Move In Lock Changes in Orlando

The problem with keys you never saw made

When you take over a home, you receive a handful of keys and a quiet assumption that those are the only ones. Often they are not. Previous owners hand keys to cleaners, dog walkers, relatives, contractors and agents, and very few people ever collect them back. Tenants do the same, and the chain keeps going through every person who lived there before you.

A lock cannot tell the difference between a key cut for you and a key cut for someone who moved out last spring. If the pins inside the cylinder match, the door opens. That is why a move in lock change is less about suspicion and more about arithmetic: you cannot count keys you have never met.

The good news is that the fix is simple and does not require tearing anything apart. Changing which keys work in a lock is routine work, and it can be done at nearly every door on the property in a single visit. The rest of this page explains the choices so the visit goes smoothly.

Rekeying and replacing are not the same job

Rekeying changes the inside of the cylinder so the old keys stop working and a new key works instead. The lock body, the handle and the finish stay exactly as they are. If your existing hardware is sound and you simply want control of who can enter, this is usually the sensible route. We go deeper on that in our rekeying service page.

Replacing means taking the old lock off the door and installing a different one. People choose it when the hardware is worn, loose, mismatched, cosmetically tired or simply not what they want to live with. It is also the moment to move to a keypad or smart deadbolt if that suits the household. The lock replacement and repair page covers that side of the work.

Many move in jobs are a mix. A front deadbolt may be replaced because it feels gritty, while the back door and side door are rekeyed to match. A locksmith can talk through each door with you and explain why one approach fits there. The guide on replacement versus rekeying gives a longer way to think about the decision.

Walking the property before anyone starts

Before the locksmith arrives, walk the whole home and write down every door and window that locks. Include the front door, the back door, any side or garage entry door, sliding glass doors, a gate, a shed, a mailbox and any interior door that locks, such as an office or a storage closet. People usually remember the front door and forget the other half of the list.

Note what kind of lock is on each opening. A knob with a keyhole, a deadbolt, a handleset with a thumb latch, a keypad and a smart lock all behave differently. If you are not sure what something is, a photo helps a great deal when you describe it by phone.

Also check whether any of the locks are already unusual. Some doors have a lock that needs a key on the inside as well as the outside. That arrangement matters for fire safety and for how easily you can leave in an emergency, and it is worth discussing with the locksmith rather than carrying over unchanged. Our guide to single and double cylinder deadbolts explains the difference.

What to settle with the owner or manager first

If you rent, the first question is not which lock to buy, but whether you are allowed to change it at all. Leases and local rules differ, and some landlords handle lock changes themselves between tenants. Ask your landlord or property manager in writing before any work starts, and ask whether they need a copy of the new key.

Condo and gated community residents face another layer. Associations sometimes control the front door hardware for appearance, or require a key to be kept on file for emergencies. We cannot state your rules for you because they vary by building and community, so ask your association or manager what applies.

If you own the home outright, you have the most freedom, but a few details still deserve thought. Insurance paperwork, a service provider or a builder may have preferences for hardware on certain doors. Collect those questions before the work, not after the new locks are in.

What the visit looks like from start to finish

You call and describe the situation: you just moved in, how many doors you want changed, what the locks look like and where the home is. The locksmith asks a few clarifying questions. Because rekeying is a change to who may enter, ownership or authority to make the change is checked before work begins. That might mean ID and something that connects you to the address, such as a closing document or a lease.

The work and its price are explained before anything is touched. If you want a quote that fits your situation, give a full door count and mention any smart or keypad hardware, because those change the scope. The page on questions to ask before any locksmith starts work lists what a clear explanation should cover.

When the work is finished, the new keys are tested with you at each door. You turn them yourself, you check that the old keys no longer work if you kept one to try, and you confirm the doors still latch cleanly. Do not skip that last step on a door you rarely use. It is the one most likely to hide a problem, because a stiff latch or a misaligned strike on a door nobody opens is easy to miss until the night you need it. If something feels off, say so then, while the locksmith is still there.

Keys, codes and the things people forget

New homeowners often fix the locks and leave the electronics alone. A keypad can keep an old code alive long after the metal keys are changed. A garage opener remote can still be in a drawer of the previous owner's car, and a gate card or building fob may not have been returned either. If any of these exist for your property, ask the seller, the manager or the association how to deactivate them. Treat every way into the home as part of the same job.

Our moving day lock checklist is built to be printed or kept on a phone, and the page on what to do with old keys after a move helps when you arrive with a pocket of mystery keys.

• Ask how many new keys you will receive and whether the same key will work at every door you had changed.
• Decide who in your household needs a key now, and who can wait until you have lived there a month.
• Change the code on any garage keypad or lockbox that came with the house, because the previous code may be known to many people.
• Remove or reset any smart lock accounts, app permissions or temporary codes tied to the previous occupant.
• Keep one spare somewhere deliberate rather than under a flowerpot.

