Insurance-Approved Locks | What Your Policy Actually Requires, in Plain English

Here's the straight answer most people want first. Almost every UK home policy requires a BS3621 mortice lock on wooden final exit doors, and a TS007 3-star cylinder on uPVC and composite ones. If your lock carries no kitemark at all, you very probably don't comply, and a burglary claim could be reduced or refused.

That's the headline. Now the detail, because the exceptions are where people come unstuck.

The two standards that do the work

In a normal home, two British Standards carry the weight:

• BS3621 is for traditional mortice locks, the kind set into wooden front and back doors. It's independently tested against drilling, picking, sawing and force, and it locks with a key on both sides.
• TS007 is for euro-profile cylinders, the kind in uPVC and composite doors. A 3-star cylinder resists snapping, picking, drilling and bumping. The star count matters: 1-star and 2-star are weaker, and a 1-star only reaches full protection paired with a 2-star handle.

A third turns up in conversation: SS312 Diamond, a Sold Secure rating for tougher snap and drill attacks. The best cylinders carry both 3-star and Diamond. If a cylinder you're offered doesn't reach at least TS007 3-star, it isn't an insurance-grade cylinder, whatever the box says.

Which standard your door needs

The door type decides it, not the brand on the key.

A common misread: on a uPVC door the multipoint mechanism inside the door is not the standardised part. The cylinder is. A brilliant mechanism with a snappable cylinder is still non-compliant.

How to check in two minutes

For a mortice lock, open the door and read the faceplate on the edge. The BSI kitemark plus 3621 means you're covered. Nothing there means you're almost certainly not.

For a cylinder, look at the face where the key goes in. TS007 cylinders show one to three stars in a kitemark, and the better ones add the Diamond mark. If you see no stars and no kitemark on either, assume you fall short and check your schedule.

What goes wrong round here

Three patterns I see across Basingstoke:

1. The original 1990s uPVC cylinder predates the standard. TS007 only became common around 2011, so anything older is very unlikely to be 3-star.
2. A wooden front door with a single Yale rim latch and nothing else. A 4-pin nightlatch isn't BS3621, it needs a 5-lever mortice underneath.
3. The forgotten back door. The front gets upgraded, the back never does, and the policy cares about both.

Any of those turns a stressful claim into a refused one.

What it costs to put right

The numbers, plainly:

• TS007 3-star cylinder, fitted: £95-£160
• BS3621 5-lever mortice lock, fitted: £140-£195
• A pair of locks on a wooden front door, mortice plus rim cylinder: £210-£280

That's per door, and most homes need one to three doing. A typical 3-bed semi getting front and back sorted is around £200-£320. Set that against a £250-£500 excess and a refused claim, and it pays for itself the first time it matters.

The check that costs nothing to ask about

If you're not sure what you've got, ring us with your address and the doors you want looked at. We'll tell you exactly what's fitted, what your insurer will expect, and quote in writing for anything that falls short. No pressure either way. Most people we walk through this find one or two doors that don't meet policy, fix them in a single visit, and never think about it again until they sell.