An Englishman's home is his castle - but how many people have keys?
New research commissioned by key safe specialist, Master Lock, has found that UK households are leaving themselves at risk by undervaluing their spare keys.
A survey of 1,000 homeowners found that the majority (88.7 per cent) keep a spare key with a person who doesn’t live with them. Even more worryingly, one in five of those asked continue to hide their spare key outside the home in unsecure locations; such as under door mats, bins and even rocks.
Whilst some homeowners do trust their neighbours to keep their spare keys safe, 84 per cent would prefer to entrust this responsibility on a friend or relative, with over a third of people electing to travel up to a 20 mile round trip to retrieve the keys. However from this, the survey bought about one interesting question homeowners should be asking themselves; should I be trusting my nearest and dearest, or neighbour with the value of my home and its contents?
The research indentified that over half of those surveyed are given the responsibility for at least one other person’s spare keys. Of these, it was revealed that almost a third admitted to have never checked the whereabouts of these keys since being given the responsibility. And a further 56 per cent haven’t checked the whereabouts of the keys in over six months - leaving an estimated two billion keys in circulation and millions of homes potentially insecure.
The survey also revealed that many people agree to look after keys through politeness, rather than taking the responsibility seriously; as one in five claims they would most likely lose another person’s spare set, rather than their own.
This woeful lack of care for keys, which after all hold the value of your home and its contents, was also demonstrated when homeowners were asked whether they had been a victim of crime due to poor key management. Shockingly, one in ten has had their property broken into as a direct consequence of misplaced or stolen keys.
Almost 57 per cent claim that the fear of being locked out of their home is the main reason for giving spare keys to others for safe keeping. However, the same researched showed that a third of these homeowners had suffered the inconvenience of being locked out of their home due to poor key management. Those questioned claimed that they had spent over an hour locked out at least once in the last three years and had subsequently been forced to break into their own home or pay expensive locksmith call out costs.
The research also highlights a severe lack of value placed upon spare keys with over half (51 per cent) claiming that they hold their personal gadgets of higher worth than their house and car keys, with a further 16 per cent stating their mobile phone and lap top has more monetary value than their keys.
This attitude was echoed by homeowners with children, a significant number of parents would rather their child lost their house keys than pocket money, which at the national average of £9.50 per week for 12 to 18 year olds , pales in comparison to the average house contents of £45,000 - not accounting for the priceless memories and the feeling of being secure.
Urging homeowners to address the need for improvements in key management and to prevent the risk a misplaced key could cause, Andy Culhane, sales director of Master Lock UK remarks:
“The sentiment behind the old saying an Englishman’s home is his castle seems to have been lost as the survey shows a distinct carelessness when it comes to protecting who has access to it. What’s more, should we really be placing such a high responsibility on neighbours, friends and relatives with our largest personal asset?
“Being locked out of your home is at the very best a costly inconvenience, but at worst poor key management could leave both you and your loved ones at risk. We are therefore urging all homeowners to really think about the best form of key management – if nothing else, this survey proves that failure to do so could be more costly than you’d think.”
The survey marks the launch of Master Lock’s new range of reinforced Select Access key safes, which includes the UK’s first electronic Key Safe with a Sold Secure Key Cabinet Silver rating. These offer practical and convenient solutions to spare key management.
For more information on Master Lock’s Select Access? range of key safes visit www.masterlock.eu