If you don’t know how many keys are out there, you haven’t got a secure property. A landlord in Dibden Purlieu rang me after his tenants moved out. They’d left the place in a state and handed back fewer keys than they were given, so nobody knew how many were still floating about. Both doors changed, ten keys cut, done inside twelve hours of the call, £153.90 for the pair.
It’s one of the cheapest jobs I do and one of the few that properly fixes the thing it’s asked to fix.
Everything below is from that job. I did the work myself, the photographs are mine, and the figures are the ones off the invoice. I’ve been at this trade a long while and I’ve had more seized cylinders out of uPVC doors than I could count, so where I tell you what tends to happen, it’s what I’ve seen happen rather than something I’ve read.
Why did the landlord ring me?
Word of mouth, same as most of my work. He’d been given my number by another member of a business group I’m in over on the Waterside, a fellow who’d had me out to his own place and was happy to put his own name behind mine.
That’s worth more than any advert. A tradesman who’s any good won’t recommend a wrong’un, because the next thing that happens is his mate rings him back asking who on earth he sent round. Most of my landlord and letting agent work comes to me that way and I’d rather it stayed that way.
How many keys are actually out there?
Nobody knows, and that is the problem. Not the tenant, not the agent, and certainly not the landlord. At the end of a tenancy you are counting keys and hoping, and hoping is not the same as knowing.
Think what happens over two or three years. Two keys go out on day one. A partner moves in and gets one cut at the shop for a few quid. The dog walker has one. Somebody’s mum had one for the fortnight they were away. One goes missing down the back of a sofa, another gets cut to replace it, and then the first one turns up.
None of that is sinister and most people are honest as the day is long. But when four come back and six went out, nobody in the chain can tell you where the other two are. So on any tenancy changeover my advice never changes: change the lock between tenants, don’t count and hope. If you’re looking after a few properties it belongs in the budget between lets, the same as a clean and a set of smoke alarm batteries.
Have a look at what your own policy asks for as well. I’ll never tell you what an insurer will or won’t do, nobody honest can, but plenty of policies have wording about the locks on a let property and it’s your policy, so it’s worth five minutes.
Should you change the locks between tenants, or rekey them?
Rekey when you know where every key is. Change the cylinder when you don’t. On a rented house at the end of a tenancy you almost never know, so the cylinder comes out.
Rekeying means keeping the lock and re-pinning it so the old keys stop working. It’s a proper job and there’s nothing wrong with it. On a commercial site with a key register and a signed-out list it makes good sense, which is why I’ve written before about how often a business ought to change its locks.
On a euro cylinder in a uPVC door the change is quick when it goes to plan, and what comes out is very often a plain basic barrel the door fitter put in years ago. Swapping like for like would be a waste of the visit.
Why wouldn’t the old lock come out?
Years of WD-40. The front door cylinder was gummed solid with it. There was so much residue in there the thing would not extract at all, and I was a long while on that one door before it moved.
There’s a second reason it fights you, and it’s one most people never hear about. Door fitters cut the cylinder hole very tight. That’s fine on the day the door goes in, but it makes getting an old cylinder out and lining a new one up genuinely awkward, and it’s the bit that catches people who’ve watched a video and think it’s a two-minute job. It isn’t. It’s a knack you get from doing hundreds of them.
In the end the old cylinder had to be snapped out to free it, and nothing else on the door was harmed. It was a basic barrel and it gave up without much argument, which tells you what you need to know: that is not what you want sat in a front door. The full argument for a decent cylinder is in anti-snap locks explained in plain English.
What should you spray a stiff lock with?
Silicone. GT85 is the one I’d buy. You’ll find it in any decent hardware shop, bike shop or motorist discount place, and a tin lasts years. Once a year on the cylinder and once on the hinges and keeps is plenty.
And here’s the one I’d put on a billboard if I could, in my own words: “WD-40 must never be used for any lock whatsoever.” It’s made for shifting water, and in a lock it doesn’t do the job. Give a sticky lock a squirt and it’ll turn beautifully that afternoon, so you think you’ve cured it. What you’ve actually done is line the inside of the lock with something that stays tacky, and over the following year that tackiness collects dust, brick dirt, pocket fluff and grease off the key until nothing can move. That’s how you end up with what I found in that door.
If you want to see what you’re spraying into, I built something for that. Have a look at what’s actually inside your door, strip the skin off a uPVC door on screen, lift the handle and watch the hooks throw. Five minutes on that page and you’ll know what’s behind your own handle. I’ll do a full post on looking after locks shortly, because there’s more to it than one paragraph.
Left long enough, it isn’t the cylinder that gives out. It’s the multipoint gearbox behind it, the part that turns your handle into hooks. I replaced one up the road in Dibden Purlieu a few weeks back on a door that had been shut for nearly two years. If your handle needs a lift and a shove, or the door only locks when you pull it towards you, that’s the warning, and it’s often a door that’s dropped rather than anything dear.
What went into the two doors?
Snap secure cylinders, anti-pick and anti-drill, which is what I fit as standard. Out came the plain barrel the door came with, nothing in it to slow anybody down, and it’s in a great many of the houses I go into around Southampton.
He didn’t need new handles, so he didn’t get sold any. What I did do was lubricate the handles that were on there and check they were tight before I left, because a loose handle works itself looser and then it’s dragging on the mechanism, and that’s a bill in six months for the sake of two minutes now. If you want to know what the star ratings on lock furniture actually mean, I’ve explained the standards here, and the Master Locksmiths Association have been warning about lock snapping for years if you want it from somebody other than me.
