The order matters as much as the repair
Touch nothing before the examination. Splinters from the frame, the tool mark on the faceplate, the pulled cylinder are all part of the record. A door already made good the same morning, in a Saint-Philippe villa found on the way back from a weekend, can no longer be examined. An extra hour of waiting beats losing evidence.
Photograph from several angles before anything else: the door from the lane or from the gate, the lock area, the frame, the inside. File the complaint, keep the receipt, then declare the loss to your insurer within the time your policy sets. Temporary securing fits between the two without hindering the examination. Note the hour at which you found the place — you will be asked for it.
Keep every part removed: the drilled cylinder, the torn-out lock, the piece of frame, the bent angle iron. They show how the attack was made, and an insurer may ask to see them. They also guide the replacement, since they say exactly where the door gave way. Bag them separately and do not throw them out before the loss adjuster has been.
The ways in that get overlooked
A break-in does not always come through the front door. In the plain, the basement garage and the connecting door into the hall are known weak points; in the village it is the vaulted ground-floor storerooms and the cellar doors opening straight onto the lane. Those openings are dealt with at the same time — a vaulted cellar connecting to the stairwell is a front door in all but name.
The workshops and showrooms along the chemin des Combes follow another logic. A buckled roller shutter, a forced display-window lock, a delivery door off its hinges: the repair is planned around the commercial policy covering the premises, whose requirements are not those of a home. A shutter is checked rolled up and rolled down, never at a glance.
Finally, everything touched gets replaced, including whatever “still works”. A cylinder mauled in an attempt has play in it, a deformed keep no longer holds, a split frame will not take the load next time. The quote sets out every item before permanent repair begins. In a village house the frame bedded into the stone is dealt with before the lock.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our securing your home after a break-in page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Biot.