Home Insurance Lock Requirements | Check Before You Claim

Your insurer pays out after a break-in. That's the deal. Except there's a clause on page fourteen of your policy schedule, buried between the subsidence excess and the accidental damage definition, that says it doesn't have to.

The clause is usually quiet and specific: locks on all final exit doors must meet a named standard, typically BS3621 or equivalent. Key-operated locks on all ground-floor windows and any window accessible from a flat roof, garage, or extension. Fail either condition, and the insurer can decline the claim, or reduce the settlement to whatever they consider proportionate. Not maliciously. It's just a contract, and you agreed to it.

Most people have no idea what locks they actually have. They moved in, the doors locked, and that was enough. It isn't.

What Your Policy Actually Says

Insurance policies don't all use the same language, but the requirements cluster around a handful of recurring phrases. Pull out your schedule and look for these:

• BS3621 or BS8621: the British Standard for thief-resistant locks. BS3621 is the deadlock version (key-operated both sides). BS8621 allows thumb-turn on the inside. Both are tested for 250 J of impact resistance, 1,000 N bolt resistance, and anti-picking under BS EN 1303.
• Five-lever mortice deadlock: older shorthand that pre-dates the current standards. If your policy says this, BS3621 compliance almost certainly satisfies it, but check the exact wording.
• Multi-point locking system: common on uPVC and composite doors. The policy may require these to be 'insurance-approved' or 'to a recognised standard'. PAS24 is the one to look for here, sometimes paired with a TS007-rated cylinder.
• Final exit door: the last door you use to leave the property. On most Horwich terraces and semis that's the front door. On a house in Lostock with an integral garage, it might be the internal door from the garage to the hall.
• Key-operated window locks: not just closed. Locked. With a key. And the key not left in the lock.

Some policies add a catch-all: 'all locks must be maintained in good working order.' A deadbolt that operates but is visibly forced, a cylinder that's been drilled and replaced with the cheapest thing from a hardware shop, a handle that droops, these could all be used against you.

The Final Exit Door Problem

This one catches more people than any other clause.

uPVC doors dominate the housing stock in Brownlow Fold, Wallsuches, and most of the estates built in Horwich between the late 1970s and mid 2000s. They all came fitted with multi-point locking mechanisms from manufacturers like GU, Fuhr, Maco, or Roto. At the time of installation, many of those mechanisms were perfectly adequate. Some still are.

The issue is the cylinder. The barrel that you put the key into. Nearly every uPVC door in the borough was originally fitted with a basic single-star or unrated euro cylinder. Those cylinders are vulnerable to snap attacks: a technique that takes under a minute, requires no specialised skill, and leaves no sign of forced entry on the door itself.

An insurer looking at a claim where the door was opened by snapping the cylinder will ask a reasonable question: was the cylinder up to standard? If the answer is a £6 replacement from a DIY shop, they have grounds to argue the property wasn't properly secured.

What 'properly secured' means in practice, for a uPVC or composite front door, is a TS007 3-star cylinder or a TS007 1-star cylinder combined with a TS007 2-star door handle and escutcheon. The 3-star cylinder alone (Ultion, Avocet ABS, Mul-T-Lock MT5+, ERA Fortress, and others) is the simpler route. These are tested to the full TS007:2014 suite: snap resistance, drill resistance, extraction, pick resistance, and bump resistance.

A straight like-for-like cylinder swap, old cheap cylinder out, cheap cylinder in, doesn't fix anything. And if you're a landlord managing a property in Blackrod or Adlington and you instructed a cheap replacement between tenancies, the insurance picture looks the same whether you knew about it or not.

The Window Lock Clause

Key-operated window locks are required by most household insurers on:

• All ground-floor windows
• Windows adjacent to a flat roof, including single-storey extensions
• Windows above garages
• Windows that a person could reach from a garden structure, external staircase, or boundary wall

The standard 'cockspur' handle that came on most uPVC windows isn't a lock. It's a latch. It can be opened from outside by pushing against the frame and manipulating the handle. Insurers know this. Their small print knows this.

What qualifies as a key-operated lock? A shoot-bolt that requires a key. A window handle with a key-operated locking mechanism. Some multi-point window systems with a lockable handle. Check whether your window furniture locks independently of the main handle, and whether there's actually a key for it.

Two things homeowners on the Middlebrook-edge streets and newer Lostock builds often miss:

1. The conservatory. It has windows. Those windows are ground level or close to it. The same clause applies.
2. The bifold or sliding door onto the garden. Depends entirely on how the insurer classifies it. Some treat it as a door. Some treat it as a glazed panel. If it's a door, it may need to meet the final exit door standard even if it's a secondary exit.

Why Like-for-Like Replacement Is a Trap

A tenant moves out. You go round, replace the cylinder, like-for-like. Locks in, job done, next tenant in.

