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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

There must always be keys near doors?

172 replies

Namechange202323 · 05/08/2023 11:55

im sick of arguing with DH and my parents about this. With UPVC doors that are locked with a key from inside, rather than putting keys on a hook near door, they will take them into the house / upstairs, pockets whatever. Meaning you have to find a key to open the door and/or leave the house! I feel really strongly (from a fire risk etc), that we should always be able to get out and there should ALWAYS be a key at the door. They just don’t care as much and don’t think it matters. Even if it means a visitor is waiting for a few mins while they go get a key. Please tell me they are being ridiculous, and if there are any ideas to make sure key is always there. We have loads of spares and every so often I’ll put all 4 spares on the hooks but within a week they are in pockets / bags etc and need to be found! grrrr!

OP posts:

Madamecastafiore · 05/08/2023 12:42

I'd leave the key in the door. Bugger possessions if someone wants to get in your house they will (the Queen woke to someone sitting on the end of her bed).

I'd think fire safety, you can't replace a person killed or hideously damaged in a fire, you can replace belongings.

Or as previously stated get a lock that you just have to turn to get out from the inside.

Flossflower · 05/08/2023 12:44

My brother, a fire fighter, told me off for not having the front door key by the front door. It is now always in the lock so I can just turn it.

ohtowinthelottery · 05/08/2023 12:59

Our front door doesn't need a key to get out. We only lock the deadlock if we're not there. Our patio doors have the keys on a hook out of sight but next to the door. For a burglar to get them they'd have to smash the double glazed glass door and they'd be in anyway. The back door key is on a hook which you'd have to pass on the way to the door (out of sight of the door). Everyone knows where it is - we had visitors last weekend and I pointed it out to them. All the window keys are on 3M plastic hooks to the left of every window cill - again not visible from outside as hidden by curtains - but we all know where they are.

It is bonkers to not have keys to your fire escape route easily available. Feel sure you'll find some sort of fire escape plan for households on the Fire Brigade website.

tanstaafl · 05/08/2023 13:00

I was told by a locksmith that internal thumb turns are not approved by insurance companies for reason mentioned by pp.
Burglar breaks side glass, reaches in and unlocks door with the thumb turn.

Cestfoutu · 05/08/2023 13:02

When the fire brigade came to talk to my tutor group, they recommended attaching door keys by safety pin to the nearest curtain so they were always available nearby but not necessarily easy to see / get from the outside by a burglar.

gamerchick · 05/08/2023 13:03

I wouldn't like that. It only takes a handful of breaths I think in a smoke filled house before you're unconscious. If they won't listen I'd probably get a door with an old fashioned lock with a snib.

gamerchick · 05/08/2023 13:05

Or install a fire ladder upstairs. Fire is one of my biggest fears in a house

LaMaG · 05/08/2023 13:12

@OHVanessaShanessaJenkins I'm sorry about your experience.

Agree OP the key couldn't be more important. Ours don't lock that way now but my old house did and we put the key in at night.

We also have a fire ladder in my sons room at the rear of the house. Dhs idea, he has a real fear of fire. It was in the old house that we were worried due to difficult access to the back but once we got it we can't very well get rid of it or we'd be tempting fate! So a big bulky box remains on my sons shelf.

StnNurse · 05/08/2023 13:19

Having been both burgled and in a house fire, we opt for keeping keys accessible by doors and windows at all times. Each of us (DH, both DC and myself) have our own set of front and back door keys and spare front and back door keys are kept with the corresponding doors at all times.

Possessions can be replaced, people can not.

UpUpUpU · 05/08/2023 13:24

I leave my front and back door key in my doors at night time. I’d rather risk a burglary than die in a house fire. My dad is a retired firefighter so this is how I grew up. Whenever my ex comes round to see my son he tells me off and takes the keys out. Drives me mad!

FlibbertyGibbitt · 05/08/2023 13:33

My key is in the key box next to the front door. As I live alone I’m more worried about something happening to me in the night and my son not being able to get in .

Ladyoftheknight · 05/08/2023 13:33

YANBU. Short term- hide one key near the door- on top of door trim/under furniture nearby etc so you know there's one there at all times. Long term- key attached to short chain by door- only reaches lock and nothing else.

Neurotic90 · 05/08/2023 13:34

creamcheeseandlox · 05/08/2023 12:25

If someone wants to break Into your house they will get in, key in the door or not. I'd rather be alive if my house is on fire thanks.

This!

Same for car keys, I'd rather they "fished" them through the letter box than wander about my house to find them. If someone wants to steal or break in they will find a way regardless. Being able to get out in a fire should be the priority.

BlastedIce · 05/08/2023 13:40

My DH is a postman and has had to wait a fair few minutes before a key can be found to open the door.

These people would’ve been overcome by smoke and have no chance in a fire.

Makes me feel physically sick, the thought of a fire happening and you can’t find the keys.

