The best place to leave a spare key is with a trusted neighbour, friend or family member.
If you think your spare key hiding place is sneaky, chances are so does a thief.
We break down the most common places people hide their spare house keys and where you should be leaving it.
Is your spare house key really hidden from thieves?
There is no such thing as a good place to hide your spare house keys. Thieves know all the hiding spots – even the less obvious ones.
Breaking into houses is a largely opportunistic crime. Thieves may see something they want to steal and when they get the chance, they seize the opportunity and go for it.
The best way to prevent this happening is to make it harder for thieves to get a chance to enter your home. Leaving spare keys where thieves have no chance of finding them, gives them one less opportunity.
How secret is your hiding place?
Some of the most common hiding places people leave a spare key include:
- Under the door mat
- In the barbecue
- Under a rock or pot plant
- In the mailbox
- Inside a fake rock
- On the ledge above the door
- In the electricity box
While these spots might be convenient for family members or housemates to use when they need to access your house, they are just as convenient for thieves.
So where should you leave your spare house key?
The most secure place you can hide your spare keys is with trusted neighbour, friend or family member who lives close by.
Keeping your keys somewhere away from your home takes away an opportunity for a thief to break in and can help protect your house from theft.
If this isn’t an option, it might be time to get creative with hiding spots.
One inventive way we have recently heard is to hide your key without any identification in a park that’s 10 minutes away from your house! Although we don’t recommend this to everyone, it shows how you might start thinking outside the box for your next hiding spot.
What about key safes?
With the use of key safes on the rise, we often get asked, how safe they really are. Well, it really depends on the quality of your key safe, where you locate it and how you secure it.
While key safes are a convenient solution for many homeowners, they’re not foolproof. Most key safes can be quickly smashed open with a hammer and a bit of brute force.
We advise that if you want to have a key safe, then make sure you:
- Buy a good quality one that’s made from strong allow steel, is heavy duty and more resistant to being damaged. Make sure it’s also weatherproof and crow-bar proof.
- Install it in a spot that’s discreet, well-hidden and can’t be seen from the street or front entry. Avoid putting it by the front or back door, at eye level or next to your garage.
- Fix it securely to a solid surface like concrete or brickwork and use large masonry screws and epoxy glue.
- Regularly change the code for your key safe for extra security.
