Home Insurance Conditions – Door Lock Design Issues

LRS

Insurance companies are now very specific in what ‘design type’ and ‘compliance level’ door locks are in place before they will consider insuring you, which is fine, but….

More and more new homes are now using the high security* (Euro Cylinder Mortice Deadlock) design as opposed to the more traditional (5 Lever Mortice Deadlock) design. *Anti-bump and anti-snap.

Most of the high security Euro Cylinder Mortice Deadlock designs are compliant with BS EN 12209 or BS8621 both of which mirror the BS3621 standard. However, from an insurance company’s view, as these Euro Cylinders are not the same design as a 5 Lever Mortice design – even though they are both covered under the same British Standard, they will either not choose to insure you or will charge you a higher premium. It’s a bit like saying all house locks on European homes are ineffective.

Surely, if a (Euro Cylinder Mortice Deadlock) and a (5 Lever Mortice Deadlock) share the same British Standard compliance, then surely they can both do the job equally as well as each other. It is only the internal design that differs, not their ability to secure the door.

I’d be interest to know if anyone else has had this issue and whether there are now any insurance companies that are in the 21st century?

InsideInsurance

Moving fairly frequently and almost always into new builds, every property we have had recently have had multipoint locking systems on the front door rather than any mortice style lock.

Some insurers, Direct Line, Aviva, Axa (at least their M&S brand) dont even ask about locks nor have anything in their assumptions.

*Scarlett

It will depend on your postcode, level of contents cover, valuables in the home, etc whether the underwriter will require approved locks.

Many people can get a good level of general cover without approved locks and personally I would prefer NOT to have the lock endorsement on a policy unless required.

In many cases it can have little (or no) reduction in the premium but for some people it might be worthwhile.

Get a few q's and if in doubt ring individual insurers.

LRS

A very good high security Euro Cylinder mortice lock (e.g. AVOCET ABS) will cost anywhere up to 4x as much at £50, than a 5 Lever mortice lock, so why are UK insurers so dismissive of these Euro Cylinder mortice locks, insisting that you need a 5 Lever mortice lock to meet their conditions


I’ve recently had 3 insurance companies ask for this, so I'm not sure if this is a new trend?

huckster

LRS wrote: »

A very good high security Euro Cylinder mortice lock (e.g. AVOCET ABS) will cost anywhere up to 4x as much at £50, than a 5 Lever mortice lock, so why are UK insurers so dismissive of these Euro Cylinder mortice locks, insisting that you need a 5 Lever mortice lock to meet their conditions


I’ve recently had 3 insurance companies ask for this, so I'm not sure if this is a new trend?

I may be wrong, but I think many of these Euro Cylinder locks are prone to 'bumping'. I think the 5 lever mortice locks generally offer better security, although it is possible to buy 'anti bump' Euro Cylinder' locks, but how effective these are I don't know.