Latch on front foor in locked position..

Daisymoocow

Just hoping someone may be able to offer some advice before calling the dreaded locksmith out...

We have a UPVC front door and came home from dropping my husband off at work this morning and unlocked the door as normal.. came in the house and closed the door behind me, lifted up the door handle to secure the door ( latch it) and something gave way...

Now the door handle will only lift up and not down, meaning that i cant open the front door as the latch is stuck ( or so I believe). The actual locking mechanism ( key and barrel etc) work fine, its just i cant get the latch to retract in order to open the door

I have taken off the actual door handle to reveal the square spindle that attaches the handles on both sides of the door, this goes through a square hole... but now im stuck lol. What can i do now in order to try and retract the latch that is holding the door closed. I assume that something connecting the spindle and the latch has broken, but I cant get to it as the door is 'locked' in the closed position.. i can go around the house to get to the to the other side if need be

I have no knowledge of how a lock works lol - so apologies if i have described anything wrongly

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get the latch to retract so that I can open the front door ( and hopefully get the whole mechanism replaced )

Thanks

Rebecca

martyn05

A dreaded locksmith here, be careful because you can cause damage to your door if you do not have the proper tools. It sounds as though your gearbox has gone. A locksmith can get the door open for you and he should carry some spare gearboxes with him.

You should be looking at about £50 to get the door open, £60 to £100 to sort out the mechanism.