We have written this article to help you understand the current risk of a burglary, the burglars themselves in addition to some helpful tips on how to prevent a break in.

Crime Facts

1. A burglary happens every 40 seconds in the UK
2. Around 75% of burglars use a door of which 3% were open
3. Every year around 1 Million burglaries are reported, meaning there are probably many more which were never reported.
4. According to a Victim Support survey 1 in 4 victims have been burgled more than once.
5. 23% of burglaries happen during the night.
6. The majority of burglaries are not planned and are committed by opportunistic thieves.
7. Approximately 57% of burglaries occur when the home is occupied.
8. A Halifax survey found that around 1/3 of people who have an alarm, rarely activate it.
9. Burglaries have been in decline since the 1990s.
10. The Police only solve 1 in 10 murders according to The Sun Newspaper. As 17,000 front line police officers have been cut in the last 6 years. And over the same period, of the 493,257 burglaries reported to the Metropolitan police only 8% were solved.

Who is Burgled

• The biggest victims of burglaries are single parent families living in urban or suburban areas.
• The second biggest victims of burglaries are the elderly.

Who burglars

• 88% of burglars are male
• 6% of burglars are females
• 6% of burglaries are committed by both a male and female offender
• Approximately half of burglars are known to the victim, the other half are total strangers.
• The average age of a burglar is between 16-24 with 16% being of school age.

How much it costs

The average cost of a burglary is estimated to be £2,833, this includes fixing any damage and replacing the stolen items.

The most stolen items are

1. Cash – Cash is obviously of no surprise, hiding your cash in a heavy duty safe is a sound idea. Not only will they not be able to break into a heavy duty safe but they will not be able to escape with it either.
2. Jewellery – Jewellery is of high value and can be sold relatively easily.
3. Electronics such as Tvs, Radios and game consoles, phones and tablets.
4. Power tools, such as drills, chains saws, hedge trimmers grinders etc as they are relatively expensive items and relatively easy to sell on.
5. Alcohol and prescription drugs – Many burglars are drug addicts and steal to feed their habit. This includes stealing drugs and alcohol.
6. YOUR IDENTITY, burglars are increasingly looking to steal your identity, with this they can purchase items online take our loans all in your name.

How to protect your home

1. Ensure you have high security locks on your front and back doors.
2. It sounds obvious but lock both of your doors and windows when leaving your home. The majority of break ins occur through an open door or window.
3. Double lock your doors at night. If you have a UPVC door with a letter box, thieves can easily slip through a metal wire and turn the door handle letting their self in. If you double lock the door with your keys this will prevent such intruders.
4. Alarms are a very effective way to ensure your home is secure, when you are not occupying the home, as long as you ensure you activate the alarm as almost 1/3 of people fail to.
5. Ensure that a qualified locksmith attends to your locks so that they are

It is widely considered that moving home is a very stressful time with many tasks to organise and complete.

You have two options to tackle this and the first is to do the job yourself and the second is to hire some help.

If you want to do this on your own, you should make a list of tasks that need completing and set about prioritising these.

You will most likely have a lot of things tucked away that you forgot about especially in places like lofts and under the stairs. You will need to separate all of your items in to separate piles of what you wish to take with you, what you can recycle and what is waste that is either broken or no longer useable. For the waste and non-useable items you may need the assistance of a local rubbish collectors to take it away and recycle.

Measure the larger items around the home that you wish to take as this will be important as you will need transport to accommodate these and you don’t want a vehicle too small.

As you will not want to risk injury, having as many hand to help will not only speed things up but will ease the workload.

If you live in the capital, you should search for a London man with van to help you with your house move which will speed things up for you and will allow you to concentrate on other things.

As a UK business it is the responsibility of the owner to store away and manage the business waste in a responsible manner keeping to UK law.

Businesses owners are encouraged to keep the amount of waste that they produce down and re-use and recycle as much as possible. This will help the environment in the future save space in landfills and keep costs down.

You will need to use a business specialist waste disposal firm to effectively remove and recycle everything. You will not be able to use garden waste clearance company that only deals with things that are produced by an average home.

As a company to help reduce the amount that you that you need to dispose of it will save you money. You could try to have a paperless business where electrical communication is used instead of paper and printing. By doing this, you will enhance your companies reputation by being more eco friendly than maybe your competitors.

The professional company will give you a transfer note when work is complete so you will have a record that you passed everything on to a company that will deal with it in a legal and environmentally friendly way.

You will also need to organise the containers so you can store everything safely and out of harms way. You will be able to get this from the waste disposal firm if they provide this service which would be easier just to deal with one company. If the company does not provide this or their containers are not suitable then you will need to use a third party.
You can watch the YouTube video below for more tips on how to reclcle.

Tiles in the bathroom and toilet in your home are a very popular choice for a number of reasons. They come in many different shapes, sizes and colors so you will be able to get the exact look and feel that you want.

They are also easy to clean if used for flooring on a floor, rather than have carpet in a room that gets wet due to bath and shower water. You will be able to simply mop up and spills rather than have difficulty getting a carpet dry which could lead to a damp smell and damage to the carpet itself. If you have them on your walls you can just wipe them over with a clean cloth. You would have to check any cleaning product that you use to see if they are safe to use as you could damage your tiles if you just spray a random cleaning product on them, so double check first.

Tiles are versatile and can be used on wall and floors. The floor tiles are generally stronger due to the amount of people walking on them on a constant basis.

Materials that tiles are made from are generally slate, porcelain, marble and ceramic. These come in all different types of finish from smooth to rugged. Some are also spun so you have a rugged affect afterwards. Although mostly waterproof, you would need to purchase a waterproofing kit for shower areas so that dampness does not get in behind the tiles.

There are a number of quality Tile shops in London to look around and get an idea of what would suit your home best. It would be best to visit one to see face to face what you would be buying rather than just look at a picture on a screen or in a catalogue.