Smart lock fitting in Wigan and Leigh

Owner-occupation across the borough runs at about 68 per cent, well above the pattern closer to the city, and the stock is dominated by semi-detached and terraced houses rather than flats. Purpose-built flats are largely confined to the town centres.

That makes this the most straightforward area we work in, and it changes what the conversation is about. Elsewhere the first question is who has to give permission — a housing association, a managing agent, a freeholder. Here there usually is no permission step at all, and the only question is which lock suits the door.

So the survey is doing something different: not finding out what you are allowed to do, but working out what is worth doing.

A lot of the newer estates around Standish, Golborne and the edges of Leigh are still inside their structural warranty period, and that is worth a phone call before anybody touches the door.

To be accurate about it: fitting a lock does not void the whole warranty. What it does is take the part you changed outside the cover — alterations made after the final inspection are excluded, so the door is then yours rather than theirs. Everything else stays covered.

Most people are entirely happy with that trade. But the builder is the one who should tell you where you stand, not us, and it costs nothing to ask them first.

One related point on new builds: the door between an integral garage and the house normally has to keep a five-lever mechanism or equivalent to meet the warranty provider's own standard. That constrains what can go on that particular door, and we check it rather than assume.

Wigan is not one town with suburbs — it is Wigan, Leigh, Atherton, Hindley, Tyldesley and several more, each with its own centre and a fair distance between them.

Practically that only matters for scheduling. It is all normal working distance and there is no travel surcharge anywhere in Greater Manchester, but if you have several properties spread across the borough it is worth telling us up front so they can be done in a sensible order rather than three separate visits.