Should I Get An Alarm System If I Rent?

For home­own­ers, installing secu­ri­ty mea­sures is an obvi­ous choice. When it comes to reduc­ing the risk of dam­age or theft with­in your home, installing a home alarm sys­tem is the best deci­sion. They act as pow­er­ful deter­rents to bur­glars, and even when no one is home, the sys­tem can detect a break-in, fire, or oth­er emer­gency and alert the prop­er author­i­ties.

How­ev­er, renters are less like­ly to think about an alarm sys­tem when com­pared to home­own­ers. This is too bad because it is still an essen­tial step to pro­tect­ing your­self and your per­son­al belong­ings. If the house or apart­ment build­ing you rent lacks an alarm sys­tem, you can reduce your risk by installing one.

Talk to your land­lord

The first step in increas­ing your apartment’s secu­ri­ty is talk­ing to your land­lord, as they may already be plan­ning on upgrad­ing the secu­ri­ty of the build­ing. Tell them you are inter­est­ed in an alarm sys­tem as a com­po­nent of any future secu­ri­ty ren­o­va­tions. If that is the case, you are well on your way to hav­ing a more secure apart­ment.

If they are not cur­rent­ly plan­ning on installing an alarm sys­tem, check with them to see if you are allowed to install one on your own. You should make a for­mal writ­ten agree­ment with your land­lord that clear­ly states:

• Who is pay­ing for the instal­la­tion and ser­vice
• Whether or not the land­lord will have the secu­ri­ty codes
• What will hap­pen to the equip­ment and ser­vice after the ten­ant leaves

Cov­er­ing these bases before you start instal­la­tion will keep every­one hap­py and on the same page.

Wired or wire­less?

Home alarm sys­tems can either have wired hard­ware, wire­less, or a hybrid of the two. The type of sys­tem that you use will large­ly depend on your agree­ment with the land­lord.

Wired home alarm sys­tems can be more sta­ble and reli­able, but they require more exten­sive work to be installed. Since a wired sys­tem will require more mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the exist­ing apart­ment, they will require more par­tic­i­pa­tion from your land­lord.

They may want to be present dur­ing instal­la­tion to make sure there is no dam­age. Also, these sys­tems are more per­ma­nent, which means it will be hard­er for you to take the equip­ment with you if you move out.

Wire­less sys­tems offer more flex­i­bil­i­ty and ease of instal­la­tion. If you are plan­ning on mov­ing out soon, but you are pay­ing for the equip­ment, then a wire­less sys­tem might be best for you. You will be able to hold onto your invest­ment and poten­tial­ly install it at your next apart­ment.