Lock Changes Between Tenancies | The £100 Habit That Saves Landlords the Disputes

Ask any letting agent in Basingstoke which disputes cost landlords the most, and it's not the dramatic ones. It's the slow, awkward ones. Worn carpets. Vague damage claims. And, more often than you'd guess, keys.

The "they gave back two keys but the inventory said three" conversation. The new tenant locked out because a fourth set is in an old cleaner's coat pocket. The deposit-scheme letter claiming you let yourself in without notice. Every one of those is a cost in time, goodwill or money. And nearly all of them are solved by one cheap habit.

So here's the real decision a landlord faces at every turnover.

Option one: trust the returned keys

You take the keys back, count them against the inventory, hand them to the next tenant. Cost: nothing today.

The problem is what you're trusting. That the outgoing tenant returned every key. That they never cut a copy. That they didn't lend one to a partner, a cleaner or a mate who never gave it back. That the tenancy before that, and the one before that, also kept perfect track. Across a fifteen-year hold, that's a tower of assumptions, and you're betting the incoming tenant's safety on it. When it goes wrong, it goes wrong as a 7am lockout call or a deposit dispute you can't win, because you can't prove who had access.

Option two: change the whole lock

Rip out the mechanism, fit a brand-new lock case and cylinder. Genuinely secure, and sometimes necessary. But on a sound door it's overkill: you're paying for a new gearbox or mortice case that wasn't broken. For a routine turnover, it's spending £200-£400 a door to solve a problem a £100 job already solves.

What I'd actually do: swap the cylinder, every time

The cylinder is the part the key turns. Swap it and every old key in circulation is instantly scrap, whoever's holding it. New cylinder, two fresh keys, fifteen minutes, and you know exactly who has access on day one: you, the agent if there is one, and the new tenant. Full stop.

That's the whole argument. It's not the exciting option, it's the one that quietly removes a category of dispute from your life.

What the deposit schemes actually care about

The schemes (DPS, MyDeposits, TDS) consistently land in the same place: the landlord is responsible for the locks at handover, a tenant returning keys is not the same as the landlord knowing all keys are accounted for, and a tenancy starts with whatever locks the landlord chose to fit. If you can show you changed the cylinder at the start, every later key argument shrinks to "did you return the keys we gave you on day one". That's a far easier case to make, and a far cheaper one.

The HMO version

For a shared house the maths shifts but the logic holds. Here I'd fit a restricted-keyway master suite: each room keyed individually, a master that opens the lot for you, and a profile where keys can only be cut by us with your written say-so. The cylinders cost more upfront, £70-£140 each, but they end the "I lost my key so I nipped to Timpson for three copies" problem that makes HMO key control a fiction otherwise.

While we're at the door

Two things worth checking on every turnover, both quoted with the cylinder change so there's no second visit:

• Insurance compliance. If the existing cylinder is below TS007 3-star, or a wooden door lacks a BS3621 mortice, the empty-property gap between tenancies is the easiest time to bring it up to standard.
• Gearbox health. uPVC and composite doors at five to ten years old often need a gearbox refresh. Catching it now beats a tenant lockout call in March.

Setting it up

If you're a Basingstoke landlord or agent and want this on a standing arrangement, drop us a line. We'll set you up on account, agree the slot windows, same-day for anything booked before 11am, and email you a photo record of what went on each door. One property turning over this month? Ring the office and we'll quote it on the call. Either way, it's the cheapest insurance you'll buy all tenancy.