Look after your house

"Mind the gaff" means look after the house. This site helps you do that, with guides built on official UK statistics and on what manufacturers actually publish about their products. We don't test products and we say so on every guide.

• How burglars get into homes

  Official survey data on doors, windows, and whether anyone was home.

• Why smoke alarms fail

  Fire service records: why battery and mains alarms stayed silent.

• Compare burglar alarm quotes

  Add up installation, monitoring and contract costs side by side.

From the data

In England and Wales, 59% of burglaries where someone got in started at the front of the home (how burglars get in). At house fires in England in 2025/26, 33 in every 100 battery smoke alarms did not go off (why smoke alarms fail).