After a break-in
Burglary repair in Santa Pola: shut tonight, stronger after
First, a forced door that shuts and locks, so you can sleep in the house or leave it again. Then, when you have had time to think, a lock that would have kept them out.
Open 24 hours · 7 days
- Secured on the first visit
- Itemised invoice for the insurer
- Price agreed before work
What to do now: report it, photograph everything, then ring. On the first visit the door is made to close and lock. Upgrades are discussed then and fitted the same day or later, as you prefer.
In order
From a forced door to a stronger one
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Report and photograph
The police report and photos of the damage come first. Your insurer will ask for both.
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Make it secure
The lock or cylinder that was forced is replaced and the door adjusted so it closes and locks tonight.
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Look at what failed
Was it the cylinder, the frame, the slider at the back? You are shown what gave way and why.
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Upgrade, if you want it
High-security cylinders, guard plates, extra locks on sliders. Priced and agreed with you before fitting.
Here in particular
Empty homes and twenty-year-old cylinders
Two features of Santa Pola make the second step worth taking. Many homes here stand empty for long stretches: second homes and holiday flats shut out of season, on a coast that holds over three times its registered population in summer and far fewer in winter. A home nobody is visiting is a home where a forced door goes unnoticed.
And a third of the municipality’s properties date from 2000 to 2009. If yours still has the cylinder it was built with, that cylinder may be weaker than an anti-snap model of today. How to tell whether your cylinder is the original.
Security upgrades
What makes a door harder to force
High-security cylinders
Rated against snapping, bumping, picking and drilling. On most doors here, the single most useful upgrade. Several doors can share one key.
Guard plates
A hardened escutcheon over the cylinder, so it cannot be gripped or snapped.
Locks for sliders and terrace doors
An extra lock on an aluminium or PVC slider, for ground floors and bungalows above all. Repairs to the slider itself are on the sliding door page.
A safe that cannot be carried off
Fixed to the floor or the wall: safes opened and fitted.
A worn lock on a door that has not been attacked is a planned lock change. Doors that were forced tonight and will not close? Ring the call-out line, or see every way to reach us.
Asked on the phone
Police, insurers and stronger locks
Should I report it to the police before you touch the door?
Yes. Report it first, and photograph the door, the lock and anything damaged before it is repaired. Your insurer will want both. If the door cannot be left open in the meantime, say so on the phone.
Does home insurance usually cover the new lock?
Many home policies cover the repair of a forced door and lock. You get an itemised invoice to send them. What your policy covers is between you and your insurer.
The thieves came in through the terrace, not the front door. Can that be secured too?
Yes. Forced sliders and patio doors are made to close and lock, and can take an extra lock afterwards. On ground-floor flats and bungalows the terrace is a common way in.
What makes a high-security cylinder worth the extra?
It resists the common attacks on a euro cylinder: snapping it, bumping it and drilling it. On an armoured door, together with a guard plate, it closes the weakest point of an otherwise strong door.
What people book after this
Other ways to make the home harder to enter
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Changing the lock on your front door
New cylinders for a front door, anti-snap upgrades, multipoint locks that have gone stiff with salt. Booked for a day and a time that suit you.
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Balcony and patio door locks
Aluminium and PVC sliders on terraces and balconies that no longer catch, run or lock: hook locks, handles, rollers and keepers.
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A safe opened
Safes that reject the code, have a flat battery or came with the flat and no instructions. New safes fixed down where they cannot be carried away.
Guides that lead to this page
Report it, photograph it, then ring
The door is made to shut and lock on the first visit. Upgrades can wait until you are ready.
Open 24 hours · 7 days