The back garden, the way in you cannot see from the street
The échoppes and town houses of Talence present a plain façade to the street and keep everything of value behind: a courtyard or a long garden, enclosed by neighbouring gardens, with a service door, sometimes a shed, and often a French window lighter than the main entrance. Once the fence between two plots has been crossed, an intruder can work out of sight, which is not the case on the pavement. That is very often where the intrusion took place, and so that is where the examination begins.
Making these accesses secure again has its own requirements. On old joinery, it is not the lock that gave way but the timber around the strike plate, torn out by leverage: fitting a new mechanism onto a split frame restores nothing. A broken glazed opening needs boarding up before anything else. Keep the parts removed and photograph the original state before anything is moved: the detailed quote, and then the invoice, set out each item for your insurer.
University holidays: when a whole building empties at the same time
The local calendar has a very concrete consequence: in the streets bordering the university campus, a significant share of the homes empties on the same dates, at the winter break as well as over the long summer gap. A building with overflowing letterboxes and not a shutter moving for six weeks is noticeable from the street. Much of the damage found at the start of term in fact dates from the preceding weeks and is only discovered on the occupants' return, which complicates the insurance claim.
If a set of keys went missing during the break-in, replacing the cylinder is not limited to the front door: the cellar key, the garage key, the bike store key and the letterbox key all travel on the same ring. Tell the building managing agent (syndic) or the landlord as well, particularly where the intrusion reveals a weakness in the hall or in a shared access. Securing a single flat makes little sense if the door to the building still opens to anyone who pushes it a little.
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 Talence.