Who Has Keys To Your Property?

Experts say that for a crime to occur, three elements must be present: ability, motivation and opportunity. Of these, home and business owners can only affect opportunity. Burglars typically will spend no more than a few seconds attempting a break in. A properly installed deadbolt can be a major deterrent. But, what if a thief simply walks in?

The previous owner of your property may have given keys to family, neighbours, contractors, employees and cleaners; you have no idea who may still have a key. Upon taking possession of a new property you should always change the locks.

Protect Your Property With A New Key

Changing, rekeying or repinning a lock should not be confused with replacing it. When we rekey, our locksmiths simply disassemble the lock cylinder, discard the existing pins, and replace them with ones that match a different key. This inexpensive procedure is completed in just a few minutes.

You should consider rekeying your locks when:

• The existing keys were lost or stolen
• You purchased a new property and are unsure who has keys
• A tenant or another key holder has left
• An employee was terminated
• You want one key to open multiple locks (keying alike)
• You are implementing a master key system

Restricted Keys Control How Many Keys Exist

Hardware stores sell locks that use popular Weiser, Kwikset and Schlage keys. These are relatively easy to duplicate. As a matter of fact there are now vending machines that can copy a key in under a minute – a good reason to never lend your keys.

Some keys say "Do Not Duplicate”. There is no law preventing someone from duplicating these keys. However, if you bring a Do Not Duplicate key to a professional locksmith expect to be asked to prove that the locking system belongs to you.

The best way to prevent unwanted key duplication is to install a restricted keyway. As the name implies, these unique keyways have restrictions around how additional keys are made. In particular, lock manufacturers will only assign a keyway (and its respective blank) to a single locksmith in a given town, who in turn registers every cylinder (and key blank) they sell. Only an authorized and registered customer/owner can request that additional keys be made.

For more information of the various levels of restricted keys click here.

Your Pop-A-Lock locksmith can recommend an appropriate restricted key for your specific application.

Master Keying

In an effort to control access at the individual door level, institutions often introduce a master key system. When designing a master system, an topic of discussion is always which key and cylinder to use. The desired level of security, and overall system complexity, dictates which product is selected. Sometimes reusing an existing system is the best alternative.

The criteria for selecting a keying solution include:

• Whether or not to use a restricted key blank.
• Whether or not a high security product is required.
• Whether or not the selected product has configurations that can be retrofitted into the existing locks.
• The up front cost of implementing the system.
• The ongoing cost to maintain the system.

Your local Pop-A-Lock location can design a master key system based on keys and cylinders from leading lock manufacturers.

To ensure room for expansion and to avoid issues like phantom keys, the coding of large institutional systems is best left to a manufacturer’s keying specialist. The keying specialist develops a master key hierarchy and determines the keys cuts at each level. They also ensure no phantom keys exist. These are keys that operate locks that they are not supposed to. Click here to see a sample keying chart.