What happens when your tenant breaks or loses their keys? Every landlord gets that call at one point or another where their tenant asks them if they have a spare key or a master key to access their apartment. In some unfortunate cases, tenants are known to lock their landlord out of the house, even after being evicted, to be spiteful.
Regardless of the situation, it’s paramount for you to have a spare key to enter your property, no matter how “nice” and prudent your tenant seems. This post explores why every landlord should invest in a spare key for their rental property.
Why Having a Spare Key is a Smart Idea!
Managing your rental is no walk in the park. Taking this into account, a few hacks can make it a fairly stress-free experience – having a spare key is one of them.
Your Tenant May Get Locked Out
One of the most significant benefits of key duplication is that it helps your tenants save a lot of time and headaches when they accidentally lose their own key. Calling a residential locksmith every time a tenant loses track of their keys to your property can annoy you and the tenant. We’ve all had those moments of absent-mindedness when we got locked out of the home or car, which can be a frustrating experience.
Your tenants can avoid all of that with a spare or duplicate key. Also, keep in mind that when the lockout situation is dire enough – for example, the tenant is locked out and their baby is inside – the first instinct is to get inside the apartment ASAP. That could mean breaking the door or window to get in. Having a duplicate key on hand will prevent this property damage as well.
Your Tenant May Lose Their Key
Calling locksmith services to replace a lost key and then waiting for them to tinker with your lock installation can be lengthy. If your tenant has broken or lost their original key and you don’t have a copy, it might take days for them to return home! A duplicate key will ensure that they can go about their business as usual while waiting for the replacement to be made by a residential locksmith.
Also, if the locksmith doesn’t have a duplicate key that they can use to create a new copy, they will need to disassemble the lock entirely and study it to replicate the result. If you can provide them with a copy, the process will be much shorter; residential locksmith specialists can make a new copy within minutes if they can borrow the spare and use it as a template.
Your Tenants are Young Students (or First-Time Renters)
If you’re renting to students or people who live alone, we highly recommend getting a duplicate key made by residential locksmith services. What happens if the tenant has locked themselves in and no one has seen them in weeks? Or they haven’t paid their rent for a while and aren’t answering their door? Or they are not home but have left the water faucet running, and water is leaking out the front door.
Teenagers and young adults who don’t have a lot of experience living on their own can sometimes land themselves in tricky situations. It would be best if you were prepared for that by ensuring you can always access your property. It’s for their safety as much as your property’s security.
You Want Multiple People to Have Access to the Property
Maybe you’re getting some construction or cosmetic work done on your property, or there is another reason why you want multiple people to be able to visit it. Having a few copies of the key will help tremendously make it convenient for everyone.
Remember, if many people use just one key, it will cause a major wear-and-tear that can cause the key to shatter and break. This tip should also apply to your car; if other family members use your car, have extra copies made by automotive locksmith services to prevent key damage.
Have Access to Your Property
As a responsible landlord, it’s poignant to have duplicate keys for each door inside and outside your property. You never know what type of tenant situation you may find yourself in.
A recent case in San Fernando Valley comes to mind where the tenant was illegally leasing out rooms in the house to other people and refusing to pay the rent and move out. Not all tenants are like that but being vigilant will pay long-term.
To ensure the above scenario doesn’t happen to you, your rental agreements and leases must prohibit your tenants from changing the locks without your permission. If you allow them to put in a new lock, ask them to give you a key to the new lock as a condition of the approval.
On that note, whenever a tenant moves out, always change the locks! They may have handed you the keys back, but you cannot know whether they made any copies.
Your go-to Residential & Commercial Locksmith Services in South Florida
Landlords across South Florida rely on us to save the day. At 3 Guys Locksmith, we provide home locksmith service to safeguard properties in Aventura, Homestead, Sunny Isles, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, North Miami, Key Largo, and surrounding areas.
Whether you need to have a broken key fixed in a jiffy, change rusty door locks, or install high-security locks, we have you covered. Our licensed and well-trained locksmiths have extensive experience with a wide range of car and home security locksmith services, including master keys, keypads, padlocks, electronic locks, and more.
The security of your property and tenants is our business. Reliable home locksmith service depends on talented experts dedicated to serving you with integrity and excellence. That’s precisely what we bring to the table.
To get started with our full-service locksmith company, please call (305) 907-7707 or fill out this short contact form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.