Smart locks on a move in day

A move often seems like the right time to add a keypad or smart lock, and sometimes it is. The old deadbolt has to come off anyway, nobody has built habits around it, and you can set up user codes cleanly from the first day. Still, a smart lock is a device with batteries, settings and an app, so it needs a few extra decisions.

Think about who will manage it, what happens if the battery dies, and whether you want a physical key as a backup. In a hot, humid climate with afternoon storms, outdoor hardware works hard, and a power cut can arrive with little warning. Our guides on smart lock questions to ask first and battery planning for hot summers are worth reading before you buy anything.

If you would rather keep things simple on day one, rekey now and install a smart lock later. Nothing stops you from adding it after you have learned how the household really uses the door.

A few weeks of living in the house tells you things a showing never does. You learn which door the family really uses, whether the kids come home before the adults, whether the dog walker needs a way in, and whether anyone keeps forgetting their keys. Those habits decide whether a keypad would be a convenience or just one more thing to manage. Plenty of households end up with a keypad on one door and a plain keyed deadbolt on the rest, and that mix works well.

Whichever route you take, ask the locksmith to show you how to operate and reset the hardware before they leave. A lock you do not understand is a lock you will hesitate to use properly. Having someone demonstrate a code change or a battery swap once, at the door, saves a frustrated search through a manual later.

Rentals, roommates and shared homes

Moving into a place with roommates changes the key question. Who holds a key, who holds a copy, and who is responsible when someone leaves? If a roommate already had a key before you arrived, a lock change may require everyone's agreement and sometimes the landlord's. Read our page on which roommate should have which key before you decide.

Apartments add the mailbox, the building entry fob and sometimes a parking gate. Your own front door may be only one of several things to sort out. If you get locked out in the first week, that is a different problem from a planned lock change, and the apartment and condo lockouts page explains how that call works.

Short term and furnished stays are different again. A visitor who rents for a few weeks has no reason to change a lock, but the host who owns the unit does, often between guests. If that is you, see the material on rental key planning in our guide to rental property rekey planning.

Orlando and Central Florida details that matter

Central Florida homes live with hot humid summers, afternoon storms and damp air that is hard on hardware. Exterior locks swell, stiffen and corrode over time, so a move in visit is a good time to ask whether a door's finish and lock type suit that exposure. A lock that feels fine in the dry conditions of a showing may behave differently after a wet season.

The area also has many condos, apartments, gated communities and vacation rentals, and a lot of people arriving with rental cars or short stays. If you have just arrived and your new place is a rental or corporate lease, tell the locksmith. The right answer for a one year tenant is different from the right answer for a family who plans to stay for a decade. A tenant may want to keep costs and permanent changes low, while an owner may want better hardware at every entry and a plan for spares that lasts.

Hurricane season is another planning point. When a storm warning is posted, you do not want to be hunting for a working key or the right garage code. Setting up your keys and spares calmly after a move makes that stressful week easier.

Sequencing the lock change with the rest of the move

Timing matters more than people expect. If you can, have the locks changed before the truck is unloaded, or at least before the first night. Movers, helpers and delivery crews will be in and out, and a door that is propped open all day is a door you cannot count on. Changing the cylinders first means the keys you hand out afterward are the keys that stay relevant.

If the old locks are still on the doors while the movers work, keep the old key on a lanyard around your neck or in your pocket and avoid leaving it on the counter. Once the new keys arrive, retire the old ones in one move, not gradually. A half finished switch leaves the household carrying two sets of keys and wondering which door takes which.

Utility visits, internet installers and furniture delivery all arrive in the first week, and each of them wants entry. Decide ahead whether you will be home to let them in or whether you want a lockbox or temporary code. Our overview of how lockboxes work helps you think through that. If you do use a temporary arrangement, put an end date on it in your calendar and remove it once the last appointment is done.

How to keep the new setup working

After the lock change, do three small things. First, put the old keys somewhere you will remember, or dispose of them if the locks they fit are gone. Second, make exactly the number of copies you actually need, no more, and record who has them. Third, put a reminder in your calendar for a short check of your locks a few months from now, when you will notice anything that feels stiff.

Make spares from the new keys rather than from a key you inherited. Copies of old copies get less accurate each time, and a poorly cut spare may stick or stop working. Our page on spare keys and key copies talks through why.

If you ever lose the new key or someone you trusted leaves the household, the same process is available again. Rekeying is meant to be repeatable. You are never stuck with a decision made on a hectic moving day. If the household grows, a relative moves in or a long term guest leaves, you can adjust who holds a working key without changing the whole door again. Keep a short written list of which key opens which door, and update it whenever anything changes.

Questions people ask