Are your locks up to insurance standards?

Most people think that they meet the ever growing demands put on us by insurance companies regarding our home insurance, but time and again, I come across locks that do not. The easiest way to find out if your locks do meet these standards is to look for a kite mark on locks that are on wooden doors.

Insurance providers often ask “Do you have a five lever mortice lock?” Many people get confused as they believe it relates to upvc doors and the amount of hooks, rollers, etc that make up the locking mechanism, but that is not the case. The question relates to the type of lock that is embedded inside the door with a bolt, or latch and bolts that go into the door frame when the key is turned. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘chubb’ type lock or ‘skeleton key’ type lock and the levers are just a part of the mechanism inside. 2 levers for bathroom locks, 3 levers for interior cupboards, etc and 5 levers for entrance doors with varying levels of security. Only 5 lever locks should carry a kite mark and are insurance standard locks.

For night latch locks, sometimes referred to as ‘Yale’ type locks, where the latch sits on the inside of the door and the key goes into a brass or chrome ‘rim cylinder’ on the outside, the problem is even worse. If you only have this type of lock on your door then it absolutely must have a kite mark for insurance purposes. It should have a key operation on the inside as well as the outside and the outside rim cylinder should be reinforced with an overlay to deter attack by drilling.

At the moment, upvc doors do not need a kite mark from all insurers, seemingly because of the number of locking points they have. But as a locksmith, I find these doors the easiest to get into when someone loses their keys. Despite all the different locking points, I only need to work on the key barrel, or ‘Euro Cylinder.’ With the right tool, these can be snapped in seconds or drilled in minutes and while that is good news when you are desperate to get into your own home, it is also bad news if you want your home to be as protected as possible. You can get kite marked Euro Cylinders for upvc doors which have anti-snap and anti-drill features and while they are not yet required by all insurance companies, I know that it is an issue being looked at.

AC Locksmiths Norfolk offer a free security check as well as new lock installation and many other locksmith services. If you are unsure about your security, then please contact us now to book an appointment. 01263 713815/ 07846643176 or via our contact page on this website.

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