Is it good practice to switch/change locks when you change tenants?
I understand it may be a bit of a faff - but the new incoming tenant might want it done to feel more secure.
My last tenants were there for a good >3 years so have never had to consider it for a while.
(The reason why I ask is that I hear a of an incident from a fellow landlord who experienced an ex tenant who made copy of the keys and came back to the property a good 9 months after he had left and new tenants moved in. He got caught by a webcam that was installed by the existing tenant…)
Definitely. After any trades have been in to do repairs etc. and after any viewings if done for you by sn agent. When you move in a new place yourself wouldnt you change the locks? A basic security measure
Needed for insurance so you are sure no spare keys you dont know about
Dont forget to check and if needed change the CO and fire alarms too
(I had a former tenant of my flat come and ‘retrieve’ post from.a common hallway. As soon as we realized we changed the common front door locks and told former agent. Tenant had to have explained to them that they had been trespassing…)
Wow!!! I hope LL called the police about trespassing and unlawful entering. Knowing the identity of the intruder will hopefully move police to at least give them a warning.
We had the same problem with the T we evicted. He lied about losing the keys, then, after eviction, he came back and tried to unlock the door and enter. But we changed the locks, LOL! Then he left the “lost” keys in the mailbox ))
Well as we couldn’t actually prove the ex tenant had entered (no ring doorbell recording etc) we didnt bother reporting to the police (not sure they could have done anything as we didnt have ex tenant’s new address). Agents told us ex tenant was trying to get a letter about a fine to avoid going to court and having to pay extra - so we handed all the mail addressed to her to agents for her to collect
Lots of bills and debt collection letters kept coming for ex tenant, still get them sometimes…
Yes well I have had local community police visit as my neighbour went to court for damages against the former LL because he failed to control and take enough action against the previous tenants before this one - they chanted monkey noises at her. Horrible to have racial abuse anywhere but in your own home where you should feel safe is awful. Felt a little sorry for him too - how can you know in advance your prospective tenants will be racist like that, and how do you deal with it…
So changing the locks so we could all feel safe and move on was the priority …
I managed to pick up a new Yale lock cylinder - but the problem is it only comes with 2 keys.
Given that it is a Sunday - most tradespeople are not available - but luckily, my local ASDA has a Timpson automated self-service key-cutting machine - and it handled my Yale deadlock with speed and precision (although I noted quite a few online users complained that their experience wasn’t great)
£7 per key or 3 for the price of 2 at £14
Saved me waiting till tomorrow!
Think as most adults use cards to pay for stuff, and have either income or receive benefits, and many have
Well if they use a bank card or mobile phone for example, maybe not too hard to get a general area or a location they are regularly at, but police need a good reason to access those databases and still takes some effort. If somebody gets everything in cash and sofa surfs at friends or pays for a dodgy sublet, probably rather harder to find them. It’s the price we pay for the freedom of not being microchipped at birth with gps devices. Fortunately.
Don’t make the same mistake I did, I installed expensive 15 pin mastered security locks which keys cannot be copied without the security code, but extra keys were very expensive and so were the locks which the tenants had to pay to replace if they lost any keys. It was great for access with only one master key to blocks of flats, but, the company eventually stopped manufacturing that type of cylinder and now we cannot get replacements. Don’t trust companies that promise continued service, they lie, Carlisle Brass certainly lied to us.
If a decent tenant and left on good terms i dont bother. Mortice locks and yale locks take a little time. Eurolocks are easy just get the right split. Buy the knobbly ones which tend to be higher quality which cant be so easily snapped i can break a cheap eurolck in a minute so can many others
maybe consider buy a lasered key lock for extra security and cant be copied without the code or a thumblock to gain easy egress in event of fire