Owning your own home

Thanks

It’s only a few quid for a new cylinder, might as well.

This’ll go straight to the golf thread I know, but there are 6 points of entry with various types of lock (not able to simply swap barrels in all of them apparently) so it’s going to be a hefty bill.

But as @skinny says, better to be able to sleep easy.

I have 3 locks on my front door. I swapped one and then added a deadbolt also.

At least if one is different somone with keys won't get in.

Why do you think the person you bought the house from is going to come and rummage through your stuff?

Who knows who's been given keys. And people are fucking weird

I've been here for 11 years now and haven't changed the back door locks. Only changed the front door lock when someone lost a set, possibly in the street near the house.

Why do back/garden doors have key holes on the outside? I only ever unlock it from inside.

Why do back/garden doors have key holes on the outside? I only ever unlock it from inside.

In case you snap the front door key in the lock and have to go round the back to let yourself in...

Why do you think the person you bought the house from is going to come and rummage through your stuff?

I don't think they would, but opinions on this are split (as comments in this thread show) so wanted to sense check.

Obviously I'd rather not go to the hassle and expense, but also I don't know who might own a set of keys apart from previous owners. I think I'll wait until we get in and see what's the minimum we can change to make secure.

But I don't have the back door key on my key ring, it's in the drawer next to the fridge. I suppose I could get a locksmith round to attack the backdoor. I bet they do a load of damage and aren't anything LockPickingLawyer.

Do keys often snap in locks?

Ours was a rental, who knows how many keys there are floating around.

Don’t want no drunk, lost student climbing into my bed. Uninvited.

We were in this position with our back door key too, until the key snapped in the lock of the front door and the cheapest, easiest option on a bank holiday morning with a small child was to break a window to get in and go back out through the back door...
Now I have the back door key on my ring.
We also really cheap nasty locks (rental house) that might fail at any given time.

Don’t want no drunk, lost student climbing into my bed. Uninvited.

(What if they are a really attractive student?)

We put the chain on at night which prevents that kind of thing.

Hmmm, maybe I'll add the backdoor key but I dislike carrying more than necessary on my key ring.

Do you dislike it more than paying for an emergency locksmith is the key (fnar) point really!
We have a spare set of keys with a close neighbour just in case we lose ours, but having the backdoor one is great if you have a really bad run of luck with the front door!

Just put the back door key under a flower pot, obvs.

In my mind, if someone gets into my house with no signs of breaking and entering - then I have all the details of the prime suspect to hand over to Police, and you'd think the previous owners would know that too (wouldn't bet on it though..)

I get your point but I've made it this far through my life without a lock failure.

There are spare sets with the right people but that doesn't help when there is a mechanical failure.

I was thinking a key safe as found on every holiday let ever. They aren't especially secure but neither is my back door lock. I suppose I could swap out the euro cylinder with a fancy anti-snap, restricted key one.

Blatantly CBA to change our locks

Anyone who wants in can just kick the crappy door off the hinges anyway.

Hope my insurance co isn't in to fixeh bieks

We changed ours, partly because the locks were shit, partly because loads of people probably had the keys (multiple estate agents, place had been refurbed so loads of builders, etc).

I didn't bother with the previous place I'd owned because I suspect the keys hadn't been distributed so widely.

We're so close to exchanging but our building management company is so useless. We paid for their "sales pack" on the 1st July which should have included everything the buyer needs, 3 year accounts, amount in reserve funds etc. It should have taken max 30 days, 10 weeks later and they've still not supplied the answers for a couple of questions. The only reason we got anything out of them at all is our usual guy went on holiday then paternity leave and his replacement actually did something. We were aiming at exchange and completion on the 30th but that's only a week away now and our buyers are renting at the moment so I'm not sure it can happen. We've got a lot of moving parts happening at once so any delays have lot of knock on effects.

re Locks. Middle child recently had her bag stolen with front door key and driver's licence with address etc. We have a fancy security front door lock that has an override key to change the lock code, so that is something. Getting new keys cut to match the override is going to cost something north of a tenner per key so that is less fun.

So frustrating, but it will be over soon. So glad to see the back of mine.

Ours hadn't carried out the 5 year electrical safety inspection despite charging us for it 18 months prior.

It was finally carried out, but not signed off because someone had installed a smart meter blocking fuseboard cabinet - I'd reported this about 6 times over the 18 month period as a saftey issue.

Exchanged!

Good god that’s a horrendous process and thank fuck it’s over. Now feeling an odd mix of relief, excitement and anxious nausea. Might need to have a drink