Locking doors

Not locking your doors will invalidate your house insurance, should you have the misfortune to be robbed.

I don't like feeling 'locked in', being claustrophobic. I have a little JRT who would alert me to any intruders so I only lock up at night.

Advice is that there are more break-ins during day time. So always lock doors. I too lock downstairs windows at night.
A Rottweiler would help (although I would be afraid of the Rottweiler )

It depends what sort of neighbourhood you live in. Even when I'm at home, I don't feel secure unless all the doors are locked. Burglary isn't burglary if the thief is able to just walk in.

I started locking my front door during the day when the Amazon man walked straight in! I was in my dressing gown. He said he thought it was entry into a porch.

We were discussing this recently, as my sister, who now lives alone in the family home after her husband died, always locks the front & back doors, day and night. My OH felt that, should someone have an accident indoors and be unable get to open the doors, how would the emergency service gain entrance, without causing huge damage?

My doors are always locked whether I'm in or out, and I always check again before I go to bed.

As Ladymuck says, it depends where you live. I horrify my guests by not locking front or back door.

I think there are opportunists that will try and break in walk in whatever area you live in, we live in a nice area very quiet but that doesn’t mean someone won’t try, needless to say with my guard dog highly trained working dog I do feel safe, but it does make you think that maybe it’s a good idea:. It does concern me a bit though if anyone had an accident in their house and needed medical attention it would be difficult for emergency services to get in, it’s a difficult one

Oh no grannyknot poor you

We always keep front and back doors locked at all times. Key removed from front door (back is patio) so emergencies could use key safe to get in.
Local SIL is retired police officer; when expecting him and his wife, our DD1, has already arrived we leave front door unlocked. He always says “failed security check”!
Better be careful IMHO

Thank you, Newquay, I think a key safe is the answer.

Serving police officer's mum here. ladymuck you're wrong, it is still burglary. There does not have to be any forced entry to qualify. It's still burglary if you invite someone in who claims to be the gasman come to read the meter and he robs you. Of course you would probably have problems with an insurance claim if you go out and leave windows or doors open, but I don't believe any would deny a claim while you're in residence. My doors are unlocked all day, but locked once evening comes. Nobody is getting in my front door from outside without a key though as the yale lock is engaged when shut, it's just not double locked. Couldn't bear not to have open windows and back door from Spring through to Autumn, love a bit of fresh air.

Emergency services are well used to gaining entry to places. They have their ways and means.

This thread has jogged my memory about the time a friend was burgled. The only thing that was stolen was their Rottweiler! They never got him back.

Yes, lock my door. If I was in the bedrooms at back of my bungalow, anyone could walk in. Also lock door if out in the garden, would never hear someone in the house. Check doors are locked before bed.

I am far more aware of security now I am living on my own and double check front and back doors twice before going to bed at night,I keep them locked during the day when I am home, I think when I am feeling more secure in myself that I may go back to how we where before and only lock at night time.
I do have a key safe for the front door in case of emergency.

I keep both back and front doors locked always, day and night and high back gate also
I ve been burgled twice once through a tiny window the police said they use little kids to get through, the second time through presumably the front door, as no sign of breakin anywhere I had left a workman in the house (no way of knowing if he had anything to do with it???) so yes I m very lock conscious and have them on my windows too

Always locked! We had a targeted break in, I would not wish it on anyone.

I lock all doors when I am at home. In the summer the patio doors remain open when we spend a lot of time in the garden and we will sit in the evenings inside with them open on warm evenings. However on days when I'm on my own I won't go upstairs leaving the patio doors open. I don't want to come out of the loo to be confronted by an unknown intruder. It may be unlikely but we have had a few burglaries around here over the years and I feel that there is no need to leave yourself vulnerable when a quick turn of the key is a quick and easy preventative measure.

The front door is always kept locked unless we are going in and out doing something, like unpacking the car when there is a lot in it.

I keep the back door locked, on the key during the day, key and bolt at night or when we are out. However, DH's mother used to say of him 'Born in a barn if I didn't know better' and he has the habit of having the door on the latch to do things and then forget to put the latch down when he is finished.

I think the rule about insurance and not paying out if the outer doors are unlocked only applies if you are not in the house at the time.

Our back garden is very safe as access to the garden is up a narrow path with a 6ft locked and bolted gate at the end. Access over the fence is not easy as the London-Bristol mainline railway runs behind us and ours are very old village houses with very complex boundaries and houses on the other sides.

My front door is shut (can’t be opened from outside) but only double locked at night back door is locked if I’m indoors in the Winter but Summer if I’m outside it’s open, my back gate is in a wall that’s 8 foot high and bolted and padlocked.

Key safes are not actually that safe. Thieves have been known to just crowbar them off the wall and smash them open.

We lock our doors but I have a horror of not being able to get out in a fire so all 3 doors, front side and back garden have bolts as well. Most of the time the doors are bolted rather than locked. The idea of looking for the key in a fire is terrifying.

Well, I live on the fifth floor, there is a secure entry into building by a fob, but I still lock my door during the day and night too. Emergency services would be able to get in, and have done when an elderly resident was taken ill recently. My mother, who lives in a small hamlet, doesn’t, and I think that is unwise. She also leaves a spare key under a flowerpot next to the back door. It doesn’t do to be too anxious, but it’s good to take sensible precautions too.