apartments have different levels of security depending which floor they are on.
   Where homes always have a ground floor access this is not the case with apartments. Typically medium density housing in Sydney has apartments up to 4 stories high so the upper floors can only be accessed in most cases by a thief that first makes their way through a ground floor security door. Not so lucky other ground floor apartment residents access can be gained fairly easily simply by smashing a window, the noise can be hidden by the thief’s partner driving allowed car or truck past the building as the window is smashed. First-floor apartments are somewhat more secure but an enterprising thief will find their way onto the first-floor balcony and enter through and often unlocked balcony door. The highest level of security is to be found on the second and third floors which surprisingly get robbed less often than top floor apartment I suspect it’s because thieves intending to pick a lock or prise open the door to feel more secure all doing so when the apartment is on the top floor which will get less walk by traffic. Middle floors will often have people walking past to get to the upper floors.

Share apartment living is often the only way young people can afford an apartment that this often means being left to the mercy of your flatmates when it comes to how diligent they are with locking the apartment doors.  It’s important to ensure everyone not only pulls the front door shut when they leave the apartment they must properly lock the front door deadlock. I was running late for uni/work/etc and forgot is not an excuse that will be happily received from the other tenants if a house is burgled because someone forgot to lock the deadlock.

Apartments are burgled or window residence at home using simple lock picking techniques(which I won’t detail) the quiet and allow an astute thief to raid your apartment while you sleep unaware they have even entered to you get up to check your emails only to find your iPad is gone. Keep the apartment door deadlock locked at night even if you leave a key in at full fast opening in case of a fire.

Another way thieves can access your apartment is if you or one of your flatmate’s loses a bag, purse or wallet which address details as well as your keys in it.  Whilst the nuisance and expense of replacing your cards et cetera and other loss items will weigh heavily on your mind  – the first thing you need to do is call a Target Locksmiths so we can secure or your home. Someone willing to steal your personal property is certainly willing to come to your home to see what else they can get.

The good news is apartment dwellers… Houses are targeted more often the apartments by burglars so by choosing an apartment as your home you have already produced your chances of being burgled. But do the right thing by yourself and your flatmates.

1. When moving into apartment ensure the barrels of the deadlocks are changed you never know who has access to your apartment.
2. Ensure everyone keeps their keys securely, preferably on their person rather than a bag or wallet.
3. Make sure everyone diligently uses the deadlocks as opposed to just pulling the front door shut.
4. Keep the deadlock locked during the night – Keep a key in the lock on the inside if you wish.
5. If you have a choice choosing apartment on the second or third floor.