Is it ott to change locks when you move house

[Mollymaid64]

When we moved house many years ago it never occured to us to change the door locks. We don't know anyone who did this when they moved either.
Now we're in the same situation again & we're arguing about it. It's essential in my opinion, or am I ott?

I never really thought about it either, the only place I’ve seen people talk about doing it is on here. If your house was broken into it might be reasonably easy to identify the culprit

I've never done it and have bought 7 or 8 times. It does appear to be a thing on. MN though.

Always have.

We always do it. But haven't moved very often.

A friend just moved to a new place and needed to get some plumbing done. Phoned someone who happened to have worked on the house previously and she explained she'd only be in on certain days for the work to be done. The plumber said "no worries we have a key from when we did work for Mr Smith before".

So you just don't know!

A dog walker, an ex partner, neighbours. You can't know whether other keys exist or not and how amicable that relationship with the previous owner was...

I never have in the past (haven't moved house for ages), but I read about it on here and it does make sense when you think about it.

We changed the locks. You never know who has a key to your house else. The people we bought from seemed a bit scatty! They left loads of random keys in the drawer, not sure what they were all for. Plus I think we only had one key for the front door which seemed odd considering it was a family who lived here, so I guess they didn't hand over all they keys/estate agent assumed they had left other keys in the property.

We do it. It’s as much to know the quality of the locks when I declare it on my insurance as to stop anyone else having keys.

It makes sense as you never know who has a key or even where one might be hidden.
Not expensive or difficult to do, practically anyone can do it.

With Yale type night latch & Euro locks, you just change the barrel which is widely & cheaply available from any DIY store, Screwfix, Amazon, eBay etc.
Only with a mortice lock do you you need to replace the lock mechanism itself and while potentially slightly more expensive, is not difficult.

As most new barrells come with multiple keys anyway, can almost be classed as a cost effective way of ensuring you have sufficient keys for your new house as they are not necessarily the cheap things they used to be.

I think it’s a sensible thing to do. When we next move I’d actually like to get a keyless smart lock so I don’t have to remember my keys 🤣

We left 5 sets of keys for my parents house when we moved out. And that was me and my siblings not bothering all to leave ours, we didnt bother even thinking of collecting all of the other ones we know were out there.

We change locks first thing. Always

We always have. Minimal cost for peace of mind and security.

First thing we have done when we've moved house. This house we upgraded the locks as well. Peace of mind and full sets of keys as well!

Yes i've done this.
For some it's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

We moved house in 1979. A few months later, we were burgled and the burglar had the key.

I’ve only ever rented so no I haven’t changed the locks before. I don’t think it’s common practice for landlords to change them when tenants change.

We once rented a house, and came home one day to find an elderly man in the living room: he had owned the house twenty years before, still lived nearby, had developed dementia and obviously still had the keys.

Landlord told us they had known he occasionally let himself in but was harmless!

We were straight off to b and q and changed the locks, we’ve always done it since then.

I imagine house insurance doesn't pay out if someone uses a key.
I might be wrong, after all insurance companies are known to be supportive and helpful of all claims.

I never have but there is obviously a good argument for doing it. You’d have to be pretty unlucky for someone who has a key to your property to want to rob you but it’s a possibility I guess

Ahem, I speak as someone who works in the door industry, specifically door hardware (locks, hinges etc) and you should 100% change the cylinder (choose a 3 star cylinder) when you move in especially if it’s a new build.

God I love it when my geeky niche knowledge gets an airing.

We just sold my mum’s house after she died a while back. The number of front door keys was shocking. My mum of course had one. I had one, my brother, DP and there was my dad’s old key from years ago and a couple more lying in a kitchen drawer. I have absolutely no way of knowing if these are all the keys in existence because I know my mum exchanged keys with long gone neighbours over the years. Maybe those were the ones in the drawer. I have no idea. I handed them all in to the estate agent thinking that I hoped that was all of them😬 It made me think that if I was moving house I would definitely consider changing the locks.

Last time we moved we took our locks with us as front and back door locks were keyed to the same key and it was cheaper to give the new owners cheap locks from B&Q 🤣

We always change the locks you just have no idea who may have keys to the old locks. And if there isn't one fit a good dead lock to the front door.

Nope: a complete stranger knocked and gave us a spare key a few days after we moved in

never thought to change the locks

We discovered on our first day in our first house that the front door couldn't be locked and only had a block of wood holding it shut. When we viewed the house we were let in by the agent so hadn't considered whether to ask if the door locks!

In our second home we found that the rear door to the garage was so warped that it wouldn't shut. Both required new doors not just locks!

We change the front locks and decide on the others depending on accessibility.

Surveyors are supposed to check that