Home Security in Mexico

Home security is an important aspect of home management in any country, whether you own or rent a property, and Mexico is no exception.

Contrary to popular thought, Mexico is not as dangerous, nor indeed as violent, as some may have you believe. The country has tight gun and lethal knife laws (gun ownership is not widespread) and violent crime, outside of certain areas and certain criminal circles, is quite rare.

Nonetheless, burglary and other residential crime is an issue that needs to be considered when you are living in Mexico, especially in the larger towns and cities and when you are away from your home for extended periods, leaving the house empty or unattended.

Blog Articles : Latest Articles about Real Estate in Mexico

• Securing Your Home
• Knowing Your Neighborhood
• Common Security Features
• Home Insurance
• Closed Streets & Gated Communities
• Unattended Properties
• Private Security

Securing Your Home in Mexico

The security of a home, and the safety of those living in it, are priorities in any household. How you secure your home in Mexico will depend upon where you live, what you do, and what material valuables you have to protect.

Home security in Mexico is much like home security anywhere else: by combining a number of common-sense precautions with some security features, your home and everyone who lives there should remain safe.

As with any security 'system' the most powerful form of security is that of a strong community. Getting involved locally and making a positive contribution to the security of your neighborhood and neighbors will always be the least expensive and most effective security deterrent. This is the subject of the next section: Knowing your neighborhood.

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Knowing Your Local Neighborhood

By the time you move to Mexico (or decided to live in Mexico after a visit there) you should know where you want to live, not just in terms of the town or city, but the neighborhood as well.

Nearly every big town and city world-wide has 'good' and 'bad' neighborhoods; Mexico is the same and you need to know which neighborhoods to avoid. Moving into the wrong neighborhood, especially as a foreigner, can spell trouble whatever security systems you might put in place. Therefore, the first rule of home security in Mexico is: choose your neighborhood carefully, as you would when you are living in your home country.

Once you have found a suitable neighborhood, make sure you take plenty of time to get acquainted with it and the other people who live nearby.

Shopping at the local shops and using local services on a regular basis will get you and your family known locally. Make friends and be sociable with the people in your local community. Get used to the people you see on a regular basis and let them get used to seeing you come and go.

If your children play with the local kids, use that opportunity to meet with other parents and build a rapport with them. Another way to get to know the neighborhood is to invite your new neighbors around for parties or other social occasions.

The local corner shops and coffee houses often serve as small community hubs in Mexican neighborhoods. Go there often enough and you'll see that other regulars go there too. Making the effort to integrate with the local community you live in will play a significant role in improving your home and personal security in Mexico.

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Common Home Security Features in Mexico

The home security devices and systems you'll use in Mexico will be much like the ones you are used to employing in your home country. Here is a summary of the main ones.

Locks and Bolts: A good lock and key system on doors and windows is the first essential line of defense against potential intruders. Most burglars are looking for 'easy' (fast) access break-ins, so making it difficult (i.e. time-consuming) for a person to get in to your home is a great deterrent in its own right. If you have just moved in to a new house you bought from previous occupants, you may want to consider changing the locks. Often, you only have to change the barrels, not the entire lock. Ask a local lock-smith to visit your home and advise you.

Security Lighting: Your property should be well-lit and, ideally, have one or two outdoor sensors which switch on lights in strategic places when they detect movement after dark. Great lighting is another inexpensive deterrent to would-be intruders. If you are away, or plan to be away, try to set lights and lamps to come on for a few hours each evening using timed switches.

Radio or Music Player: Another deterrent some people use to secure their home is to have a radio or music player switched on automatically for a number of hours in the day when they are out or away from the house for a period. Burglars prefer empty houses and the presence of light and sound are the two most common deterrents after a good lock and bolt system.

Alarms Systems: The screech of alarm sounds are mainly ignored in Mexico just as they are in most places around the world, not least because they may get set-off by any number of benign occurrences: the wind, birds, a large vehicle going past the house, etc. If your alarm is linked to a local security firm, you may want to trigger it on purpose periodically to test the firm's response times. An alarm system may wake you up if someone breaks in; or you may have an arrangement in place with a friendly neighbor to listen for it in the event of your absence (and then reset it for you!).

