What scares you more?

shortdog

Fire, without a doubt. The front door is left locked at night (most nights anyway), and the keys hang above the door. However, there are two other doors I could leave from in the middle of the night, neither of which needs a key to open. All of the upstairs windows open fully too, and, although it would be a drop onto concrete from them, I'd take that rather than stay in a burning house! The smoke alarms are checked weekly, and everything is switched off at night.
We have fire plans just in case, the kids know what to do in case of a fire, and it's been practiced.
If anyone broke in, as long as they stayed downstairs and didn't come up near me and my kids, they would be welcome to whatever they wanted really, I have contents insurance which would replace it all.

Molly41

i have two very noisy and nosey terriers who guard our house very diligently so am not too worried about burglary. They have been known to trap the window cleaner stuck up his ladder:eek:

Im very frightened by fire and can only just light the gas stove or a candle and still flinch. I would hate to think of my dogs being trapped by fire and only tonight saw a very sad piece on the local ITV news (south) about three dogs who dies in a fire caused by a Bosch dishwasher - that had me blubbing as they showed their beds in the conservatory. So very sad x

DevilsAdvocate1

peachyprice wrote: »

No, they ask if certain types of locks are fitted, not whether they are in operation.

The one and only time I've been burgled was during broad daylight when they kicked the bottom panel of the door in, no lock in the world would have stopped them.

My current policy states that not only do the doors need to be locked, but I am not allowed to leave the keys in the lock. Might we worth reading the small print to ensure you are insured.

My insurance company brought the bit about leaving the key in the door to my attention when I renewed 2 months ago as its a change they have made to the policy.

nearlyrich

We lock all our doors all the time and we live in a decent area but you never know, only people who have been burgled around here have left doors open. In case of fire we have several windows that you can escape from, 2 smoke alarms, we don't smoke and we swich everything off at night, and when we go out. We have a place for keys and we have mobiles that we charge in the bedroom overnight so I think we are OK on both counts. I have been in three fires in hotels so I religiously check my exits when I am in a hotel (sometimes several times in a week I am in different hotels) I get my clothes ready for morning and I have an easy to drag on outfit so I can get dressed quick if I need to.

Loz01

Yes fire scares me more but we do lock up our house at night - but I just leave the front door key in the lock so if there WAS an emergency and need to get out then... just unlock it with one click. We live in a nice area and countless times Ive left the car unlocked all night and no one's taken it yet :rotfl:

**Patty**

Working upon the basis that in this house, you can't even cook bacon without one of the downstairs smoke alarms waking the dead........I'd go for burglary.

lostinrates

Have keys useable on all locks to the people who live there from inside and out.

Regarding fire, another mse -er and now real life friend gave the excellent tip about having a magnet somewhere near but out of eyeline from anywhere or reach from letter box or windows for an emergency key to get out.

Personally, neither fire nor burglary worry me that much tbh,

claire16c

When I leave the house and shut the door, it locks behind you. Same as when I go in the house and shut the door, it cant be opened from the outside. But it can always be opened from the inside without me using a key. So its locked but I dont have to worry about finding a key in the event of a fire.

There is a way of double locking it from the inside ( as you can double lock it if you wish when you leave the house from the outside which I always do) but I think that would be dangerous in a fire and seeing as the only way for them to open the door from the outside would be for a burglar to put something through the letterbox and pull down the handle - which my DH did to a neighbours door one night when she locked herself out and it took around 30 minutes and was a total nightmare, Im not too worried. We put a chain on the door at night anyway.

My parents have a similar door and so when I was out at night as a teenager I just used my own key to get in.

I would not like having a door that required locking physically with a key from the inside to lock it, as then yes I would be worried about being burgled, I wouldnt want to go to sleep knowing the door was able to be opened! As I wouldnt want to lock it as a fire risk but then would worry about burglary..

My Nan has a door like that and I was horrified when I discovered how it worked. I think she used to keep the keys in the lock or next to the door at night. Thankfully she's moved house now.

neverdespairgirl

**Patty** wrote: »

Working upon the basis that in this house, you can't even cook bacon without one of the downstairs smoke alarms waking the dead........I'd go for burglary.

My other half seems to think that the smoke alarm is some sort of cooking timer - when it goes off, dinner's ready!

poet123

Our house is always unlocked (opened by just the handle) if someone is in, but if anyone is out late it is just locked with the Yale lock not the deadlock, so they use a key to get in.

All our downstairs interior doors have locks which we use at night. So, the only way to get upstairs to us is via the steel front door or to break a double glazed a window. We also have a window which opens fully upstairs to act as a fire escape route, and our window is on top of a bay so we could get out onto that and jump down onto the lawn.