4 important things to do after changing your door locks

Your locks can need changing for a whole host of different reasons, perhaps because you’ve moved into a new property, want to restrict access to your home, are a landlord with new tenants, or you’ve had an old lock fail.

Either way if you’ve recognised how important it is to have good quality, secure locks on your home, office or shop and are arranging for them to be changed, there are some important steps we would advise you to take once the work has been carried out.

1. Check that all of your new keys are working

Although all locksmiths will try to avoid this scenario, you may occasionally get one or two keys that don’t work smoothly in the new lock. Because of this we would always recommend immediately testing all of your new keys to ensure that they all work well in the lock and you are happy with them. Any reputable locksmith will be happy to make you some new sets to cover any keys that don’t operate as well as they should.

2. Give a trusted friend or neighbour a spare door key

The last thing you want to do after having your locks changed is get caught without a key and have to call the locksmith again because you’ve locked yourself out of the property! To avoid this ensure you give a trusted neighbour or friend who lives close by a spare set of the new keys as soon as possible. Doing this will also make it easier in the future if you ever want them to pop into the property because you are on holiday or have an emergency.

3. Make sure everyone who needs it has the new set of keys

Often a few of your family or close friends will have spare sets of your keys to use in case of an emergency. Don’t forget to make sure you replace their old keys with a set of the new ones after changing your locks, and test them to ensure they are in good working order. We would also recommend keeping a list of everyone who has a spare key – you may need this in the future if you need another set or sell the property.

4. Collect up all of your old keys

Someone accidentally trying to use the old keys to open up the new lock could potentially cause damage to the new lock. To avoid this happening we’d recommend collecting up all the keys for the old locks. Either keep them in a safe place clearly labelled or securely dispose of them. This is also a great time to have a key-detox and see what other redundant keys you may have laying around in the drawer!