Surveillance Systems: Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems are becoming commonplace now, especially those linked to a computer. The images may be recorded onto a hard disk drive or beamed over the Internet to a remote storage location. You can spend a lot of money on these types of surveillance systems and, if you are inclined to, you should seek professional advice to do it properly. The most simple CCTV system is a camera with a door-entry system: most modern apartment blocks have these installed as standard and enable you to see and communicate with whoever is at the door before you attend the call in person or let them in using an automated door-entry system.

Window Bars: You may notice that most windows in Mexico, especially those facing the street, have heavy iron window bars surrounding them. On some properties, they make up part of the feature of the house (e.g. colonial style houses). Remember that window bars lock you and your family in as well keeping intruders out. Always have an emergency exit plan in place and ensure that any door keys required for exit are constantly at hand. If it's your property, you may want to consider installing the latest reinforced glass windows with strong window locks instead of window bars; however, the windows themselves will need to be of a reasonable size if you expect to use them as an emergency exit (you won't be able to break the glass).

Pet Dogs: One of the best deterrents against intruders in Mexico is a pet dog (preferably a medium or larger dog). It does not have to be a 'natural' guard dog (e.g. Doberman Pincher). Many people in Mexico have a fear of dogs (See Foreign Native Blog: A Park Full of Schnauzers) and, besides the noise it would make if a stranger was to enter the home, the 'prospect' of being bitten or worse also acts as a deterrent.

Fire Prevention and Drills: It's a good idea to have a fire drill in place for your family, a fire extinguisher(s) and a fire blanket (usually kept in the kitchen), to mitigate any small fire incidents and/or help you exit the house in an emergency situation caused by fire. If your home has window-bars downstairs but not upstairs, you may want to consider having rope ladders in the upstairs rooms as an emergency exit route. Note that smoke alarms are not commonly installed in Mexican homes, so if you are renting you may want to purchase battery-operated units from your local hardware store or super-market that you can take with you when you leave. If you are buying a house, the chances are that smoke alarms will not be installed there, either.

Other Security Systems: The home security device and technology market is vast and a visit to the Wiki entry on the subject demonstrates some electronic devices available, should you want them.

Special Circumstances: If you feel that, because of your situation or circumstances, you and/or your family members may be a particular criminal target, for example, from organized criminals, then you will need to have a professional assessment of your needs undertaken and probably have a private security firm protecting your interests. See Private Security, below, for more details.

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Home Security Insurance in Mexico

Whether you own your property or rent it, home insurance is a sensible product to buy in Mexico. Premiums will depend on where you live and the value of your material possessions you want to ensure, especially items like fine watches, precious stones and jewelry.

Insurance, in Spanish 'Seguros', may be purchased from a plethora of insurance brokers in Mexico. See Insurance in Mexico for more information and consult the Mexican Yellow Pages for domestic brokers.

Property Insurance: Property insurance covers the cost of repair of physical buildings after break-ins, floods or other natural disasters, e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes. Check the small print to see what's covered and what isn't especially in the case of natural disasters.

Contents Insurance: Contents insurance covers the repair or replacement of material items inside the property, should they be damaged or stolen. Again, it's important to check the small print in these policies.

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Closed Streets & Gated Communities in Mexico

Streets that have been cordoned-off and purpose-built gated communities are an extension to the concept of the 'neighborhood watch' program. In Mexico's larger towns and cities, and especially in Mexico City, closed streets and gated communities are becoming more commonplace.

Closed Streets in Mexico

A popular (and increasingly common) way to protect a cluster of houses in Mexico is to cordon-off the street. Agreement must be acquired from every home owner on the street(s) in question and the fees for setting up the cordon and administrating access to the street, must be met by the neighbors. Usually, a committee is formed, made up of resident-owners, who meet regularly and administrate the scheme between them.

Closed streets (and sometimes, entire closed blocks, encompassing perhaps a dozen or more streets) are a gray area in Mexican law. All public roads are federal property and, technically, it's illegal to deny people access to them (and thus the houses that they serve). Nonetheless, closed streets exist and thrive in considerable numbers across towns and cities in Mexico, and especially in Mexico City.

