A day in the life of a Doncaster locksmith

This was not a normal day here at SF Locksmith’s but it did get interesting. The day before I received a call to attend a repossession of commercial premises and to meet the bailiff at 6 am. This would be what is termed a “peaceful entry”, where there is to be no one there at the time of entering the building.

The reason for a repossession can be for a variety of reasons but is usually that the rent has not been paid to the landlord for the use of the building and that his lease has now been forfeited. Though this is not a pleasant situation for the tenant, the landlord is within his rights and it will probably be his income anyway.

On arriving we initially had a problem with deciding which unit was the correct one has the unit we thought was the correct one was indeed occupied and in full production even at this early hour. A coffee was required while the bailiff waited for further instructions and these wouldn’t be available till after 8 am.

The instructions came and it was decided that we come back later in the day in the hope that by 8 pm the factory would be closed for the night. I had plenty of other work on the domestic front to attend that day and got on my way and agreed to be back later.

12 hours later we were back and fortunately, everything was now in darkness and I set about gaining entry to the building. Three padlocks on the front gates were the first obstacle but after they were removed and replaced with our own we could lock ourselves inside the compound so if the tenants arrived back, we would be safe in the short term. As you can appreciate things can and do get nasty when a tenant finds out he his locked out of his business premises.

I then was challenged with opening four roller shutter doors, each with 2 locks. Though not the most secure locks available, it still takes time. The biggest fear when you do gain entry is if an alarm is fitted but in this case, none was!

At this point, the bailiff takes over and goes about doing an inventory of all the possessions in the factory. He estimated that this was going to take another two hours. I had done my work and I could leave him to his. After checking that all the locks worked for him I left and headed home for something to eat.