To change the locks after the workmen are done?

[MaybeTomorrowItllBeOK]

Evening.

Asking here for the traffic.

Have just bought a new house.

For me #1 job was replace the locks.

But actually for the next week or so we have the option of leaving the workmen (getting some immediate work done while we stay elsewhere) a key so they can come and go and get the job done quicker while we aren't living there.

So I'm thinking to delay the locksmith until they're done? Right move do you think?

@Threenow Do you not care about your possessions? That a previous tenant could turn up, let themselves in and take your stuff? And you wouldn't be insured.

You are very trusting!

I'm glad someone posted this. I didn't change the locks when we moved and every so often I have a little flash of anxiety about it.

Don't know why. It's quite clear the previous owner isn't going to come back to the area let alone the house!

A £10 barrel lock is mostly worthless. You might as well just remove it. It will save your door being damaged when someone tries to snap it to get in.

I would say you need a three star lock, cheapest is probably around £30.

How about any of the 3 sets of dodgy builders the previous owners gave keys to ?

Of course you should change the locks! There's far too many threads on here about bonkers neighbours, imagine one of them had a spare key to your home to feed the cat/ water the previous owner's plants??

I'm assuming if you've a big house with seven doors, you might have valuables.

A decent diamond rated lock (assuming that you have Euro style ones) will be upward of £30 each. I fitted mine myself as it's a cinch. So you're looking at £210+. I'm sure you'd think it money well spent if you have jewelry, electronic devices, a car etc.

You could always just fit one but are you confident that a burglar will pick one over the other six?

Yes, pointless changing the locks whilst you've handed out keys to workmen.

Far better just to wait and get them changed when the major work has been done.

If you're talking about the small locks typically in double glazed PVC doors, they're remarkably easy to change as long as you order/buy the identical size. You can whip out the old and put new ones in taking just a few minutes (plenty of online You tube videos showing how to do it).

Changing a Yale type lock is also very easy.

More difficult if they're "proper" locks that slide into the wooden door, as you may have to chisel out some of the door to fit the new lock in, and may also have to change the door plate that the lock slides into. Not really jobs for the keen DIYer who hasn't tried that kind of thing before as easy to make a mess of it. Unless you can source identical locks (i.e. same supplier name/shop etc), where the size should be the same, and you should be able to unscrew the old and put in the new without need for chisels etc.

Of course, you have the same quandary again in the future if you need more substantial work done and need to hand keys to workmen again, as then you'll probably want to change the locks again afterwards.

I definitely would and after the builders are done….my electrician had several keys cut unbeknownst to us and then came back after the job was completed and stole hundreds of pounds worth of material. He was a family friend too which made it worse.

I changed the locks as soon as I moved in, I thought it was common sense, but after looking through the comments - apparently not.

You can't put a price on peace of mind.

I think the problem is more the "stealthy" ones who don't leave any trace they've been in your house, so won't want to leave damage etc. They're more likely to get away with stealing valuables such as money/jewellery etc that may not be immediately be noticed by the occupant.

Yes, we all know kicking down a door or using a crowbar etc can usually mean easy entry, but it's also highly noticeable, and often noisy, so higher risk of being caught doing it or quickly afterwards.

Someone with a key is going to attract a lot less attention than someone with tools or shouldering the door, especially on a busy road or with neighbours watching, so less chance of being caught.

I changed keys even in rental after I strongly suspected someone came in few times. Then just put the old one back when moving out.

Aa pp said, you can do it cheaply yourself.

First thing I do when I move house is get the locks changed.

No. You just buy a high security lock with a keycode.

This is a code that comes with the lock. You can't get keys cut or supplied for the lock unless you have the code.

You can give workpeople keys, but so long as you don't give them the code, there is no way they can easily copy them by taking them into a shop for example.

My top tip, always get the extra keys when you buy the lock, because they can be quite expensive to order afterwards as the manufacturer knows they have a captive market.

We had a break in a few weeks after we moved in. They had a key ...

Luckily my dh was on early shift & disturbed them. Always changed the locks since.

I'd wait till after the builders are done though

We never hand out keys to workmen, so that solves the problem. For internal work, we only have work done when one of us can stay in with them. For external work, they don't need keys to get in - we have external power and water supplies so they stay outside.

When I moved in to my last house the locks were changed the day I moved in. A friend of my dad did it as a moving in gift. He is a building contractor and knew all the workmen who did the work on my (new build) house but still insisted I got new locks.

If you don't have the money to change locks, swapping front door lock with back if possible is a good solution.

And yes, I've always changed locks on moving in a new property. I have no idea how many keys are out there, neighbours, dog walkers, friends relatives etc. Not worth it.

Lock snapping is no way near the same as kicking down a door and exactly why it's so popular. It's quick easy andas evidenced on this thread, people generally have no idea.

Burglars want quick and easy. How's 9 seconds for you? This short video shows just how burglars can check your door and identify the type of lock you have. Now tell me this is preferable to carefully moving round your house so that you can't tell anyone's been. Most couldn't give a toss as they just want to smash, grab and be out in the shortest time possible.

Wasn't there a thread on here within the last couple of weeks where the OP was chatting to a neighbour and they mentioned that they had their door changed or their lock changed, the neighbour asked for a key and the OP said that wouldn't be necessary, and the neighbour said "oh how will I water your plants while you're away".

It turned out the neighbour had a key from the previous house owners and had been letting themselves in to the house whenever the OP was away to water plants and have a little dust/tidy/nosy.....it's what they nad always done with the prior house owner but the OP had no idea!!

Change your locks people! It doesn't always have to be sinister to be unwelcome.

If you have top of the range locks where the keys can't be copied, it costs hundreds of pounds to change them, so I rarely change them and keep a close eye on where every key is.

It's actually scary how clueless people are.

What people don't understand with security is that you very much make yourself the victim.

If a lock snapper comes to your front door and sees a lock with a 3 star mark on it, they will just go away and find someone else's to snap.

It's not about actually stopping someone getting in - that's almost impossible if they are determined enough.

It's about not making yourself an easy target so the burglar pisses off and goes somewhere else that is less hassle.

I would change them for peace of mind.

We had new neighbours and a couple of years after they moved in I realised I had a key to their back door from feeding a cat belonging to the previous owners. I gave it to the new people who weren't bothered but I could have let myself in at any time and they wouldn't have known.

My dad has a bag full of lock barrels. When one of us kids (ha - we're all middle-aged now!) moves house, he arrives with his bag of barrels, and swaps the existing ones out - and the one from the new house go into his bag ready for the next move.

Not that barrels are expensive, but it means that if you ever do want to change a lock, money isn't even part of the consideration.

I think I’d probably wait until the workmen have finished and then change the locks.

We changed the locks on our house as soon as we moved in.
As pp have said, there’s no way of knowing who the previous owners had given keys to, and whether any of those people still had keys.

I think that the risk of one of those people using their key to get in and steal our stuff was low, but if a burglary had happened that way, then the insurance wouldn’t have covered it. And new locks aren’t that expensive.

I agree. It's sad that you're just deflecting crime to your neighbours but what else can you do.

This link obviously isn't for you but I was shocked that 76% of burglaries are door related. Only a very small percentage is due to keys so tightening up door security is critical.

www.keytek.co.uk/blog/burglary-statistics-2020-2021/