Guide
Preventing burglaries: what actually works
Burglary prevention is neither a matter of gadgets nor an equipment arms race. It is a combination of mechanical resistance, time gained and simple habits. Here is what counts, in order of effectiveness.
Published on by the France Serrure Côte d’Azur team
The basic principle: make intruders lose time
A break-in attempt that drags on is an attempt that fails: the longer an opening resists, the greater the risk of being seen or heard, and the more likely the intruder is to give up. The entire logic of mechanical protection — multipoint lock, high-resistance cylinder, reinforced door — rests on this principle.
It is also why consistency comes first: an excellent cylinder on a fragile door, or a reinforced door next to an unprotected window, merely shifts the point of attack.
Where to start: an audit of your entry points
Walk around your home asking a single question at each opening: 'through here, how much time and how much noise?'. The front door, but also the service door, the cellar door, ground-floor windows, an accessible balcony French window, access via the garage.
On the Côte d'Azur, the recurring weak points come from the terrain and the building stock: the secondary ways into a hillside villa — service gate, garage door, plant room — often far weaker than the main entrance; terraces and balconies made reachable by the slope, a restanque (one of the dry-stone terrace walls that shape the hillsides) or a party wall; cellars and store rooms on the ground floor of the old towns. In the large hillside apartment complexes, the entrance-hall access control adds a false sense of security: it filters the pedestrian entrance, not the car-park ramp, and it has never locked a flat door that was merely pulled shut. These are often what should be dealt with first — not the main door, which is usually already adequate.
Then prioritise within a given budget: first the resistance of the weakest point, then the consistency of the whole, and finally the extras (alarm, detection, camera), which complement mechanical protection but do not replace it. And if the property is let short-term or has just changed occupants, ask the question that comes before any purchase: how many keys are actually out there? No amount of equipment makes up for a set of spares still in circulation — only replacing the cylinder does.
The habits that cost nothing
Actually lock up: a multipoint lock that is not engaged (a door simply pulled shut) offers only a fraction of its resistance. Turning the key as you leave should be automatic, even for ten minutes.
Don't leave signs of absence: an overflowing letterbox, shutters closed for weeks on end, public holiday announcements on social media. On a coast where part of the housing stock is shut up out of season, it is not the closed shutter that gives absence away but everything that has stopped moving around it: post, bin, lights, terrace furniture put away for months. For longer absences, 'Opération Tranquillité Vacances' — a French police scheme — lets you request patrol visits while you are away; sign up with the commissariat or the gendarmerie brigade covering your commune, or online.
Finally, never hide a key outside. Under the flower pot, in the letterbox, above the door frame: these hiding places are the first ones checked. The coded key box fixed by the entrance, now common with short-term letting, says the same thing more visibly: there is a key here, and the occupant changes often. A spare key with someone you trust, or handing it over in person, does the same job without the signal.
What about electronics?
Alarms, detectors and cameras have a dual effect — deterrence and evidence — but they only come into play once the intrusion attempt has begun: they do not hold a door shut. The sensible order remains: mechanical protection first, electronics second.
If you fit your home with a camera, mind the law: filming the public highway or your neighbour's door is regulated in France and can engage your liability. Keep the field of view within your own property — and in a co-owned building (copropriété), a camera in the common parts requires a decision by the owners' general meeting, not an individual initiative.
One last point: your home insurance policy. Some policies require a minimum level of protection (type of lock, shutters) for theft cover, and failing to meet it can reduce your payout. Re-reading those clauses before investing helps you target the right equipment.