As well as bringing you the latest gossip and celebrity news from Marbella, we also try and bring you useful information to enhance your stay in this wonderful place.
Being such a tourist ‘hotspot’ Marbella sees thousands of visitors each year and a growing number of more permanent residents. There is an abundance of property for sale or rent in and around Marbella so if you are about to complete on that dream purchase, or moving into that newly rented home, we have a few tips for you about security and keeping your home safe from unwanted ‘guests’.
Buying a home in Marbella
Let’s start with a home purchase. Once you have chosen that dream property and done all the paperwork with your lawyers, the final stage is at the notary when you officially take ownership of the property. It is at this time we make our first recommendation.
At this stage you literally have no idea who formally had access to the property and how many spare keys there are in circulation. Most will probably be quite legitimate and with former cleaners, maintenance people, neighbours, family and friends. Just by listing those you can see how many copies of your keys might be out there.
Now we are not saying that these people are going to let themselves into your home, but there is always a possibility of these keys falling into the hands of more unscrupulous people.
It is better to be safe than sorry so one of the first things you should do is call a locksmith and get your locks changed. At least then you can start a new inventory of any keys you distribute and it means the old ones are useless in gaining entry to your home.
Renting
This is a little trickier as you cannot just go and change the locks without the consent of the property owner. But you could insist on new locks if you have a lot of expensive goods in the house. Many insurance firms will not pay out of items are stolen by someone letting themselves in with a key so your landlord should be understanding of the situation.
What if you lock yourself out?
It happens to many people with doors slamming shut in the wind. What you should so is make a note of the number of a locksmith like Security of Spain, who have been operating on the Costa del Sol for many years. They are one of the leading English locksmiths for Marbella and will come and ‘save’ you if you are locked out.
Their emergency phone number is +34 636 770 865 and their website is https://securityofspain.com/
They operate 24 hours a day so it is well worth adding their number to your contacts, just in case!