Our new house broken into - advice needed

[LittlePickleHead]

I fear I'm at risk if overreacting so could do with some measured advice!

We've just been informed that our onward purchase has been broken into. It was tenanted and they moved out around a week before. There are two front doors and both were kicked in and need to be replaced. We share a front door with next door and then have separate internal doors, I am trying to find out if next door (occupied) was also broken into. We are also going in to assess the damage,

The things that concern me are - next door on the other side (who we don't share a door with) is vacant, doesn't appear to be advertised as 'to let'. It seems to have been vacant for a while. At some point previous to the break in the front fence was burnt down, which also melted a wheely bin.

If the house was broken into soon after the tenants left, the street is probably being watched. Would this affect us if for example we went on holiday?

We have two children, with DC2 still a small baby. This has really made me feel sick and I feel like the street is unsafe now. We are considering pulling out.

I should probably say, we are in London, but this is a 'nice' family area and (I thought) a very pleasant street. However it's very quiet and it turns out the majority of the houses are tenanted rather than privately owned. Whilst this wouldn't have occurred to me to be a problem before, I'm not wondering if this makes it less safe?

Help talk some sense to me and stop my imagination running wild!

Sorry just to clarify, next doors fence was burned down, not ours

the unadvertised house may not have a board because the owners are concerned about making it look unoccupied.

the tenants may not have been too careful about telling people that they were leaving an empty house, so this could be opportunism. Has anything been taken? Can you improve security with more solid front doors - how does the shared door situation affect this?

it is bizarre that there is an empty house in London where the rental market is so active.

nowhere is safe and nowhere is burglary risk-free, of course. I can't offer much more beyond saying that you really need more information. If you haven't exchanged yet, don't until you have this.

Has there been any dispute with the previous tenants? It's not uncommon for previous tenants to break back in to retrieve something.

No the previous tenants left the country so def not them. I met them anyway and they definitely did not seem the type to break and enter!

Haven't had anything back on disputes. I agree, the untenanted property is odd. I'm 90% certain it's not to let (not online either) and besides, properties in this area only take about a week to go.

I'm more interested to see if the occupied house next door was also targeted. That to me would be more worrying.

The house is empty anyway so I don't think there was anything to take.

Gah, I know this could happen anywhere, but I can't help feeling really uneasy.

a house known to be empty is an easy target.

It is more likely to be broken into again

A good burglar alarm will help, especially if you have nosy neighbours who are willing to help each other. If not, it will be ignored unless you pay quite a lot for a monitored alarm. Even then you are dependent on a keyholder rolling up. When I was away a lot on business I had a monitored alarm installed and paid a local security guarding firm to hold the keys and drive round with a dog in the event of an alarm. The house was attacked once, and my neighbour told me that the police, guards and dogs arrived so quickly that the culprit or his chums would not have wanted to come back.

In my case I had better doors and locks fitted as well, so the alarm went off before the intruder got inside, but if the house had been unoccupied and unalarmed, he could have worked away unseen until he got in.

If the house has a phone line you can fit a simple and inexpensive DIY alarm that will phone out in the event of an alarm. However there are so many false alarms that police will not attend unless they have nothing else to do and someone confirms that they have seen an intruder on the premises.

btw if either of the doors just had a old "yale" type nightlatch, your granny could kick it in.

the outer door is most important; once past that they are out of sight.

I don't really get it, why would they want to break in into an empty house - there's nothing to steal presumably, unless they wanted soft furnishings or a cooker (hardly likely!). More dangerous aer squatters who can settle there and would be hard to remove. Although I think they've tightened the law on this now.

an empty house has a lot of valuable copper in it...

Yes squatters crossed my mind as well, especially when considered with the empty property's next door. Is thee any way to find out and contact the owner of the property? We want to do a loft conversion so will need to serve party wall notices at some point

Probably squatters. Normally someone kicks the door in and walks away, then someone follows behind "oh look and unsecured property, I think I will squat". Legally they have not broken in, the first person did.

I spoke to my dad and he mentioned the copper piping as well. Will have to thoroughly check this when we are there. Any ideas for places to look we might not have thought of? Or anything else to look for? Other than someone hiding in the cupboards

You would notice if your boiler has been taken - really hope not.

the squatting thing does indeed add up, BUT the law was finally changed in 2012 and it is now an offence to squat in residential property.

whoever is the owner needs to get it secured quickly.

Well they've replaced the doors apparently, hopefully with something a bit stronger than last time!

What would others do in this situation? I just find it hard to believe they would have gone to the trouble of breaking in just to leave again, there must have been a point to it?

Oh, and we haven't exchanged yet (due to our sale, which is an earlier thread of woe!)

I'm not sure exactly what we need to make ourself confident of before we do exchange.

well, of course go in and have a thorough check - if the pipes were stolen or an appliance, it will be obvious. Check the loft for squatters - but no, it's v.unlikely! Maybe if the curtains were drawn they were hoping that people jus twent on holiday or that there were portable appliances left? You cam also check crime stats, not sure what is the website.