There's a particular window of vulnerability that opens the moment you leave home for an extended period. The bins don't get moved. The mail starts to stack up. The lights stay off at the same hours every night. To anyone paying attention, an unoccupied home eventually starts to look like one. And in Melbourne's residential suburbs, where houses sit close together, and routines are easy to observe, a home that's been empty for a week or two is not as invisible as most people assume when they head off on holiday.

This isn't about creating anxiety around taking a break. It's about the reality that most home security failures during holiday periods are not the result of sophisticated planning by experienced criminals — they're the result of ordinary oversights that make a home look like an easy target. Most of those oversights are preventable with a bit of preparation before you leave.



This guide covers the practical steps Melbourne homeowners should take before going away, starting with the locks and working outward.

Start With the Locks: Get the Basics Right Before Anything Else

Everything else on a holiday security checklist is secondary to the quality and condition of the locks on your external doors. A timer on your lights and a trusted neighbour collecting your mail won't compensate for a front door lock that a determined person can get through in under a minute.

Check every external door lock before you leave

Go through each external door — front, back, side gate entry, garage entry if it connects to the house — and test the lock. A lock that has been stiff, inconsistent, or difficult to operate is not one you want to leave unattended for two weeks. If the key requires extra force, if the lock sometimes fails to engage cleanly, or if you've been meaning to get it looked at for months, the week before a holiday is the time to act on it.

True Locksmith carries out lock fixes and repair jobs across Melbourne's Bayside and Southeast suburbs. A locksmith attending before you leave can assess the condition of every external lock on the property, carry out any repairs needed, and give you a clear picture of what you're leaving behind.

Confirm every lock is actually engaged when you leave

It sounds elementary, but a significant number of holiday period break-ins involve entry through a door that was simply unlocked. A front door that was pulled shut but not turned, a back door that was assumed to be locked because it usually is, and a side gate left on the latch. Before you leave, physically test every external door by pushing or pulling against it after locking. Don't assume — confirm.

Consider a lock upgrade if your existing hardware is old or inadequate

If the locks on your home are original to a property that's twenty or thirty years old, or if they've never been assessed by a locksmith, you may not have a clear picture of whether they meet an adequate security standard. An older cylinder without hardened anti-drill pins or pick-resistant security pins is a meaningful vulnerability in an unoccupied home. A pre-holiday locksmith visit is a practical opportunity to assess what you have and upgrade where it matters.

Rekey If Your Key History Is Unclear

If there are people who hold keys to your property whose access you're no longer comfortable with — a previous tenant if you've recently moved, a tradesperson who was given a copy and never returned it, a former housesitter, a relationship that has ended — the period before a holiday is exactly the right time to rekey.

Rekeying changes the internal pin configuration of the existing cylinder so that all previous keys no longer operate the lock, without requiring the lock hardware itself to be replaced. It's a faster and more cost-effective solution than a full lock change in most cases, and it resets the key history on the property to a clean, known starting point before you leave.

True Locksmith provides rekeying services across Bayside and Southeast Melbourne and can attend quickly to rekey all external locks in a single visit, providing new keys and confirming that previous copies no longer function.

External Doors and Windows: Beyond the Front Entry

The front door gets most of the security attention, but it's rarely the only point of vulnerability on a Melbourne home.

Back and side doors

Rear entry doors — particularly those in older Bayside properties with timber frames that have expanded and contracted over years of Melbourne's variable climate — are sometimes in worse condition than front entry locks simply because they're used less and noticed less. A door that's rarely opened is also a door whose lock hasn't been tested recently. Check it before you leave.

Sliding doors

Sliding glass doors present a specific vulnerability. The latch mechanism on most sliding doors is not a high-security fitting, and a sliding door can often be lifted off its track even when latched. A secondary security bar or pin in the track — a length of timber cut to fit, or a purpose-made security bar — prevents the door from being opened or lifted regardless of whether the latch is defeated. This is a simple, inexpensive addition that significantly improves sliding door security.

Windows

Ensure all ground-floor windows are latched before you leave. Louvre windows, which are common in older Melbourne homes, are a known vulnerability — the individual glass slats can often be removed from the outside without breaking anything. If your home has louvre windows on the ground floor, security grilles or pins through the louvre frame are worth considering before leaving for an extended period.

