Inviting Strangers Inside Your Home
How can I stay safe when I hire people to work inside my home?
One example which illustrates this point is of a single woman who bought a condo and required some large-scale repair work. The condo needed new drywall, new floors, new electrics and it also needed repainting. All of this repair work meant that there was a continual presence from contractors. The woman was frugal and shopped around for the cheapest deal. These contractors were inexpensive and seemed reputably but they were often unlicensed. Some of the workers that were under the supervision of these contractors were also unlicensed, unfamiliar and, in some cases, in possession of a criminal record. The woman also made the mistake of being home alone to supervise these workers and eventually paying them in cash. In making these mistakes, the woman demonstrated that she was at home, unaccompanied, and that there were substantial sums of cash in the property. As a result of this carelessness, the woman became a victim when one of the workers came back after hours and took advantage of the situation. While he had been working inside the house, that worker was able to leave windows unlocked with a view to returning later and committing a robbery. The moral of the story is: use caution when inviting strangers into your home and use reputable or licensed worked wherever possible.
What should I look for when hiring people to work inside my home?
Most contractors who will work in your home are identifiable. If you hire a reputable company that's been around for years, you already know the name of the company. You know the name of the contractor, you have his license number, you have his address, you have his telephone number. And certainly any crew he brings with him, this contractor is sort of vouching for them, when they come into your home. So I think if you're hiring a reputable companies, that's obviously the safer way to go when hiring contractors to work on your home. If you're going through the newspaper or the penny saver, hiring unknown people with unknown addresses, unknown work experiences, no licensing, no credentials, you don't ask for credentials when they come - you're sort of setting yourself up. So certainly going by reputable companies with licenses is definitely the way to go when hiring people to work on your home.
How can I stay safe when I am home alone with someone I don't know, like a repairman?
The best thing you can do, when you schedule workers to come in, is to make them conform to your schedule as much as possible. For example, when you ring up a cable company, they'll often give an eight hour window in which their engineer will call. I think that it's possible to narrow that down and make the call more convenient for you as a customer. Feeling safe could also be linked with making sure that you're not on your own when the person calls round. If you can't have a friend or relative at your property at the time of the call then it may be worth simulating conversation in another room in order to make the caller feel like you are not alone. Another option is to use the telephone as a means of boosting your confidence. You could ring your spouse and explain that "Joe", the cable repairman, is round and say that you will ring once he has left. In doing this, you are sending out the message that you are not alone and that you are expected to check-in with your partner. Asking for identification from the caller, and making sure that identification is genuine, is crucial in feeling safe in your home. Another good idea would be to restrict the caller to areas of the house where they are doing the work. If they have come to do work in the kitchen, don't allow them to wander the house or don't take them on a tour of the house, it's not necessary.
What should I do if I suspect that someone working in my home is dangerous?
It's the same type of thing in your home. A person comes in who just gives you the willies, but you let them come in anyway because you don't want to be rude, unkind, but you have to be. You really have to follow your instincts if you think someone is dangerous. But I think telling a person to leave sometimes pushes the issue, makes the situation more dangerous. Sometimes if the person does have aggressive tendencies, and he is thinking about victimizing you, by confronting him now and showing that you are fearful and you want him to leave, might push it to the next level, putting you in greater danger. I think while the person is still trying to let your guard down, that you have more options at that point. I think you're better off excusing yourself, getting on the phone, calling your neighbour to come over, or leaving the house if you truly feel you are in imminent danger. Get out of the house. Sure they're left inside the alone, but leave them there. Get some help, get some help coming. Or from outside the house ask the person posing the danger to leave. You don't ask them inside the house, you step out of your house, or hopefully with a witness present and then ask them to leave. Or if the person works for a company, call the company, and tell them that, "Joe is here doing this repair. I don't feel comfortable with him being here. Would you please ask him to leave?" And then put him on the phone. That way you have that connection. You have the danger identified, so it's less likely that the person will do anything wrong at that point. But I think you have to take the affirmative step without becoming too aggressive.
