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Security locks

Of all home security tips, one is more obvious than all the others – keep your doors locked.

But obvious though it is, there are a surprising amount of people who do not secure their doors.

If you have top and bottom bolts on your door, use them. Likewise put the chain across, and then turn the key. Every little helps, and using all the locks available on your door makes life much harder for the would-be burglar.

Night latch locks

A night latch lock on its own is by no means enough to keep your house secure. It is far too easy for a burglar to force open, and such inadequate protection compromises insurance policies.

Rim locks

A more effective preventative measure than the simple latch lock, but still not secure enough to guard your home against forced entry. A deadlock type rim lock will lock automatically to the outside when the door closes. It can – and should - then be double locked with the key. However, professional thieves would be able to gain entry through tampering with the lock, which is fitted only on the face of the door rather than actually inside it.

If a burglar did break in through a back window, this kind of lock at least prevents them from making a simple exit through your door – which limits the amount the thief can take with them.

Mortice locks

Most commonly used on front and back doors as they are perhaps the most effective and secure of all the lock-types. Mortice locks are embedded into the door, instantly making them a more difficult proposition for burglars than other options.

Police recommend five-lever mortice deadlocks, which conform to British Standards 3621. Five-lever mortice deadlocks, once locked externally with a key, become near-impossible to open from within. What’s more, they are extremely difficult for a burglar to pick from the outside. Mortice sash locks work in a similar way, but also include a latch, should you wish to close the door fully without locking.

Lock combinations

To make life difficult for thieves, it’s important to combine a variety of locks on your doors, and, of course, to use them all whenever you go out.

A popular combination is a mortice deadlock, a rim lock higher up on the door and bolts at the very top and bottom of the door. When you’re in, the rim lock itself will keep the door locked, and when you go out or retire for the evening, the bolts and mortice lock provide the necessary extra security.

Bolts top and bottom help to provide an extra line of security to whichever main lock you have in place. They can be surface mounted, like a latch or rim lock, or embedded into the door for extra strength, like a mortice lock.