Last year saw a sharp increase in the number of illegal raves being held across the UK. With damage costs ranging from anything between £1000 to £100,000, vacant property owners are being encouraged to take preventative action to avoid becoming victims of rave crime.

An illegal & unlicensed party held in a 500-year-old church in Essex made headline news recently. Over 100 people broke into the site for a night of partying that left the church with devastating damage. Incredibly, Brentwood Tudor Church was able to raise nearly £20,000 in just a few days to repair the damage. However, other property owners with huge repair bills for rave damage have not been able to fall back on this kind of support from the public.

We’ve put together a list of advice to help protect your vacant property from the devastating damage an illegal rave can cause.

How to Keep Your Vacant Property Safe from Illegal Raves

1. Put Up Fencing & Board Up All Windows

If the vacant property you own or manage has space, we recommend securing the property with fencing. Ideally, the fence needs to be tall, sturdy and use anti-climb paint. If you can’t put fencing around your property, we recommend boarding up all windows and access points. Although we estimate that this can be costly, it is worth considering. However, bear in mind that boards/fencing can make it immediately clear that a property is vacant, and therefore a target.

2. Improve Your Security System

Not all security systems are created equal – if you are leaving a property vacant, make sure you have a good one. Silent alarm systems are great for alerting you of any intruders before they have the chance to take control of the building. Even better, however, is to have manned security present on site. Security guards are a huge deterrent and will be able to protect the property. However, traditional security does not come cheap. If you’re looking for an affordable way to have manned, 24/7 security – skip to point 6.

3. Install CCTV

If the aim of the game is to deter organisers from your property, CCTV is maybe the most effective of the traditional methods. A good CCTV system that feeds live to a security provider will most likely prevent any opportunists from causing damage to your property, but it won’t necessarily stop the most determined. If you’re on a budget, dummy cameras can also work as a deterrent. However, if you’re building is broken into you will have no actual footage to take to your insurance provider or the police.

4. Turn Off The Electricity

If your building is going to be vacant for a longer period of time, it’s definitely worth switching the electricity off at the mains. Not only will it save you from expensive bills, but it just might deter a group of disrespectful ravers. Illegal parties rely on electricity to set up sound systems and lights. Remove the electricity, and your property becomes less desirable. However, be warned, more determined organisers will bring their own generator or just find your main switchboard to get the electrics up and running again.

5. Get Vacant Property Insurance

We’ll keep this short & sweet. No matter what you do to protect damage being done to your property, these are only preventative measures. If your vacant property is sitting empty, there’s nothing you can do to guarantee no damage will come to it. Prepare for the worst-case scenario, and make sure you have good Vacant Property Insurance. For more about that, read our blog post here.

6. Use Property Guardians to Protect Your Building

To reiterate what we said in point 5 – if your vacant property is empty, there’s only so much you can do to keep it safe. So, our top recommendation is… don’t leave it empty!

Property guardianship is an excellent way for property owners to protect their vacant buildings while saving thousands of pounds. To summarise what property guardianship is in one sentence - professional live-in guardians move into a vacant property to provide 24-hour security & maintenance.

It’s a simple but effective method of security - you can’t host an illegal rave in a building full of occupants. NB: Guardians aren’t technically occupants, they’re temporarily licensed individuals that live on-site in their capacity to provide security - read more about that here.

At Blue Door Property Guardians, we help prepare buildings to be suitable for occupancy and then match the property to our vetted professional guardians – all at zero cost to you. When you want your property back, we have an efficient 30-day hand back service making things as easy, as cheap and as effective for you as possible.

Interested? Find out more about how it works: