The Importance of Re-keying Your New Home

When we move into a new home, it is but natural for the home owner to do a cursory check if everything about it is working. We try the lights, we check the kitchen and bathroom for any issues or just about anything that pops into our concerned heads. One thing that many freshly moved-in home owners forget to check, however, are the locks to the house.

Now we don’t mean you have to check if your keys work, because you wouldn’t have made it into the house if they didn’t. What we mean is you should be concerned that other people might have keys to the property that you don’t know about. After all, you’re probably not the first person to live in that property, and you should always assume that those former residents still have keys of their own to the property that you now own. If anything, re-keying your new home should be a priority for the following reasons:

Re-keying your new home makes it more secure

As already mentioned above, there are other people who lived in the building long before you did. They might have officially turned over their keys to you, but it’s not a far-fetched idea that they might still be hanging on to duplicates. And we’re not just talking about former residents. They could have given copies of their keys to tenants, cleaners, maintenance people or old staff, which means any one of them could still access your home if you still haven’t found time to re-key your locks.

You might be interested to know that most burglaries are not forced entry ones, and that means whoever burgled that home broke in using a key. So it’s safe to say that the only way no one outside your family will ever get into your home using old keys is to re-key your locks. Give your locks a fresh start, and you’ll have absolute control over who gets access to your home.

Some insurance firms require that you re-key your locks

If you are planning to take out an insurance policy for your home and its contents, know that some insurance companies now require re-keying your new home. Fail to do this, and you will likely not get full coverage for your losses should something unfortunate happens.

Re-keying your new home can prove to be convenient

When re-keying your new home, you have the option to unify your locks to one key. As you may have already experienced in the past, it’s quite confusing when you have too many keys on a key ring. How many times have you fumbled for your keys when you’re in a hurry to get inside for whatever emergency? One key will put that confusion to rest, and opening locked doors in your home will become very convenient.

What does re-keying your new home entail?

Actually, re-keying your new home is somewhat a less expensive alternative to changing your locks entirely. If you don’t want to spend more on new locks, your best option is to re-key your locks. What locksmiths do when re-keying your new home is pull the lock apart and change the pins inside the barrel itself. While you can buy DIY kits that can help you re-key your locks, we recommend that you hire a professional locksmith for the job to make sure that everything is done properly.