Findings first, repairs afterwards
Nothing should be touched until the findings have been taken: the marks left on the leaf, the frame and the lock belong to them, and a door already put right can no longer be read. Photograph from several angles as soon as you can, including the splinters if an old village frame has taken the strain.
The report to the police comes first, the notification to your insurer next, within the period your policy sets. Keep every part removed — drilled cylinder, torn-out lock, piece of frame: they show how the attack was made, and an insurer may ask to see them. The itemised invoice is handed over at the end of the work, for your file.
Between the findings and the permanent repair, the home still has to close. Depending on the damage that means a temporary lock, rebuilding a keep that has been torn out, wedging a leaf lifted off its hinges, or boarding a broken window onto a garden-level terrace, a layout common in the residences built between the railway and the sea.
Look for the way in, not only for what is broken
Up on the slopes, the front door is rarely the weak point. A villa at Les Pugets or Le Point du Jour has a gate on a private track, a garage door, a service door and a terrace window, all of them out of sight from a hairpin road where nobody stops. That is where to look first, before anything is repaired.
In the blocks lower down, cellars and bike stores take the quiet break-ins: a light door, a simple lock, a basement with nothing facing it. Reinforcing the door of the flat while leaving a cellar door that yields to one shoulder only moves the problem a few floors, and bicycles and power tools are the first things to go.
If keys have gone missing, the cylinder is no longer optional. Replacement extends to every lock the key ring covered: service door, cellar, garage, the gate on the private track. On an old village frame split by a lever, refitting a new lock without making good the timber repairs only half of what has actually been damaged.
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 Saint-Laurent-du-Var.