To be shocked a tenant isn't allowed to change locks?

[ParkingFeud]

Even if they give a new key to the landlord/agency?

If you don't know when the locks were last changed and have no idea who would own keys surely it makes sense to change the locks?! But apparently this counts as a breach of tenancy...I'm pretty shocked on discovering this.

YABU - tenants shouldn't be allowed to change locks even if they give spare keys to the landlord
YANBU - It's bonkers that tenants are expected to leave financially or emotionally important possessions in a potentially insecure property

ALWAYS change the locks when you move in! The family next door to my Dad had a break in and some jewellery was stolen that had been in the family for over 100 years. At the time it was the mother and 2 teenage sons living there. The eldest son was going through a difficult teenage phase and had been caught smoking weed and hanging out with dodgy people. As there were no signs of forced entry, the mum blamed her son and sent him back to Iran to live with his dad as she just couldn't forgive him.

5 years later my dad met the grandson of the elderly couple that lived in the house before the Iranian family. He boasted about having kept a key after his grandparents moved out and it was him that broke in.

The son is back in England now and has his own family. I always feel so sad when I think about them.

I’m a landlord and I change the locks at the start of a tenancy. My tenancies tend not to be short term though, if they were eg every year I might be less inclined as it’s expensive (7 different external locks).

If a tenant wanted to change locks I’d have no problem with that. I would ask them to give me a key though. We gave an excellent relationship and I respect the fact that my house is their home. On that basis I don’t see why there would be a problem with my having a key.

Well, you're shocked at something that isn't true. As a tenant you can change the locks and keep the keys to yourself.

As a landlord, you can only enter a tenanted with their permission, with a court order and bailiffs, or in a genuine emergency. You don't need keys if the tenant lets you in. Bailiffs don't need keys. So that just leaves the emergency, in which case you'll have to force entry.