The entry-point mistakes that make a house an easy target

Police crime-prevention advice on burglary converges, force after force, on a short list of weaknesses — and almost none of them cost money to fix. They cost assumption. The house that gets entered through an unlocked door while the family watches television in the back room wasn't unlucky; it was, in the police phrase, an opportunity. This page is that official list, organised by where it happens — no tactics, just the published prevention side.

Doors: the unlocked problem

The single most consistent finding in domestic burglary is the simplest: a significant share of entries are through unlocked doors — daytime, evening, sometimes while someone is home. The prevention list from police guidance: keep external doors locked even when you're in (they're describing habit, not paranoia); if the final exit door is wooden, a five-lever mortice deadlock to BS 3621 is the standard police and insurers cite — and note it's usually an insurance condition, not a preference (check your policy's security wording; the small-print mechanics are the same as outbuildings'); uPVC multipoint doors are only locked when the handle has been lifted and the key turned — thousands of households never lift the handle. Spare keys go to a neighbour or a proper key safe, never under the mat, in the pot, or visible through the letterbox — and keys out of sight of the letterbox entirely, because fishing is in every police list.

Windows: the accessible ones

Ground-floor windows, and any window reachable from a flat roof, ledge or downpipe, are the second classic entry. Key-operated locks on accessible windows are the standard — and, again, usually an insurance requirement. The habit half is the harder one: windows left open overnight in summer, upstairs windows open with a easy route (bins, extensions, drainpipes), and ladders left out in the garden — police guidance groups ladders and tools with unlocked windows for a reason. Close and lock what's accessible; ventilate with locked-open vents rather than wide sashes (ventilation is a system — and most of it works locked).

The approach: sightlines, light and the side gate

The rest of the published list is about removing privacy and opportunity: valuables and keys not visible from windows; the side gate closed and latched (rear access is where police say most assessed entries happen); hedges trimmed below window height so the house isn't screened; motion or timer lighting on the approach; and the garage or shed locked — because the tools there are the ones used on the house (and the shed's own insurance line has quirks). None of it is high-tech. All of it is the difference between "an opportunity" and "a house that looks like effort".

The two habits worth stealing

The once-over: the same nightly walk as the alarm test — doors, windows, gate, keys away, lights where you want them. Thirty seconds. The away-routine: insurers commonly require everything closed and locked when the property is left unattended — a burglary claim with an open window is the condition-versus-event argument in another costume. And if you come home to signs of entry: don't go in — call the police from outside. The house is replaceable; the habit of safety is what this page is actually installing.

Sources: UK police force crime-prevention guidance (West Yorkshire Police door and window advice; consistent with Secured by Design and metropolitan-force equivalents); insurer security-condition conventions (BS 3621 final-exit-door requirements). Reviewed September 2026 · general information, not professional security or insurance advice.