The order of the formalities, before any repair
Touch nothing before the police have been, on a landing at Les Alagniers as in a courtyard in Le Village. What is left on the leaf, on the frame and around the lock is what they record, and a door already repaired can no longer be examined. Take photographs while nothing has moved: the outer face, the surround of the lock, the splintered timber, then the rooms that were searched.
File your complaint, then declare the loss to your insurer within the period your policy sets. The receipt and the report will both be asked for. Keep the parts that were removed — a drilled cylinder from a wicket gate at Vancia, a torn-out lock, pieces of frame: they show what the attack actually was far better than a description written weeks later.
Look beyond the front door as well. In the plateau residences the cellar and the shared basement rooms are visited first. At Crépieux-la-Pape and in Le Village entry is more often through the courtyard, an outbuilding or the service door on the garden side, and at Vancia through the wicket gate of the plot.
Close up first, replace what took the blow afterwards
The first step is that the door shuts and holds while the claim moves forward. Depending on the damage that means a temporary lock, resetting the keep, wedging a leaf lifted off its hinges, or boarding up the broken garden-side glazed door so common on the houses of Crépieux-la-Pape. Making the home safe is done without wiping out marks still useful to the file, and a note is kept of what is temporary and what remains to be redone.
The frame deserves as much attention as the lock. On the older houses of Le Village it is not the mechanism that gives way but the masonry around the keep, levered out: rammed earth, cobbles and aged timber no longer hold the fixings. Fitting a new lock to a split frame deals with half the problem.
If keys went missing during the burglary, replacing the cylinders is no longer optional — including the cellar, the garage and the gate when they hung on the same ring. In a residence at Les Semailles or Les Alagniers, tell the landlord or the managing agent: a forced hall door is theirs to deal with, not a matter for your own policy.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our securing your home after a break-in page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Rillieux-la-Pape.