A homeowner's front door cylinder fails. Hardware shop stocks one that fits. £12, ten minutes, sorted.

Both scenarios leave the property with whatever standard the replacement cylinder happens to be, which is usually no standard at all. Neither person checked. Neither person thought to check. And because the door looks exactly the same from outside, nobody is any the wiser until something goes wrong.

BS3621 is a door lock standard, not a cylinder standard. But a five-lever mortice on a wooden door with a poor cylinder in the nightlatch beside it still means the nightlatch is the weak point. Cylinders and the full locking system need to be considered together.

For landlords, there's an additional wrinkle. Your buy-to-let policy may have stricter or different requirements than a standard home policy. Some landlord policies require BS3621 on all external doors regardless of door type. Some require periodic inspection of locks. Some say the tenancy agreement must include a clause about window security. Read the specific landlord schedule, not just the home policy you used to have.

How to Check Your Own Property

Wooden front door with a mortice lock

Look at the faceplate on the door edge. A BS3621-compliant lock will usually have the kitemark and BS3621 stamped into the metal. Count the levers by looking at the key: five cuts and five active levers is what you need. If the faceplate is blank or you can't tell, remove the lock (or call someone to do it) and check the case marking.

If the door also has a nightlatch (a Yale-type), that's fine as a secondary lock. It must not be the only lock. Some policies specifically state the mortice must be operated on final exit, not left on the latch.

uPVC or composite door

Look at the cylinder. Is there a star rating marked on it, or a brand you can look up? Ultion, Avocet ABS, Mul-T-Lock, ERA Fortress are all credible names. An unbranded or hardware-store cylinder is almost certainly unrated.

Check the multipoint mechanism by lifting the handle and locking with the key. All hooks and bolts should engage. If any don't, the mechanism needs attention regardless of what the insurance says.

Windows

Go round every ground-floor window and every upper-floor window accessible by a flat roof. Try to open each one without using a key. If you can, it's not a key-operated lock, it's a latch. Note which ones need upgrading.

Shoot bolts can be retrofitted to many uPVC windows without replacing the whole frame. Key-lockable handles are available to fit most standard espagnolette systems. This isn't a big job. It's an afternoon with the right parts, or a quick call to get it done properly.

The full compliance check at a glance

What the Claim Process Actually Looks Like

You get burgled. You call the police, get a crime reference number, call your insurer. The insurer sends a loss adjuster. The loss adjuster inspects the point of entry.

If entry was through a window that lacked key-operated locks, the adjuster notes it. Claim queried. You get a letter asking you to confirm what locks were fitted and when. If you can't demonstrate compliance, the insurer applies the policy condition. That might mean no payout. It might mean a reduced payout. It might mean they pay out and then void the policy going forward. None of those options are good.

The counter-argument, that the locks were what they were when you moved in and nobody told you, won't necessarily work. The duty to read and comply with your own policy sits with you.

One realistic Horwich scenario: a terraced house in Brownlow Fold, owner moved in three years ago, original uPVC door and windows throughout. Policy requires key-operated window locks. None fitted. Upstairs window on the side return was forced. Adjuster attends. Claim for £4,200 of electronics and jewellery is reduced to zero on the window clause. The £4,200 doesn't come back.

Another: a landlord with a flat in the Horwich town centre block upgraded the door cylinder between tenancies, but used an unbranded replacement. Tenant burgled through the door. Landlord's policy required TS007-rated or equivalent cylinder. Unbranded cylinder was neither. Claim disputed. Even if it eventually paid, the time, the letters, the adjuster visits, that's not what anyone wants.

What to Ask Your Insurer Directly

If you're unsure, ask. In writing. Email is ideal because it's a record.

Ask three questions:

1. What specific lock standard is required on my final exit door?
2. What is required on ground-floor and accessible windows?
3. If my door is uPVC with a multipoint system, what cylinder specification satisfies the policy condition?

Get the answers in writing and keep them with your policy documents. If the insurer then disputes a future claim on those grounds, you have their own confirmation of what they told you was compliant.

If you switch insurers, do the same check again. Policies aren't identical. An insurer that accepted your current setup might phrase the requirement differently to one that doesn't.

One More Thing: the Alarm Interaction

Some policies reduce the lock requirement if you have a monitored alarm. Some don't. Some increase other requirements when an alarm is present. The alarm clause and the lock clause are separate conditions. Satisfying one doesn't void the other. Don't assume an alarm means the window locks stop mattering.

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If you want a physical check of what you've actually got, rather than what you think you've got, that's a straightforward job. Locks Local covers Horwich and the BL6 postcodes and most of the surrounding BL area. Average arrival is under 30 minutes for urgent calls, and we'll give you an honest answer on compliance before anything else. Call to get a price on the call, no surprises when we arrive.