Top 10 Halloween Home Safety Tips for Homeowners

Halloween home safety is a concept too few homeowners implement during this festive time of year. Halloween brings out the goblins and ghouls, the witches and mummies. It’s a holiday of entertainment, filled with sweets and costumes, but don’t let the risk of a major home insurance claim ruin the fun of turning your home into a haunted house. It’s important for homeowners to take precautions, practice Halloween home safety, and prevent having to file homeowners insurance claims.

One of the best Halloween home safety tips for homeowners is to seek additional home insurance while their home is part of the public festivities. Even when you're prepared, accidents can happen. Make sure that you have adequate coverage. Find it at an affordable price, get free quotes, compare, and save.  It could be the difference between and accident and an incident!

Top 10 Halloween Home Safety Tips

1. Keep Your Property Well-Lit – Trick-or-treaters will be coming and going throughout the evening, so don’t make it impossible for them to find your front porch. By keeping the path to your home and front step well-lit, you can prevent trick-or-treaters from taking a painful fall (a liability claim just waiting to happen). Halloween home safety bonus: burglars are also less likely to attack a well-lit home.
2. Get Extra Homeowners Insurance – When it comes to Halloween home safety, it’s a good idea to contact your home insurance agent and request additional coverage for the night. Opening your home, even if it’s just your front porch, to the public leaves you vulnerable to all kinds of claims and lawsuits.
3. Keep Property Unobstructed – This goes along with the “well-lit” rule. Halloween home safety means keeping the area around your home unobstructed so children and accompanying parents don’t stumble or hurt themselves on anything that may lead to a liability suit. Clear any lawn decorations, hoses, gardening tools, toys, etc., from your property to practice Halloween home safety.
4. Be Careful With Candles – One of the most common homeowners insurance claims are the result of fire damage in the home. Good Halloween home safety means being extra careful with lit candles around the house and on your front porch, where trick-or-treaters may bump into them. For maximum Halloween home safety, use battery-powered lanterns.
5. Pumpkin Light Safety - If you want to practice Halloween home safety, start by taking measures to prevent home fires from an unattended lit Jack-O-Lantern. A guest or child can easily kick the pumpkin and candle over if they’re not looking where they’re going. Consider purchasing a battery-powered light for your pumpkin décor if you’re serious about Halloween home safety.
6. Carving the Pumpkins – Always let an adult (or older children who know what they’re doing) carve the pumpkins for maximum Halloween home safety. A child may do it with special pumpkin cutters and with parental supervision. Halloween home safety is no joke, so supervise the little ones.
7. Restrain Pets – For Halloween home safety, keep pets—particularly cats and dogs—away from the front porch, where they might jump on or bite little trick-or-treaters. Typically, pets are not Halloween home safety-friendly. Also, keep them away from any decorating parts of your home, in case they cause home damage or a possible fire.
8. Check The Smoke Alarms – A Halloween home safety tip that is best completed before the actual holiday festivities, checking your smoke alarms is the best way to prevent, or minimize damage from, a home fire.
9. Got Home Security? – Halloween is a prime time for vandals and burglars to raid your home if they think you’re away. To practice Halloween home safety, make sure to have a reliable security alarm system, as well as motion-sensitive lights around your property.
10. Be a Responsible Host/Hostess – For the older Halloween party-goers, practice good Halloween home safety and clear-headedness before partying. If your party is serving alcohol: include non-alcoholic drinks as an alternative; designate drivers before the party; do not serve to ANYONE under 21; and don’t let guests over-drink. The guests’ safety is your responsibility.

Remember, talk to your homeowners insurance agent about what your policy covers, particularly on this night. Ask them if they have any additional Halloween home safety tips and ask for homeowners insurance quotes, too. Knowing your insurance protects you frees you up to have more fun on Halloween!