Who Has A Key To Your House?

When you stop at the grocery store after work to pick up a couple of items and you know you are only going to be in the store for a matter of minutes, you still lock your car, don’t you? Why do you do it? You don’t want anyone to steal the car itself of course, but you also lock your car to prevent people from stealing what’s inside. You take every precaution to protect your belongings, even though you will be right back in just a few moments. Why take the risk, right?

If somebody took what was in my car right now, it would be a bummer. I would lose a bunch of CDs and a few tennis balls, and I think I may have about forty-seven cents in change. People rarely try to steal factory stereos these days, so my losses would be minimal. Your car is probably similar, maybe the thief would get an umbrella, a jacket, or a baby car seat. Still, we usually lock our cars, as well we should.

But what about our homes? The valuables that you have in your home are truly significant, and if somebody was to break in you would suffer big time losses. Yet, people routinely move into houses that are new to them and never consider rekeying the locks. Even brand new homes are at risk, because many different contractors were holding keys before anyone moved in. Most contractors are honest, but it only takes one bad apple to relieve you of your hard earned property.

If the same locks are in place around your home that the last owner (or “owners” plural) had, there are multiple people running around with keys to your house. This includes every member of their families and anyone who may have been able to lift their keys long enough to have one made.

Rekeying your locks when you move into a new residence is a must, and if you are a landlord, you really owe it to your new tenants to hire a locksmith and get the locks changed or rekeyed. Every individual who owns rental property, whether it is a multi-unit building or just a single home, should have a residential locksmith that they work with to make sure that their tenants are safe and secure.

Once you have rekeyed or changed your locks upon moving in, you really need to be careful about who you give a key to, because all it takes is a few minutes and a couple of bucks to duplicate it. It’s not just a matter of you being sure that your sixteen-year-old babysitter won’t use her key to rob your home. The question is, are you certain that nobody else will get their hands on her keys long enough to have a key made?

Locksmiths are in the business of preventing burglaries, so we are very aware of how risky it can be when there are a lot of keys to your residence in circulation. It’s our job to be paraniod. If you need a lock changed or rekeyed, call the residential locksmiths at 24/7 Locksmith Services and be certain that nobody can get into your home unless you give them a key yourself.