Poll: Delivery Driver (Hermes) Entered House - POLL ADDED

  • Thread starter Thread starter kai
  • Start date Start date

Do you lock your outside doors in the day when at home? (not if yale locks or similar)

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
Thekwango said:
Yea I get that. But they couldn't, surely, refuse to pay out if you're upstairs having a dump and someone walks in your front door and swipes your laptop?

They might try and put you off with their t's&c's but, at a guess, if you were to peruse your claim and had to go to court they'd have a hard time not paying out?
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No idea. Ultimately you have a contract with the insurer and which places obligations on both parties and it will come down to that contract and whether that contract was fairly formed.

Similarly if your car is stolen because you left your door unlocked with the keys right next to it, you will have problems claiming.

The other issue is that people might just lie. Oh I lost my laptop, there is zero evidence because my door was unlocked.
 
muon said:
There isn't a strict definition. My understanding is that it exists under common law. Think about how difficult it would be to provide an exact threshold of where implied access ends. As already determined in this thread many people would prefer a parcel to be delivered if possible through the door. So a courier could argue that it is a reasonable expectation that they have permission to do that.
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I would have thought it very easy to provide an exact threshold - implied access ends at a closed door which grants access to a private dwelling. Again that's only how I've sort of always expected it to be. I'd be happy to be shown differently as it would genuinely affect how I actually order online.
I'm not a nervous nelly nor spend my time worrying about home invasions/invasion of privacy but if by ordering a gpu online (for arguments sake) legally grants any courier the legal right to waltz into my house unannounced they I'd be looking at getting myself a po box.
 
Or you could just have a door that locks behind you and can only be opened from the inside without a key.
 
muon said:
Hermes delivery drivers have no obligation to follow standard practices of other couriers or what you have labelled standard industry practice (I doubt there is any standardisation). They likely have to follow Hermes set guidelines, but that isn't the same as trespass.
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then how come every major courier in the uk, including hermes, has the "sorry we missed you" note, or did i just imagine receiving several of them in the past?
 
muon said:
Or you could just have a door that locks behind you and can only be opened from the inside without a key.
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I could and I usually do but I don't think the onus should be on me as a home owner to lock my door everytime I go in or out it - unless of course I'm going to bed/leaving the house unattended etc.

I don't think it unreasonable to expect that my closed door be respect as that - a restriction to access.
 
Thekwango said:
I could and I usually do but I don't think the onus should be on me as a home owner to lock my door everytime I go in or out it - unless of course I'm going to bed/leaving the house unattended etc.

I don't think it unreasonable to expect that my closed door be respect as that - a restriction to access.
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That's the whole point though. It's up for interpretation.
 
muon said:
Because everyone locks their doors?
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But they don't.

I live in a relatively small quiet town and know my postie personally and he would never even contemplate (I think!) trying my door were he not able to deliver something.

Might actually ask him for his take on this the next time I'm chatting with him.
 
Thekwango said:
But they don't.

I live in a relatively small quiet town and know my postie personally and he would never even contemplate (I think!) trying my door were he not able to deliver something.

Might actually ask him for his take on this the next time I'm chatting with him.
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I could walk out right now and try 100 doors. I doubt I would find 1 unlocked.

That is why they have these notes. Also most probably wouldn't feel comfortable opening doors.

edit:

The same is true during the day unless I manage to catch someone coming in/out.
 
muon said:
That's the whole point though. It's up for interpretation.
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But that's what I'm trying to find out - sadly google doesn't help much. Is it actually open to interpretation? I'd have thought there'd have been something somewhere in 'black and white' to define where implied access for the likes of couriers ends or at least legal guidelines of what is acceptable/reasonable.
 
muon said:
I could walk out right now and try 100 doors. I doubt I would find 1 unlocked.

That is why they have these notes.
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At this time of night I'd hope so!

If I walked out at 10am in the morning I'd probably find 99/100 doors open where I live!
As an example my own postie, who as I say knows me personally and only lives a few doors away has on occasion taken a parcel for me home with him and called round after I've come home from work. He once told me he didn't bother coming to the door as he figured I was at work and as it was a nice day the wife was likely out the back or out a walk. So it obviously never entered his mind (again at a guess) to check the door.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Are you people seriously saying you lock the front door every time you go for a shower? Or a dump? Where are you living, Baghdad?
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I lock my doors when I'm not going through them. What's the point in leaving them unlocked at other times?

I don't expect anyone to enter my house and probably don't need to lock the doors, but why take a pointless risk? In the same vein, I have my house insured. I don't expect my house to burn down, blow up, get hit by a lorry (or sink into a swamp - but the 4th one stayed up!), but why take a pointless risk?
 
I don't understand how people can't make the distinction between a delivery driver opening your door slightly to pop a parcel in and a random person walking into your house.
 
I think it's hilarious that people don't lock their doors when they're inside. Are you so busy that turning around after you enter, inserting the key into the lock and turning it again is so difficult and time consuming?

No. It is because you are too lazy to unlock the door if you need to pop out, too absent minded to re-lock it when you enter, and cover it with delusions of 'my town/village is so lovely, I don't need to lock my door'.

If someone walks into your house and steals your belongings and your door is unlocked then of course they are still breaking the law. However, your insurance policy will quite possibly be void (why do you think they ask you questions about lock types on doors?).

Stop being lazy. Lock your doors.

p.s. leave the delivery driver alone. He delivered your parcel, unless he also forged a signature (fraud) then get over it.

p.p.s. waiting for replies of 'my village genuinely is lovely, I don't need to lock' or 'I don't need to lock, because I'm Muhammad I'm hard Bruce Lee and I'll knock the hermes driver out'
 
All the comments about insurance........

MOST insurance policies do not require doors to be locked when you are INSIDE the property in order for a claim to be paid.

SOME insurance policies do not even specify that the doors must be locked when you are OUTSIDE the property. Most do, some only include it as a specific exclusion in certain postcode areas. SOME will include as a specific exclusion for some postcode areas even when you are inside the property.

For the vast majority, there is no need for the doors to be locked when you are inside the home as a condition of the insurance.

People making are wild assumptions without knowing too much about the market. But hey, it is GD where everyone knows everything about everything.


Any why should people stay locked in their homes all day? My back door is wide open most of the time. I enjoy the breeze. The dogs can take themselves out whenever they like. Doesn't mean any random should take that as an invitation to walk in. Get a grip.
 
The postman used to do this all the time years ago, he'd just open the door enough to chuck the parcel inside though, not actually enter the house. I really didnt mind as it saved me the bother of having to get things re-delivered.
 
VincentHanna said:
My girlfriend likes the front door locked anytime she is in the house, so when we are both there it does tend to be locked for her sake more than mine.

When I am there on my own I sometimes leave it unlocked, but I am in a private cul-de-sac with only 4 others houses. If I was on a main road it would always be locked.
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My wife does the same, although we're on a terraced street so slightly more reason.

My parents live in a place exactly like you (private cul-de-sac with 5 houses accessed from a private road) and they rarely lock the doors/cars.

Hopefully it's not the same place or i've highlighted their poor security :D
 
Plot twist:

The parcel was merely a decoy. This guy has been plowing your wife for ages and she leaves the door open for him whilst she lays on the bed in that lovely little red negligee you bought her for valentines day two years ago. He uses a parcel to indicate he's delivering if he finds you home and does a runner with you only wondering why he opened the door. Ever wonder why your daughter has freckles? Might want to get a DNA test done.
 
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