Burglary & Malicious Damage Repairs
The repair after a break-in is usually small. The feeling of an unsecured house is not. So the first job is always making the building lockable again, tonight, and the tidy permanent repair comes after.
Secure It First
A broken door or window is not just a repair item — until it is fixed the property is open, and in a lot of cases the same address gets revisited. Board-up and temporary securing is the first thing we do, and it can normally happen well before anything is approved.
If the police are still treating it as a scene, we work around that. Take photographs of everything before it is touched, and check with the attending officer before anything is repaired or cleaned.
What We Repair
- Entry damage — forced doors, damaged frames and jambs, kicked-in door hardware
- Glazing — broken windows, sliders and glass doors, including safety glass where required
- Locks and hardware — replacing and rekeying so nothing that walked out still opens the house
- Internal damage — linings, doors and joinery damaged during the burglary
- Vandalism and graffiti — cleaning, sealing, repainting, and replacing what cannot be cleaned
- Deliberate damage — including tenanted properties and vacant buildings
- Security improvements as part of the reinstatement where cover allows
Malicious Damage in Tenanted Properties
Landlord claims for intentional damage are their own kind of awkward. The property is often still occupied, or has just been vacated, and the damage is spread across a lot of small items rather than one big one — a dozen doors, holes in linings, damaged bench tops, ruined flooring.
We scope these room by room with photographs against each item, because that is what the insurer needs and it is also what settles arguments about what was already there. And because we do the small work as well as the big work, we can put it all right in a single visit rather than leaving you chasing four trades.
Vacant and Unoccupied Buildings
Empty buildings attract repeat damage, and each incident is another claim. If a property is going to be vacant for a while, securing it properly is worth more than repairing it repeatedly — steel screens rather than ply, and a proper look at how people are getting in. We can secure a vacant building for the longer term, not just board it up.
Break-Ins and Malicious Damage — Common Questions
Can you board it up tonight?
In most cases yes — securing a property is the part that cannot wait until the claim is sorted out. Ring us and tell us what is open.
Do I need a police report?
Yes — report it and keep the reference number. Insurers ask for it on every burglary and malicious damage claim, and it is much easier to get at the time than a fortnight later.
Should I clean up first?
Photograph everything before you touch it, and if the police are treating it as a scene, ask them before you move anything. Once that is done, tidying is fine — just keep the photographs, because the scope gets written from them.
They took the keys. Is that covered?
Rekeying or replacing locks after keys have been taken is commonly covered, and it is worth doing straight away regardless — a lock that someone else has a key to is not a lock. Check with your insurer, and tell us and we will include it in the scope.
My tenant wrecked the place. Is that this?
It may be, depending on your landlord policy and whether the damage was intentional. Scoping it properly, item by item with photographs, is what makes or breaks these claims — and it is the part we are good at, because we do a lot of them.
When It Can't Wait Until Morning.
Answered and managed by our own team — not an outsourced answering service. We get there, make it safe and stop the damage getting worse.