Changing locks between tenants: what landlords get wrong

Returned keys prove very little

A tenant hands back three keys because three were issued. That says nothing about whether more were obtained during a three-year tenancy — for a partner, a family member, a domestic worker, a friend who was feeding the cat.

None of that is necessarily bad faith. It is ordinary life, and it is exactly why lock security at handover cannot be based on a count.

Changing the cylinder is almost always the right answer

A new cylinder means every key issued before that day stops working, while the lock body, the handles, the finish and the fixings stay exactly as they were.

It is cheaper than replacement, faster, and it addresses the real risk — unknown keys rather than a defective lock. For a landlord doing this at every turnover, the cost difference across a portfolio is substantial.

When to replace instead

The lock is worn, damaged or has been forced. Parts are no longer available. Or the hardware was never adequate and you were going to upgrade eventually anyway.

In that last case, doing it at a vacancy is far less disruptive than doing it around a tenant, and the property is empty and accessible. Where the hardware genuinely is finished, that becomes a lock change.

Do not stop at the front door

Back doors, security gates, garage side doors, store rooms, outbuildings and gate padlocks. All of them were probably on the same ring, and dealing with one of them is not dealing with any of the others.

Anything electronic — a gate remote, an access tag — is managed by the complex or estate rather than by you, and needs deactivating by the managing agent. Do that before ordering replacements, or you have simply added new credentials to a pool of unknown old ones.

Write it down

Record the date, which locks were change the cylindered or replaced, how many keys were produced, and who received each one. Have the incoming tenant sign for the keys they are given.

It takes minutes and it is the document that resolves any later dispute about access. For an agent managing several properties it is also the only way the portfolio stays legible.

The thing worth doing at the same visit

While the property is empty, look at the strike plates. If they are held by short screws into the door lining, longer screws reaching structure are inexpensive and make more practical difference than most cylinder upgrades.

It is far easier to do this between tenancies than to arrange access later.

Why the handover day is the cheapest moment

An empty unit costs nothing to work in. Nobody has to be home, nothing has to be worked around, no appointment has to be negotiated with somebody who is trying to move furniture, and the technician is not waiting for access. Where the fault turns out to be mechanical, it is dealt with as a lock repair.

It is also the only moment when the question is unambiguous. Once a new tenant is in, changing the cylinders becomes a conversation about trust; done on handover day it is simply part of the turnover, the same as cleaning the carpets.

For a landlord with several units around Sandton, building it into the changeover routine removes the decision entirely. It happens every time, it costs the same every time, and nobody has to judge whether this particular outgoing tenant is the kind of person who kept a spare.

The key count is the whole point

Changing a cylinder without counting the keys solves half the problem. The count is what turns it into a record.

Write down how many keys were produced, who holds each one, and the date. Two keys to the tenant, one held by the agent, one in the landlord's file. When that tenancy ends, the count is checked against what comes back, and the gap — if there is one — is a known quantity rather than a suspicion.

Across a few tenancies that record is worth more than the hardware. It is the difference between "we think they returned everything" and an answer, and it costs nothing beyond writing it down on the day.

What the outgoing tenant might legitimately have handed out

This is the part landlords underestimate, and none of it involves anybody behaving badly.

A tenant may have given a key to a domestic worker, a partner who has since moved out, a friend who fed the cat, a contractor doing a small job, a delivery service, or a family member. Each of those was reasonable at the time and none of them is recorded anywhere. Anything that genuinely cannot wait is handled as an emergency locksmith call, at any hour.

So "the tenant returned both keys" is a statement about two pieces of metal, not about the number of working keys in circulation. That is the gap a cylinder change closes in one visit, and it is the reason the job is done on turnover rather than when something happens.

Complexes, and the rules that apply to the unit door

Most rental stock around Rivonia and Sandton, in northern Johannesburg, is in complexes and clusters, and that brings a body corporate into it.

The general rule is that anything visible from common property may be regulated and anything inside the lock is not. A cylinder change alters nothing anybody can see, which is why it almost never needs approval, while a new handle set or a different security gate sometimes does.

There is a second question worth settling before the tenancy rather than during it: who can authorise a contractor at the gate after hours. A tenant locked out at eleven at night with no way to get a locksmith admitted is a problem that lands back on the landlord, and one phone call to the managing agent answers it in advance.

Doing several units at once

For a landlord with more than one unit, the economics change. A single visit that covers three changeovers costs far less than three separate callouts, because the callout is shared and the technician is already carrying the right cylinders.

Where the units share a hardware type — as they usually do in a development built in one go — the cylinders are compatible, which also means keying alike is available at very little extra cost. One key for a unit's front and back door is a real convenience for a tenant and costs a fraction of what people assume.

Where a portfolio has grown past a handful of units, it is worth asking about a structured arrangement rather than a pile of keys. That is what master key systems are for, and for a managing agent holding access to twenty doors it is the difference between a register and a drawer.

What it costs, and how to keep it down

Changing a cylinder is a fraction of the cost of replacing a lockset, because only the part that decides which key works is swapped. On a standard unit door in a Sandton complex it is a short job.

The saving that matters more is doing every affected door in one visit. The callout is the fixed cost of any attendance, so a front door, a back door and a security gate done together cost far less than the same three jobs spread across a year.

For a landlord with several units the same logic scales. Three changeovers handled in one attendance shares a single callout between them, and where the development was built in one go the cylinders are usually compatible, which also makes keying alike cheap to add.

Making it routine rather than a decision

The reason this gets skipped is that it feels like a judgement about the outgoing tenant. Built into the changeover checklist, it stops being a judgement about anybody.

Clean the unit, check the appliances, change the cylinders, count the keys, write the numbers down. Five items, one of which is a locksmith visit, and nobody has to decide whether this particular tenant is the sort of person who kept a spare.

It is also what makes the next tenancy defensible. A tenant who is told on day one that the cylinders were changed on handover and that exactly two keys exist is a tenant with no reason to raise it later, which is worth more than the hardware costs. Past a certain number of doors and people, access control does this better than metal does.

What to tell an incoming tenant

Two sentences on handover day prevent most of the later confusion, and they cost nothing.

Tell them the cylinders were changed on the day they took occupation, and tell them how many keys exist and who holds each one. A tenant who knows that exactly two keys were cut, that they hold both, and that the agent holds none has no reason to raise it later.

It also sets an expectation for the end of the tenancy: the same count will be checked when they leave. That is the difference between a deposit conversation based on a record and one based on recollection, and it is worth more to a landlord than the hardware costs.

Where this sits in a complex

Most rental stock around Rivonia is in developments, which adds one question and removes another.

The question it adds is access: who can admit a contractor at the boom on handover day, and after hours if a tenant is ever locked out. Worth settling with the managing agent before the tenancy rather than during it.

The question it removes is approval. A cylinder change alters nothing visible from common property, so it never needs the body corporate's consent — which makes it the one upgrade always available to a landlord, whatever the rules say about high security locks or visible hardware.