Dark Evenings Home Security Checklist: 12 Things to Do Before Christmas

Burglary rises when the clocks go back because an unlit house at 5pm says nobody is home. The fix is a weekend's work: lights on timers, a camera at face height, the front door locked rather than latched, the shed secured and keys away from the letterbox. Eight of the twelve items are free, or nearly.

The 12-item checklist

#	Item	Cost	Time
1	Lights that look lived-in	£15 a smart plug; about £250 a room fitted	20 minutes to half a day
2	Dusk-to-dawn and motion lighting outside	£10 bulb to £80 floodlight	10 minutes to an hour
3	Check the CCTV really records	Free	15 minutes
4	Camera at face height by the door, or video doorbell	£90 to £230	1 hour
5	Lock the door, do not latch it	Free	Nothing
6	Anti-snap cylinders (TS007 3-star or SS312 Diamond)	£40 to £80 a door	20 minutes each
7	Shed and side gate locked, ladder inside	Free to £30	30 minutes
8	Keys away from the letterbox, fobs in a pouch	Free; pouch about £8	5 minutes
9	Curtains and blinds shut at dusk	Free; smart blinds £200 to £400 each	Nothing
10	Parcels: safe place, or speak to the courier	Free	5 minutes
11	Holiday plans off public social media	Free	Nothing
12	Register valuables on Immobilise	Free	30 minutes

Lights: the house must look lived-in

A dark house from 4.30pm every weekday for six weeks is the clearest signal a burglar gets, which is why police forces run "lock up, lights on" campaigns each autumn. The cheapest fix is a lamp on a smart plug, about £15 at the time of writing, set to come on at sunset and off at 11pm. Use the app's randomise option so it does not click on at 16:31 every day, and stagger a second lamp in another room.

The proper version is a smart lighting scene, Hue or Lightwave, that runs the hall, lounge and landing in an order that changes with the day, from about £250 a room fitted. You use it every evening anyway; the security is a side effect. Our best smart lighting guide covers the kit.

Outside

A dusk-to-dawn bulb in the porch fitting costs about £10 and needs no wiring. A PIR floodlight, £30 to £80, belongs on the side passage and the back, where break-ins start. Give the floodlight and a camera alert the same zone, so the light that comes on also sends a clip to your phone.

Cameras: check it records, then put one at face height

Many systems we see after a break-in had a fault the owner did not know about: the clock years out, the hard drive full and silently stopped. Tonight, open the app and pull up footage from exactly 14 days ago. If it is there with the right date and time on it, you are fine; if not, our Hikvision CCTV not working guide covers the usual causes. Set the recorder to keep 14 to 31 days.

Then look where the cameras point. A camera under the eaves at four metres shows the top of a hood. The police want a face, which comes from a camera at 1.6 to 2 metres near the front door, or a video doorbell. A Ring doorbell is £90 to £230 plus about £5 a month at the time of writing; a doorbell camera on the recorder costs more to fit and nothing a month. Our Ring doorbell installation guide weighs them up, best CCTV cameras for UK homes covers what to buy, and CCTV installation cost explains why a fitted system starts at £650.

Doors: lock it, and check the cylinder

Pulling a UPVC or composite door shut engages only the latch. It is locked only when you lift the handle and turn the key; until then, anyone who can reach the inside handle through the letterbox or a broken pane can open it. Lock it every evening, and keep the key near enough to find in a fire but out of reach of the letterbox.

Then the lock itself. Standard euro cylinders snap with grips in under a minute, the commonest way into a UPVC door. Look at the face of the cylinder: a Kitemark with three stars (TS007) or a Sold Secure Diamond (SS312) means it resists snapping. No mark means replace it: £40 to £80 a door and 20 minutes with a screwdriver once you have measured the old cylinder either side of its fixing screw.

The shed, the side gate and the letterbox

Most tools used to break into a house are borrowed from its own shed. Lock it with a proper hasp and padlock, bolt and padlock the side gate from the inside, and bring the ladder indoors. An unlocked gate is an invitation to the back of the house, out of sight of the street.

Keys by the front door are reached through the letterbox with a rod, so move the bowl. Car fobs are the bigger target: keyless cars are stolen by relaying the fob's signal from the hall to the drive, so both fobs go in a signal-blocking pouch, about £8. Test it next to the car; if the door opens, the pouch is no good.

Curtains, parcels and what you post

A lit room with the curtains open is a shop window. Close them at dusk, or let the blinds do it: smart blinds on a sunset schedule are £200 to £400 a blind fitted, and a lamp behind a closed blind is what makes the timer trick convincing.

A parcel left on the step all day says as much as a dark house. Set a safe place with the courier, or use a video doorbell to tell the driver where to leave it. And keep the Lapland trip off public social media until you are back: a countdown post is a vacancy notice.

Register what you own, and where we come in

Immobilise is the free national property register the police check when they recover goods. Half an hour with the serial numbers of bikes, laptops, phones and tools, plus photos of jewellery, means anything found has a route home and the insurance claim has evidence.

Our part is the two items that need fitting: lighting scenes that look lived-in and CCTV that records a face at the door, from £650 with a 2-year labour warranty, surveyed free across Sussex and around Horsham. Do the free ten first, though. A locked door and a lamp on a timer stop more break-ins than any camera.