The order of the steps, and what the address changes
Touch nothing before the police have looked. The marks on the leaf, the frame and the lock are part of what they record, and a door already repaired makes that impossible. Photograph from several angles: the door from outside, the area around the lock, the frame, the splinters of wood on the ground. On a landing in the old town of Grasse, bring light: these stairwells only see daylight from the lane.
File the complaint at the Grasse police station, then declare the loss to your insurer within the period set out in your policy. The receipt is required almost everywhere. Only then do the permanent repairs happen: in the meantime, a temporary make-safe closes the property without erasing what has to be recorded.
In the hamlets and on properties among the restanques, a break-in is often discovered late, sometimes on returning after several weeks away. Walk the whole perimeter before going in: annexe, store, the gate onto the track, the openings at the back. Entry is rarely made through the door most visible from the road. Note the date you last left: on a house shut up for weeks, it is often the only data point the insurer will have.
The frame, the parts removed, and the ways in that get forgotten
In many break-ins it is not the lock that gives but the timber around the keeper, torn out by leverage. In the old town the frame is bedded into stone: the anchorage is sound, but the joinery sitting in it may be a century old and split rather than resist. Fitting a new lock into a split frame solves half the problem.
Keep every part that comes off: the drilled cylinder, the torn-out lock, the pieces of frame. An insurer may ask to see them. A lock that has been attacked should be treated as compromised even if the key still turns: internal clearances have moved and parts have been started. In old town buildings those pieces are best set aside until the claim is settled rather than carried down to the bin in the lane.
If keys have gone missing, replacing the cylinders is no longer optional — including the vaulted cellar, the garage and the store of a Plascassier bastide if everything hung on the same ring. You then reinforce the point that gave way, not the whole house: an entry through a ground-floor window is not corrected by armouring the front door.
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 Grasse.