Insurance Companies

Insurance

If you ask me they have every right to ask. If you were an insurance company would you really cover anyone on a burglary if the person has a cheap lock that is easy to open? It’s like saying my door is open please come in and steal anything you want. I have insurance so I’m covered.

Essentially for insurance companies, these questions help to assess your properties security level and the right premium and excess to charge. With everything ticked off, this helps consumers to lower your premiums in order to save money.

When you are asked the question by an insurance company What type of locks do you have?

Just don’t start running around like a headless chicken. My advice is to stay calm, go over to your exit doors and entrance doors and just take a note on what is engraved on the front of your locks and what they look like. Examples of such pictures are shown below.

If at this stage you are still unsure, please give us a call from wherever you are in the country. We will be more than happy to assist without a cost to you by sending pictures over to us via WhatsApp.

It is imperative to determine which type of locks you have at home. Consequently, you may not be covered which can invalidate your home insurance policy. Therefore if you must contact a locksmith to visit your property and you can do so with London East Locksmith.

Please do remember one quote from ourselves:

“the more time a burglar takes to open a door the better it is for someone to notice and call the police.”

Before you check any locks, your first task is to check all your double glazed windows and make sure that your beading is on the inside of the house rather than on the outside.

You can have any fancy type of lock on your front door however it is a bad sign if your window beading is on the outside rather than on the inside of the house. Essentially if I was a burglar it will take me 2 minutes to take the beading and glass out and I’m in.

The police would not be able to find any forced entry nor forensic evidence. This consequently becomes negligence on yourselves and invalidates any insurance claims.

Having the latter issues, I would recommend for yourself to contact us and be advised of what to do. Please do not worry as your windows will not need changing as there are inexpensive ways to overcome this predicament.

How to protect my home Externally

Laminate glass is always recommended for security purposes. The benefits of laminate glass include noise control and the provision of anti-bandit, anti-blast and bullet resistant screens. It’s also available using toughened glass to combine the benefits of safety and security.

From a burglars point of view, a five lever mortice deadlock could take anywhere up to 45 minutes to open.
Please do make sure that all your mortise deadlocks are at least five levers and that they are British standard. Below is a picture of a British standard kitemark on a mortice lock of a door.

A mortice lock key is used on the inside and outside of the door. Mortice deadlocks are only used on timber doors.

For further information on how to distinguish from a British standard deadlock to a standard deadlock please see our blog page for more information.

The above locks are normally accompanied by a Nightlatch. Nightlatches vary in features however a Nightlatch should be British Standard as well for extra security. British Standard Nightlatches comes predominantly in either a Yale or an ERA brand.

For further information on how to distinguish from a British standard Nightlatch to a standard Nightlatch please see our blog page for more information.

If you have double glazed doors, the locks should also be British standard. However, a high-security door handle could also be welcomed for the extra security.