Moving into a new place: rekey or replace the locks?

Why this is not paranoia

Think about who plausibly holds a key to the place you just moved into. The previous occupants. Their adult children. A former partner. The agent. A cleaner. A dog walker. A contractor who fitted the dishwasher three years ago. A neighbour who watered the plants during a holiday in 2021. The friend who stayed for six weeks after a break-up.

None of these people are villains. They are simply keys that exist, in pockets and drawers you will never see, and no handover conversation can account for them. Rekeying does not require anybody to remember anything.

Rekey: what it is

Inside a lock cylinder is a row of small spring-loaded pins. Their heights are what makes one particular key cut turn the lock and every other one fail. Rekeying means taking the cylinder out, swapping those pins for a different set, and cutting keys to match.

The lock body stays. The handle stays. The finish stays. The holes in your door stay. Only the pattern that the lock will accept changes — and it changes the moment the cylinder goes back in. There is no waiting period and nothing to deactivate.

Replace: when it is the right answer

Replacing hardware solves a hardware problem, not a key problem. Do it when:

• The lock is worn, seized or damaged, or the key already needs a wiggle to turn.
• The door has been forced or tampered with at some point.
• It is thin builder-grade hardware on a street-facing door — common on new-build and flipped properties, where the locks were the last thing anyone thought about.
• You want a high security or restricted cylinder, so that nobody can copy your key at a kiosk without your say-so.
• The cylinder is too worn to hold a new pinning reliably. A locksmith can tell you this at the door.
• You want a different type of lock — a keypad on the door you use most, or a deadbolt where there is only a latch.

Most moves end up as a rekey on the sound locks and a replacement on one or two doors. That is the normal, honest answer, and it is what our lock rekey and lock installation and repair pages cover.

The move-in checklist

Walk the property and write down every one of these before you book anything.

• Front door — latch and deadbolt. Count them; many doors have two locks.
• Back door and any side door.
• Garage service door — the one people forget, and the one that leads to a door into the house.
• Side gate, if it is keyed.
• Sliding patio door — usually a latch rather than a key, and usually the weakest point in the house. A secondary lock or a bar is worth more here than anything you can do to the front door.
• Windows that open, especially at ground level.
• Garage opener — change the code and clear any remotes you were not handed.
• Smart locks and keypads — remove every existing user and code, not just add yours.
• Alarm code, if there is a system.
• Building or gate fobs — ask the manager or the association to deactivate anything unaccounted for.
• Communal mailbox — usually the building's or the postal service's to change, not yours. Ask rather than drilling.

What not to do

• Do not take "these are all the keys" as a security measure. It is a statement about what somebody remembers, not about what exists.
• Do not fit the lightest deadbolt you can find into an unreinforced frame. Most forced residential doors fail at the jamb, where the strike plate is held by short screws into trim. A reinforced strike and screws long enough to reach the stud behind it do more for the door than upgrading the lock.
• Do not leave a spare under the mat, in a planter, on the ledge above the door or in a fake rock. Those are the first four places anybody looks.
• Do not put a tag with the address on the keyring. A lost key is an inconvenience; a lost key with an address on it is an invitation.
• Do not skip the rear of the property. People spend the budget on the front door and leave a back door with a decorative latch.

What the visit looks like

1. You say how many doors, what kind of locks, and whether you want them all on one key. The price is agreed before anything starts.
2. The cylinders come out, are repinned, and go back on the doors. Pins, springs, blanks and the key machine are in the van, so nothing leaves the property.
3. Any lock that is too worn to hold a pinning is identified and discussed with you before it is replaced.
4. Every new key is tested in every lock, in both directions, with you watching.
5. You get the number of keys you asked for — and the old ones, if any were handed over, come back to you.