Completion day is chaos, vans, boxes, meter readings, a hundred small decisions. Somewhere far down the list sits the one job the locksmith trade would put first: by tonight, nobody but you should hold a working key to this house. It's quick, it's cheaper than people assume, and it closes a risk you can't see and can't measure any other way.
Think about a house's lifetime. Sellers cut spares for relatives, neighbours, cleaners, dog-walkers and builders, and almost nobody collects them all back at the end. The estate agent held a set; so, perhaps, did the agent before them. None of this requires anyone to be dishonest, it's just arithmetic. Years of ordinary life produce keys in circulation, and on completion day every one of them opens your front door.
"It's a brand-new house, nobody has keys." In practice, a new build has had dozens of people through it: trades, inspectors, sales staff, snagging contractors, all working from builder's keys. And the cylinders fitted during construction are usually the cheapest the developer could buy in bulk, exactly the builder-grade hardware our anti-snap guide warns about. New-build owners arguably have two reasons to change the locks, not none.
Much of the advice online is American, where "rekeying" a whole house is a production. UK doors are kinder: on uPVC and composite doors, changing the locks simply means swapping the euro cylinder, the mechanism, handles and door stay put, and the job takes minutes per door. Timber doors with mortice locks take a little longer. Either way, it's also the perfect moment to fit insurance-rated anti-snap cylinders for a few pounds more than basic ones, since the labour is already paid for.
The honest answer: the day you get the keys, and ideally booked before then, a locksmith who knows the door types in advance arrives with the right cylinders on the van. Renters shouldn't skip this thought either: ask the landlord whether the locks were changed between tenancies, because the previous tenant's spare keys are subject to exactly the same arithmetic as an owner's.
While the locksmith is there, spend the visit well: walk every external door and window together, check what locks and what doesn't, and get an honest read on anything that needs attention, it's the cheapest security survey you'll ever have. Our price guide sets out what fair lock-change costs look like, and the wider context lives in our guide to when to change your locks.
A named, vetted master locksmith covers your area — no call-out fee.
Of everything on a moving-in security checklist, this is the rare item that's cheap, fast and permanently settles a question you'd otherwise never quite stop asking. Every LocksmithLocal locksmith handles move-in lock changes at fixed prices with no call-out fee, find yours here and book it for key day.
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