Do you lock your door when you’re in the house?

[patienceandprudence]

Inspired by another thread (no prizes for guessing which).

I was surprised that people lock their doors sheen inside the house. Granted, we live in a small house, but it’s in a ‘bad’ area. We never lock our door when someone’s in, except at night if someone remembers. I’d say we leave it unlocked while out a good 30% of the time so if the kids come back or someone drops by to visit they don’t have to wait outside.

In my area this is the norm, and most of the time if you knock you’ll just be called in and told to walk right in next time. We tell anyone the same, even the regular delivery-people know that they can open the door and put the parcel in if it’s open.

Lock it -always

Always. A neighbour was robbed and insurance didnt pay out because they were in the back garden having a BBQ and the front door was unlocked. They were told that they should have taken reasonable precautions to secure the property and they hadnt.

Its one thing when you are home, although I still wouldnt, but down right stupid to leave it unlocked when you are out!

Yes I see no benefit in leaving it unlocked.

Who has a door that doesn’t automatically lock when you shut it?

Lots and lots of people. I have never had one and I have lived in 10 plus houses.

We lock the door when get in, i believe if you get robbed after leaving your door unlocked your insurance is void.
I lock it to protect those inside as well as my belongings, we also have cameras around the house
We live in a nice safe village but better to be safe than sorry.
I'd never leave doors unlocked overnight or while out, if a child is old enough to be out independently then surely they can have a key?

@ChubbyK

My door is always locked. I live in a fairly quiet safe area but there are still burglars/MILs about.

After a really shit day this made me laugh, thank you

Always locked. Always. And we double check that the doors are locked before we go to bed every night, without fail.

Our front door is unlocked during the day and out back door is usually open during the day too.

We live in a village and nothing happens without someone noticing, also our back garden in only accessible from our house or knowing which house on the next Lane backs on to us and getting through their garden without being seen. We also have two dogs who bark at nothing at all so they will put people off.

@PoshWatchShitShoes

Always. Living in London I once had a big scary looking guy walk in!! I was so furious that I stormed towards to door shouting "what the fuck are you doing".

He scarpered.... next door and then robbed my neighbour who didn't have the door locked either and was elsewhere in the house. He took her laptop, phone etc that were close by.

Yup -the same happened to our neighbours, even though they were a house-share of 7 blokes, several of whom were at home at the time. If burglars are prepared to chance it against 7 young, fit men, they're certainly not going to be put off by one middle-aged woman. I always lock the door if home alone, and encourage DH to remember, even when he's here too.

No. Don't even no where the key is (back door) front locks automatically..

V rural.

Ours locks itself. That’s been the case in every house I have ever lived in, in fact so I have never had the opportunity to not be locked in!

It can be the other way round as well though - i have never lived in a house without a Yale lock. UPVC doors arent that common in Victorian terraces round here.

My parents lived in a new build and they never locked their door during the day, they did at night though which turned out to be difficult when paramedics were trying to get in.

Always lock it if I'm home alone. Always.

@Hellocatshome

Who has a door that doesn’t automatically lock when you shut it?

Lots and lots of people. I have never had one and I have lived in 10 plus houses.

I dont know anybody who has a door that automatically locks when you shut it. I didnt even know the pvc doors were able to do that!

The only doors like that that I know of are those old wooden ones that had the snek?

@fedupofthesamest

First thing I do when getting home is to lock the door behind me.

Same here.

@Chewbecca

Ours locks itself. That’s been the case in every house I have ever lived in, in fact so I have never had the opportunity to not be locked in!

You must have a lot of opportunity to get locked out though?

What happens when you go out to the bins and the wind blows the door shut? Or do you always have your keys on you?

Yes
Our door (pvc) locks on closing but if I lift handle it locks further for security - back door is always locked unless summer when we are at home and in garden - but you can't access garden unless you can climb over 6ft back locked gate

We were burgled whilst I was C at home many years ago and it just became my norm afterwards (also as a result I never leave my handbag downstairs at night)

I used to have a door that used to lock itself I got locked out quite a few times

I don't know the thread you refer to, but my cousin has twice had her bag and a few items stolen from her hallway during the day when she was in the back off her house (one suburban, one rural house).
My door locks automatically anyway but I would lock it if not.

@Chanel05

I always lock my doors at night and I'd go as far as to say I'm a bit OCD (I might check the handle 30 times before bed at times) but I never lock myself in during the day, although always when I go out. From today having read the thread, I will.

Could someone please link the thread the OP references?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4380159-To-have-left-them-outside-for-10-minutes

I think it must be this one.

@2020isnotbehaving

My door doesn’t lock its wooden fire door. You can turn knob inside to lock or key on outside. Presume it’s stop you getting accidentally locked out. In block of flats.

It think it's more so you can escape quickly if there is a fire without having to search around for a key.

Gosh my front door locks automatically with a Yale lock but back door hasn't locked in over a decade!

Ours is always locked, terrace house opens onto pavement . Iocked and bolted every time.

Not usually. DH will take the dog out and leave the house unlocked, which I'm not happy about. We are rural and hard to find, though. DH was surprised the other day when I locked the front door when I was in the back garden.
But I do know someone whose handbag was taken from her porch. I can see my neighbour's handbag hanging up in her kitchen when I walk past. I will never leave mine lying around, so if someone came in they'd have to search all the cupboards for it. Always lock the house at night, leave the keys on the floor (out of sight) by the door in case of fire.

@Staffy1

No, but you can’t open it from outside without a key anyway. If you could I would lock it.

If it's a UPVC door, it's very easy to open without a key if it's not double locked, according to my local police.