The garage

An attached garage is effectively an additional entry point to the house. An automatic garage door with a standard remote is not a high-security access control system — older rolling-code remotes in particular can be vulnerable to replay attacks with widely available equipment. Ensure the internal door from the garage to the house is locked with a proper deadbolt, not just a passage latch. If the garage is detached but contains tools or valuable items, ensure its lock is in good working order before you leave.

Creating the Appearance of an Occupied Home

A home that looks occupied is a less attractive target than one that obviously isn't. The goal isn't to trick anyone with elaborate staging — it's to avoid the clear signals of absence that make an unoccupied home stand out.

Lighting

Lights on a fixed schedule — the same rooms lit at the same hours every night — eventually read as a timer to anyone observing over several days. If you use smart lighting or timer plugs, varying the schedule across different rooms and different times across the week is more convincing than a fixed pattern. A trusted neighbour who can turn lights on and off at irregular intervals is still more effective.

Mail and deliveries

A letterbox accumulating mail is one of the most visible signals of an absent household. Ask a neighbour, friend, or family member to collect mail and any delivered parcels regularly while you're away. If you're expecting parcels, redirect them or ask a trusted person to receive them. Uncollected parcels on a doorstep are an obvious indicator of absence.

Bins

In Melbourne's residential suburbs, bins left on the nature strip after collection day are a reliable indicator that nobody is home. Ask a neighbour to bring them in, or arrange for someone to manage this if your collection falls during your absence.

Social media

Posting holiday photos in real time while you're away is a habit worth reconsidering. Public posts showing that you're currently interstate or overseas, tagged with your location, are visible to more people than most users realise — and they remove any ambiguity about whether the house is currently occupied. Saving the holiday photos for when you're back costs nothing and removes an unnecessary risk.

A car in the driveway

An empty driveway over an extended period is another occupancy signal. If a trusted neighbour or family member can park in your driveway occasionally while you're away, it disrupts the pattern. It's not a security measure in itself, but as part of a broader effort to maintain the appearance of an occupied property, it's worth arranging if possible.

Trusted Contacts: The Practical Security Layer Most People Underestimate

The single most effective thing most Melbourne homeowners can do before going on holiday is establish a trusted contact who will pay attention to the property while they're away.

This doesn't require elaborate arrangements. A neighbour who knows you're going away, has your phone number, and will call you if something looks wrong is a genuinely valuable security resource. Someone who will check the property visually every day or two, collect mail, manage bins, and notice if anything seems out of place provides a layer of awareness that no security device fully replicates.

If you're going away for an extended period, consider whether a housesitter is appropriate. A person physically present in the home eliminates almost all of the holiday security concerns in this guide. The practical consideration is ensuring that a housesitter has a key and can access the property without difficulty — and that you rekey after they've finished if they were given a copy that you won't be recovering.

Before You Leave: A Practical Final Check

In the last twenty-four hours before departure, work through the following before you lock the front door behind you.

Test every external door lock and confirm it's engaging cleanly. Check every ground-floor window is latched. Confirm the sliding door security bar or pin is in place if you have one. Ensure the internal garage-to-house door is deadlocked. Set any lighting timers and vary the schedule if possible. Confirm your trusted contact knows you're leaving, has your number, and knows what to do if something seems wrong. Redirect or pause mail delivery if you haven't already arranged a collection. Confirm there are no parcels or deliveries expected during your absence that will sit unattended.

If you've had any concerns about the condition of your locks in the lead-up to the trip and haven't had them looked at, make the call before you leave. It's a straightforward job that takes less time than most people expect, and the peace of mind for the duration of a holiday is worth considerably more than the cost of the visit.

Lock Checks, Repairs, and Rekeying Across Melbourne's Bayside Suburbs

True Locksmith works with homeowners across Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham, Cheltenham, Moorabbin, Bentleigh, Beaumaris, Elwood, Heatherton, Highett, Parkdale, Mordialloc, McKinnon, Mentone, and surrounding suburbs. Whether you need a pre-holiday lock assessment, a repair on a lock that's been playing up, a rekey before you leave, or a full lock upgrade on an older property, our team attends residential jobs across Bayside and Southeast Melbourne and provides honest advice on what actually needs doing.

To speak with a licensed locksmith before your next trip away, call 0421-767-767. For more on our services, visit our Fix Locks, Change Locks, and Re-Key Locks pages.