The two doors are keyed differently. Five keys cut for each, ten in total, and the front set won’t open the back. That was his call and it’s a fair one for a let property, because it means you can hand out access to one door without handing out access to the house.
Why five keys per door?
Because you can only count them at the end if somebody counted them at the start. Five is the number that works for a let property, and once it’s written down at the start of the tenancy you have something to count against at the end. The keys come with the lock, so ask for the number you actually need rather than the number you’re given.
- Two for the tenants, handed over on day one and written on the inventory
- One for the agent, or for you if you manage it yourself
- One spare, kept at your house and never lent to anybody
- One held back, so when a key goes missing mid-tenancy you’re issuing a key instead of paying for another lock change
If the property needs access for a carer, a cleaner or a contractor, don’t hand out more keys. That’s what a key safe is for, £150 supplied and fitted, and it keeps the count where you can see it. And if there’s a thumb turn on the inside of that door, it’s worth reading about thumb turns and fire safety in rented homes before you decide anything.
What does a landlord lock change cost?
This one came to £153.90 for both doors, two cylinders, ten keys, handles seen to, everything in. The prices I work from are published on the site so you can check before you ring rather than after, and anything I have to quote on the day I tell you before I start.
- Lock change, from £90 supplied and fitted. That’s the advertised price and it’s for the first lock
- Extra locks on the same visit are quoted on the day and come in lower. Most of the cost of any job is getting there and getting it right, not the second cylinder once I’m stood in the hallway with the tools out
- The keys are included. All ten of them, cut and handed over. I don’t charge extra for cutting keys on a lock change, whether you want two or five
- Then I knocked money off. Two doors together, and a man sent to me by somebody I know. £153.90 was the figure I gave him and £153.90 was the invoice
- No call-out fee. Coming out to you is part of the job, not a line added on top of it. If I think a job might turn complicated I say so on the phone and we agree the price before I start, never after
- No VAT
The prices on my site are guides and they’re honest ones. Some jobs come in over them, when the door’s fighting me or a part has to be ordered rather than sat on the van, and if that’s the case I say so before I start, never after. Plenty come in under, like this one did.
What’s the guarantee?
Twelve months on the parts. That’s the written bit. The rest of it is how we’ve always worked: “We are a kind family-run business, we’ll always look after our customers.”
If something I fitted plays up inside the twelve months, ring me and I’ll sort it out. I’d rather do that than have somebody in Dibden Purlieu telling people I fitted a lock that didn’t last.
What the landlord said
He put this on Google after I’d been:
Excellent, prompt service. Locks changed front and back within 12 hours of call being made.
You can read that on Google alongside every other review I’ve had. I’ve not screenshotted it and stuck it on the page. If I quote somebody here you can go and check it yourself, which is how it ought to be.
Twelve hours matters on this one. An empty property between tenants isn’t an emergency the way a lockout at midnight is, and if it is midnight then that’s a different post entirely. But it’s not something you want sitting for a fortnight either, and if I can get to you the same day or the next morning I will.
What I’d say to any landlord
Don’t assume a tenant looks after the doors and locks the way they’d look after their own. Most aren’t being careless, they just don’t think about a lock until it stops working, and by then it’s stopped working. That’s why a proper look at the doors at changeover is worth the half hour.
And since the Renters’ Rights Act changes came in on 1 May 2026, getting a property back takes longer than it used to.
None of it has to be expensive. Keep the locks maintained, know roughly how your own door works, and use somebody who tells you the truth about what it needs.
FAQ
How much does a landlord lock change cost in Southampton?
From £90 supplied and fitted for the first lock, with extra locks on the same visit quoted on the day and charged lower. Keys are included, not an extra. No call-out fee and no VAT. The job on this page, two doors with five keys cut for each, came to £153.90 all in.
Do I need to change both doors?
If keys are unaccounted for, yes. A key that opens the back door opens the property, and the back is usually the quieter side of a house. Doing both on one visit costs a good deal less than doing them a fortnight apart.
Can both doors take the same key?
Yes, cylinders can be keyed alike so one key opens front and back. This landlord chose to keep them separate so access to one door isn’t access to everything. Either way it has to be set up at the time, so say which you want when you book.
Should I change the locks between every tenancy?
I’d say yes, and I’d say it even though I’m the one who benefits. You can’t verify a key count and you can’t un-cut a key. It’s a small known cost between lets instead of an unknown that runs the length of the next tenancy.
How quickly can you change locks at a rented property?
Usually same day or next morning across Dibden Purlieu, Hythe, Holbury, Totton and the rest of the Waterside. This one was done within twelve hours of the call. Two cylinders in a uPVC door is usually under an hour on site, though a seized one like that front door adds to it.
What should I spray a stiff lock with?
Silicone, GT85 for preference, once a year. I’d never put WD-40, 3-in-1 or oil in a lock. If one has already gone stiff, oil buys you a few months and then costs you a lock.
If you’re a landlord and you’re not sure
Ring me and ask. If you’ve a property between tenants, or you’ve been handed a bag of keys you can’t account for, I’ll tell you on the phone whether it needs doing and what it’ll cost. If it doesn’t need doing I’ll tell you that as well.
Bugsy, KeyWise, Southampton Locksmith.
Be wise, phone Keywise.
Photos and write-up put together with my son Lewie at Edwards WebWorks.
