One in eight Australians fail to regularly lock doors to their home, survey finds

When it comes to home security a significant number of Australians struggle to do the bare minimum, with one in eight failing to lock their doors.

About 12 per cent of people do not regularly lock the doors to their home and 60 per cent do not use deadbolt locks, a recent finder.com.au survey of more than 2000 Australians found. 

When it comes to windows, about 40 per cent of Australians don’t lock them, while 80 per cent of people don’t lock a garage that is used for storage. 

“We wanted to find out how seriously Aussies take security of their homes,” Finder expert Bessie Hassan said. “The findings were really surprising [and suggest] a huge number of people, more than two million Australians are not using locks on their doors and leaving their homes susceptible to break-ins.”

Tasmanians were least likely to lock their doors, with 15 per cent of people failing to do so regularly, and were least likely to have a video or CCTV system. But it was Queenslanders – who were least likely to lock their windows or have an alarm – who were most lax about home security. 

In Queensland, 4.2 per cent of survey respondents said they did not regularly lock their doors, windows, garage, use an alarm or CCTV system or have a guard dog. In Tasmania 3.7 per cent took the same approach. 

Residents in Western Australia are the most vigilant. And they have good reason to be, with the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s latest Crime Victimisation Survey showing it’s the state with the highest rate of break-in and attempted break-in victims. 

Nationwide 2.5 per cent of households were estimated to have had a break-in in the 12 months to June 2017, while 2.1 per cent had an attempted break-in and 5 per cent had experienced malicious property damage, according to the survey.

The numbers could be lower if more people took simple steps to ensure their home did not become an easy target for thieves.

“Thieves are opportunistic and easily deterred and so some simple security measures are often enough to make them move on and look for another target,” a Tasmania Police spokesperson said.

“We encourage people to always lock windows and doors at night and when they’re not home. It’s also a good idea to consider security lighting and always lock sheds and garages.”

Too often homeowners wait until it’s too late to increase their home security, ADT Security’s head of sales Darryn Bull says. 

“A lot of enquiries we get are very reactionary [to a break-in],” he said. “It’s always the same thing, people say ‘we wish we’d done it before’.”

Alternatively, it’s also in response to a crime spike in the area. “We do find we’ll get a few enquiries in one particular street or area after there’s been an incident there,” he said. 

In addition to back-to-base monitoring systems and locking up, he recommended residents kept their premises well lit at night, and cut back any big trees in front of a property that a thief could scale to try and gain access to an apartment or second storey. 

Nationally, about one in four people have an alarm system and one in 10 people have invested in a video or CCTV system, the Finder survey found.

Men lead the way on both fronts, and are also more likely than women to lock their windows, lock the garage their car is in, use deadbolts and have home and contents insurance. 

Baby Boomers were the most insured demographic – with 81 per cent having home and contents insurance – followed by Generation Y (50 per cent) and Generation Z (33 per cent).