Home Safety and Security

By Tom Okafor · Updated 5 October 2026

White CCTV security camera mounted on a pole against a blue sky

Securing your student house doors and windows

Burglars look for doors and windows left unlocked or open, and in a shared house it only takes one person to forget. Do not rely on your landlord or letting agent to point out weak spots. Check every entry point. Do it the moment you pick up your keys. Many student properties are Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), which have to balance security with fire safety. Your front door should have a thumb-turn lock on the inside to allow escape without a key during a fire. However, this means a burglar who climbs through a window can carry your belongings out through the front door. You must secure the perimeter completely.

Key Stat76%of home burglaries involved entry through a door, according to the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales (year ending March 2025)

Check the front door lock carries a British Standard Kitemark. If that door is your way out in a fire, look for BS8621, the thumb-turn version of the BS3621 deadlock.Verify that all ground-floor windows have functioning key-operated locks and that the keys are present.Inspect the window beading on older double-glazed units to ensure burglars cannot remove the glass from the outside.Hide spare keys inside the property rather than leaving them under doormats, plant pots, or fake rocks.Ask your landlord to change the external locks if the previous tenants did not return their complete set of keys.Install cheap, removable sash jammers on vulnerable ground-floor windows to provide an extra layer of physical resistance.Keep window keys out of sight but accessible on a hook nearby in case you need to escape a fire.

Essential fire safety checks for student accommodation

Cooking starts more accidental house fires than anything else (42% in England in the year ending March 2026), and overloaded sockets and cheap phone chargers add to the risk. In England, your landlord must fit a smoke alarm on every floor and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a boiler, gas fire, open fire, or log burner, under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 as amended in 2022. Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have their own alarm rules. Check the alarms are there when you arrive.

Watch Out

Never take the batteries out of a smoke alarm or cover it with a sock to stop it beeping. It can break your tenancy agreement, and in a shared house (HMO) in England it can be a criminal offence.

Locate the fire blanket in your kitchen and check it is securely mounted to the wall away from the cooker.Test every smoke alarm. Hold the test button until it sounds loudly.Check there is a carbon monoxide alarm in every room with a boiler, gas fire, open fire, or log burner.Check that sofas and upholstered chairs supplied by your landlord carry a permanent fire safety label (mattresses do not need one).Map out two clear escape routes from your bedroom to the outside of the building and walk them with your housemates.Clear corridors and hallways. Move bicycles, drying racks, and cardboard boxes out.Inspect the heavy fire doors in your HMO to ensure the automatic self-closing mechanisms shut the door completely.

Protecting valuables and tech in shared houses

You will likely bring thousands of pounds worth of laptops, phones, tablets, and gaming consoles to university. Some family home insurance covers a student’s belongings at university, though with a cap on what it pays. Read the policy before you rely on it. Many policies will not pay for a theft from student accommodation unless there are signs of forced entry, so an unlocked door can cost you the claim. Budgeting for specialist insurance is vital, so factor this monthly cost into your spending plan using our student budget calculator.

Top Tip

Always back up your university coursework to cloud storage automatically so a stolen laptop does not mean a failed degree.

Buy a standalone student contents insurance policy that explicitly covers your specific room in a shared house.Register the serial numbers of your phone, laptop, and bicycle on the national property database at Immobilise.com.UV-mark your high-value items with your postcode and house or flat number, as police advise, so they can be identified if they are stolen and recovered.Lock your bedroom door every time you leave the house, even if you are just going to the corner shop.Draw your curtains or blinds when working on expensive equipment near ground-floor windows facing the street.Lock your bicycle to an immovable object using a Sold Secure Gold rated D-lock, even when storing it inside a locked garage.Store your passport, driving licence, and important financial documents in a locked cash box hidden inside your wardrobe.

Managing landlord repairs and home security standards

Broken locks, smashed windows, and faulty security lights compromise your safety immediately. In England, Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes your landlord keep the structure and exterior in repair, which includes windows, external doors, and their locks. The rest of the UK has equivalent duties under its own laws. You must report security issues to your landlord or letting agent in writing instantly. Verbal requests leave no paper trail and give bad landlords an excuse to delay. If your landlord ignores urgent security repairs, you can contact your local council’s environmental health department, which can enforce the repair. In Scotland you apply to the housing tribunal instead. The law sets no fixed deadline for private landlords, only a reasonable time, and Shelter says it is reasonable to ask for a broken external door lock to be fixed within 24 hours.

A kitchen gutted by fire, with blackened walls and a burnt-out cooker

Repair Type	Recommended Reporting Method	What to ask for
Smashed ground-floor window	Phone call followed by email	Within 24 hours (emergency board-up)
Broken front door lock	Phone call followed by email	Within 24 hours
Faulty bedroom door lock	Email with timestamped photos	A date in writing
Broken exterior security light	Email request	A date in writing

Photograph any existing damage to doors, windows, and locks on your moving-in day to protect your deposit.Email your letting agent immediately if an external door does not close flush with the frame and requires force to shut.Request a specific timeline in writing when reporting a broken security light, alarm system, or gate.Follow up with your university accommodation office if your private landlord consistently ignores security complaints.Log all maintenance requests through your letting agent’s official portal rather than texting the landlord directly.

Building smart home security habits with housemates

Security hardware only works if everyone in the house uses it properly. A single housemate leaving the back door unlocked puts everyone’s belongings at risk. You must establish clear rules with your housemates early on. Discussing security alongside finances is a great habit to build during freshers’ week. You can manage shared costs like contents insurance or replacement padlocks using a bills splitter tool.

Key Stat153,966residential burglaries recorded by police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026 (ONS)

Create a WhatsApp group specifically for house updates, security alerts, and letting each other know when the house is empty.Agree on a strict rule to double-lock the front door at night and, if it needs a key from the inside, keep that key where every housemate can find it in a fire.Challenge strangers who follow you through secure gates into purpose-built student accommodation blocks.Set cheap mechanical timers on your bedroom lamps to create the illusion of occupancy during reading weeks and holidays.Hide all expensive electronics, gaming consoles, and alcohol from view before leaving the house for the Christmas break.Establish a guest policy for house parties to ensure you monitor who enters and leaves the property.Take your keys with you on nights out rather than relying on housemates to let you in at early hours.

Frequently asked questions

Does my landlord have to provide a burglar alarm?

Landlords are not legally required to install burglar alarms in standard student properties. They do have to keep external doors, windows, and their locks in repair, and the council (in Scotland, the housing tribunal) can act if a home cannot be kept secure. You can ask permission to install a wireless, battery-operated smart alarm at your own expense.

Will my parents’ home insurance cover my student house?

Some family home insurance policies extend cover to a student living away at university. You must check the specific policy wording to see if it covers items stolen from a shared house. Many policies only pay for theft from student accommodation if there was forced entry.

Who pays for a broken window in a rental property?

The person responsible for the damage pays for the repair. Your landlord must cover the cost if a burglar smashes the window from the outside. You or your housemate must pay if you break the window accidentally from the inside.

What should I do if I get burgled at university?

Call 999 immediately if you suspect the burglar is still inside the property. Call 101 to report the crime if the burglar has already left. Get a crime reference number from the police to give to your landlord and your insurance provider.

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Written by

Tom Okafor

Tom Okafor covers student housing: tenancies, deposits, guarantors, bills and council tax. Writing here since September 2025. Got a tenancy problem? tom@unisorted.co.uk

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