We had a door like that, had to pay to change it too one that you couldn’t open from the outside.

YANBU

KajsaKavat · 05/08/2023 13:44

So dangerous if there is a fire!!!! I have never allowed keys to be anywhere but near the door. Put your foot down on this.

ElinoristhenewEnid · 05/08/2023 13:49

I would say NEVER leave the keys in the lock particularly if you live alone because if in an emergency someone needed to enter your property he or she would not be able to use a key from the outside if there is a key in the lock inside the house. When I lock my front door at night I put the key behind a plant pot near the front door so it cannot be seen or 'fished' but I can easily pick it up to open the door in case of emergency. With the back and patio doors I have the keys on a shelf near the doors but out of sight and reach from outside.

Magneta · 05/08/2023 13:50

We leave keys hidden near doors but never in them.

It's really important the key is in a consistent place especially if you have children. They don't always have the same Plan Bs as adults - your own set of keys in the pocket of your other trousers, knowledge of the spares in the utility drawer.

3mma22 · 05/08/2023 13:52

YANBU

We have hooks by the doors and upstairs windows for the keys. I would panic if I didn’t know where they were. Must be so scary in house fires - sorry to hear the stories.

I hate keeping them in the door itself, not just burglars but when DC was almost 2 he managed to unlock the door and get out of the house. (I’d run up the stairs to grab a cardigan, he was impatient to go to the park - thank God we lived in a small, quiet cul de sac).

bluedelphinium · 05/08/2023 13:53

An ex deliberately kept his car keys on a separate ring on the side, visible if someone breaks in the front (not from the outside). He was told, I think by a police officer for some reason, that most burglars would just go for the car rather than ransack the house so just let em get on with it.

I would also rather take my chances with any possible burglar than risk not being able to find the keys in a fire so I agree with tying the keys on a string or an elastic. Obv don't leave them visible, maybe add an internal letter box but it really doesn't take long to suffocate in smoke.

OnionBhajis · 05/08/2023 13:54

It's only on the other recent door thread that I realised it wasn't a standard everywhere to have doors that just open from inside.

I've always lived in houses that just open if opened from inside (and I've lived in qiote a few houses).

I wish this was standard for everyone. It give me eebie jeebies thinking people might not be able to just get out of their house if they needed to.

Similarly it automatically locks so no faffing with a key when we leave.

SerendipityJane · 05/08/2023 13:55

When we had our front door changed from a classic Yale lock one (which locked itself when you closed it) to a uPVC one I noted the difference in lock functions and asked the fitter how I could get back to the old "shut and lock" feature. That (a) didn't need a key to lock and (b) could be opened with out a key.

Apparently in 20 years of fitting them no one else had commented.

You can get uPVC locks that have a thumbwheel on the inside, that can be opened without a key. The problem is then if someone breaks in through a window, they can just walk out the door. Which is harder if you need a key.

The only good thing about needing a key to open it from the inside is you can use the key to stop someone else opening the door from the outside. Which may be useful depending how prone your inlaws are to surprised visits.

Allywill · 05/08/2023 13:56

Buy a split spindle handle for the door. Then it can be opened from the inside but can’t be opened from the outside without a key. We had them fitted after daughter left back door unlocked one night and we were burgled. Luckily insurance did pay out but they insisted on these handles afterwards. They are inexpensive and can just be swopped for the usual handles. My husband did it himself.

WorriedMumofTeen16 · 05/08/2023 14:02

I've been in a house fire. DH had the keys in his pocket and when we woke up due to the smoke we were already confuddled and he simply couldn't find them. We had the toddler with a wet t-shirt over her face and had forgotten my stepson was at his mums in our confusion and DH grabbed a giant stuffed toy thinking it was him til we realised. With our brains slowing and panic rising it took ages to find the keys. I can honestly say it was terrifying, do not underestimate how quickly the smoke completely fills the house and how confused and slow of thinking that makes you. Keys now kept in door, just me n daughter these days, but far far safer

iknowimcoming · 05/08/2023 14:04

ParkingTrouble123 · 05/08/2023 12:30

I got extra keys cut specifically for this purpose, so everyone has a set of keys, plus a couple of spare sets, PLUS one key for each door that never leaves the house and is constantly hung on a hook near the door but out of sight from the outside (say if a burglar peeped through the letterbox, they wouldn’t see it.

i agree I’d rather be burgled than burnt alive.

This 100%! Different house now but in previous we had a key with a teddy bear keyring slightly bigger than my hand permanently on the hooks near the door (but out of sight from outside) kids were taught from very young that in a fire/emergency to feel for the key and get out asap, even if the key was accidentally dropped in the dark you could easily feel for it, and it was only to be touched in an emergency!

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 05/08/2023 14:05

I have a key hook . It is on the wall by the door but where it can’t be reached or seen from outside. You come in , you hang your key up. The car key lives there too.

get a big one though. It’s so convenient, it fills up with everyone’s keys.

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