Either the street, or block of streets, is cordoned off by means of a gate-house and car barrier-entry system. A private security firm is hired to set up the installations and provide 24-hour, year-long security at the gate. In some cordoned-off areas, the guards also patrol the street, sometimes on bicycles if the cordon covers a number of streets.

Residents are issued with stickers they display in their car window, enabling them access to the secured area; the stickers are usually updated annually, and handed out in return for payment of the community's security and administration fees. Non-resident cars, taxis etc. (and sometimes pedestrians) entering the area must register at the gatehouse and leave some form of identification (e.g. driver's license). Exact policies and procedures vary by street or area.

Sometimes these 'closed street' arrangements fall apart, perhaps because the neighbors could not agree fees or entry policies, and you can see dismantled barriers and abandoned gatehouses at the entry of streets, especially in Mexico City, where a previously 'closed' street has become 'open' again.

Gated Communities in Mexico

Gated Communities are usually modern homes or condos, built inside a pre-defined area with a 'natural' cordon around it, unlike streets with houses that were there long before any additional security was built-up around them.

Gated Community security procedures operate in much the same way that closed streets (or blocks) do, with one considerable difference: all of the property behind the cordon is private land, and therefore there is no 'gray' area in the law as there is when a public street is cordoned off.

Residents living in the Gated Community pay an annual fee for their security cordon which is managed by a private security firm. Entry policies vary by community: some are quite straightforward, others are almost military in their approach to screening and allowing access to non-residents.

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Unattended Properties in Mexico

One of the most common reasons for house burglaries in Mexico is due to a property being empty and unattended for a period of time. Try to avoid leaving your property unattended in Mexico for long periods without someone looking after it for you.

Vacations: If you are going away on vacation—even if only for a long weekend—ask a friend or a neighbor to stop by and clear any letter post that may have arrived during your absence. For longer vacations (e.g. two weeks or more) consider asking someone to house-sit for you, especially if your house is situated in a remote or very quiet area.

Part-Time Residency: If you only live in your house part-time, then you should seriously consider paying someone locally to manage the property for you while you are away. Home managers usually stop-by once or twice a week to clear any post and check on any issues that may have arisen, e.g. leaky pipes, as well as to water plants you may have in the house. They will also stop-by after any major storms or heavy rainfalls to see that everything is in good order. A good home manager will also stock your fridge and pantry with fresh basic food items and perhaps some beverages that you like before you are due to arrive back. They will email you with regular reports and telephone you in the event of any unforeseen incidents. If you are only living in your house part-time, you may also consider renting your home out. See Renting in Mexico and Realtors.

Use of Timed Lighting, Sounds: If you will be away for a short while, use automatic timed light switches that come on for a few hours each evening, and get a music player or radio (or the TV) to come on as well. See Security Features, above.

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Private Security in Mexico

Private security is a huge, multi-billion dollar industry in Mexico. It is estimated that there are over 10,000 security firms operating in the country, although few of them are formally licensed or regulated.

The provision of security guards is the most common service provided by private security firms to domestic and commercial clients. Guards may work on the premises, perhaps on a 24-hour rotary system, or off-premises making regular patrols.

Security guards for closed streets and gated communities, private schools and colleges, shops and offices are the most common. They are not very well paid and may have limited training. Nonetheless, the presence of a guard, with a communications link to their firm (and able to alert the local police) can provide a useful deterrent and early warning system which at best will deter a would-be assailant and, at worst, give the potential to raise an alarm for others to assist.

For executives and individuals of high net worth, an entire raft of services is available from highly specialized firms, usually hiring ex-military personnel. Services include such things as armored vehicles, private body guards and even highly detailed security arrangements personalized to individual circumstances.

However, for the majority of people, the deployment of an elaborate private security cordon is not necessary in Mexico and, by using some common sense and basic precautions, security should never become a major issue for you when you are living, working or enjoying a retirement in Mexico.

Notice

This guide has been published for general guidance and information only. We endeavor to ensure that the information we publish is accurate and up-to-date, however; laws and situations change, often with little or no notice. You should take professional advice before entering into any contract or formal agreement. This guide does not constitute personal, professional or financial advice to our readers.