Rental property front door not self locking

[Lau2108]

Looking for some advice please. We rent a family home, not HMO. Today our front door has been changed, it's a lovely door, not cheap etc. However it is not self locking, requires a key to lock both inside and out. We have a relative who lives with us who has severe learning disabilities, at times we can not be home when he is collected for or dropped off from his day centre (work, school runs, appointments etc). We've tried showing him that the key needs to go in to the lock to lock it both inside and outside, he's struggling to get his head around it leaving me with concerns for security if he doesn't lock the door.
Our landlord is great, does repairs swiftly and keeps the property to a high level of maintenance. Having had our share of bad landlords previously, we know we are very lucky and don't want to take this for granted.
I'm going to need to contact him to ask if we can change the door lock, if its even possible to do. Does anyone have any advice on what is needed to make a door self locking?

I'm gutted as it's a really lovely door. The builder who ordered and fitted it was quite proud of the fact it wasn't self locking as then we can't get locked out taking the rubbish out etc but it actually poses a high security risk to the house and our family. Ironically we barely use the front door as parking is round the back, it's only this family member who uses it regularly.

I think you’re being unreasonable here. I don’t get why it needs to be locked if someone is in the house? Could you put a chain on inside instead? If I were a LL I’d be mightily peeved tbh.

Where I live, if you left the door unlocked, the likelihood of someone walking in with the intention of stealing something would be pretty high.

OP ask to add a Yale lock as well.

You have the landlords locks for extra security, but the Yale lock is a back up for eg your relative who will just push tue door shut.

I get it and I know I'm at risk of pee'ing off LL. I hope I have enough of a report with him to raise this and if I speak to him verbally can get the tone right.

The issue is the person inside the house alone has severe learning disabilities and wouldn't be able to handle it if someone came in. It's never been an issue before because where ever we have lived has been easy for him to secure (shut the door and its locked).

I appreciate the chain idea but I feel adding a chain or another seperate lock to the door could then put more damage on to the door. I'm more hoping the handle section could be changed so it can't be opened from the outside.

You have to change the innards of the door I think. I wanted to do the opposite when I had a self locking door, I wanted it only to lock when I locked it and I got a locksmith and I’m sure he had to change something in the door itself and not just the lock.

What about a key safe and the carers who pick him up and drop him off lock the door and return the key to the safe?

Or maybe ask the carers what they suggest, they must cope with this type of scenario for other service users.

We have had a door of this type and they were able to change the handle and make it self locking. However we’ve moved and a new similar door is not possible to convert to self locking without replacing the door. The door fitter should be able to advise what is possible

I don’t think many new doors are self locking these days. They all seemed to have multi point locking systems built in. I do think an additional lock is probably the answer here or get him to use back door which I assume still self locks.

As landlords ourselves, we only fit doors and locks which have to be locked with a key, not the ones that lock automatically the minute the door is shut.

I don't want any calls in the middle of the night or at any other time from tenants who have locked themselves out and this way problems are minimised. That's why. I get your issue, but my response to your request to change the type of lock would be no.

If it's a door where you lift the handle and then turn the key to lock the bolts it should be a simple and inexpensive change. If you approach the landlord and explain it's for security for your family and that you will pay they should be fine. You need to ask if you can change the outside to a pad handle rather than a lever. That way the mechanism outside doesn't connect to the catch so it can't be opened without the key. You can also change the inside to a turn rather than needing to put the key in to lock the bolts. Look at lever lever Vs lever pad and you'll get a better explanation!

I'm going to speak to them on Monday when they're open. He has his own key and is able to get in that way usually, he just can't get his head around needing to lock it with the key. After doing the same routine of unlocking a door and then simply closing it for over 30 years, a change like this is so difficult for him to process. I'm going to keep trying with him too in the hopes he can crack it himself but I also know his capabilities.

Thank you so much! This was the kind of thing I was looking for but didn't know the words I needed to start anywhere.

Of course I was planning to pay for it, will get someone out who knows what they're doing, insured etc.

Ask the LL if you can change it at your cost and explain why. They sound like they maintain the property well and value you as good tenants.

As a a landlord I would absolutely do this. I would think it's a reasonable adjustment in line with the equality act 2010, and a way to ensure the property is locked. If they didn't do it I would think they would be on dodgy ground from a disability discrimination point of view

Thank you, I actually hadn't thought of it from the angle of disability discrimination.

I'm not looking to have any issues with the LL, he's always been more than reasonable with us and I'm hoping that it will go smoothly. I just wanted to be armed with the knowledge of what can be done, who can do it etc so he knows I'm not winging it and will get someone in to do it properly, without damaging the new door.

It's very likely that you have door with a Eurocylinder. I'm not keen on them, but they have the advantage that the cylinder can be taken out after removing a single screw, and replaced with a different one. They are available in different lengths to suit your door and handles, and different qualities of burglar resistance.

They are available with a thumbturn on the inside (no key required) and a keyhole on the outside.

Modern practice is to have a door that can be opened from the inside without a key, for example to escape a fire.

If the door has a letter slot in it, it is possible for a burglar to insert a simple tool to open a door by turning the knob or handle. Various metal cages or boxes are available to enclose the letter slot.

BTW on a wooden door, you can easily add a self-locking nightlatch, but plastic and composite doors usually have multipoint locking where this may not be possible.

There is a spindle which connects the inner and outer door handles. If you have a solid spindle, it will require the key to lock it from outside. if you have a split spindle, it will lock itself without requiring the key outside. It’s very easy to change from solid to split spindle and vice versa.

We did it on our door, but the other way around to avoid the risk of being locked out. £5 on E bay to buy a new spindle , and 5 mins with a screw driver to change it.

A split spindle is what you need. A key is always needed to open the door from the outside, or to engage the multipoint /dead locking from either side, Unless the deadlock is engaged the door can be opened from the inside using the handle, much safer as you can get out easily in an emergency. I think it does depend a bit on the innards of the lock, as to how easy this is to do. I investigated on my front door, and the mechanism needed to be changed. It's also very easy to lock yourself out, so in the end i didn't bother.

Yrs, it's the split spindle that last 2 posts have mentioned that you need.

We rejected a couple of door replacement guys because this was the arrangement we wanted, and they said it was impossible..... went with the guy who immediately knew what we were on about, and had no issues with it.

trouble with that is you are then locking a person with admitted difficulties inside a house and therefore what happens if there is a fire?
Having doors that must be manually locked each time is one thing but you need to permanently leave a key in the lock on the inside so anyone can get out in an emergency.