Residential Locksmith
The keys you are handed at closing are a set of copies, and nobody at the table knows how many others exist. Change or rekey every exterior lock on the day you take possession, starting with the door you will actually use. On most New York homes the existing cylinders can be rekeyed rather than replaced, which is faster and cheaper than new hardware and gives you a key nobody else holds.
A New York home that has just been sold has been open to a lot of people. Over a typical listing and sale, keys or access have usually passed through the seller and their family, a listing agent, other agents running showings, an appraiser, an inspector, a photographer, contractors, a cleaner, a dog walker, and in a brownstone with a rental unit, tenants and whoever they gave a key to.
None of that implies bad intent. The problem is arithmetic: there is no record of how many working copies exist, so the only honest assumption is that the number is unknown. A lockbox makes it worse, because a listing lockbox code is shared widely during the marketing period and is rarely treated as a secret afterward. If a lockbox is still hanging on the door when you arrive, take it off and keep it, and read key lockbox safety before you reuse it yourself.
That is the whole case for changing the locks. You are not replacing a lock because it failed. You are resetting the list of people who can open your door down to the people you choose.
Do this in order of what an intruder would actually use, not in the order the doors appear on the deed.
If the house is being renovated before you move in, do not change the locks twice. Fit a temporary cylinder for the construction period and rekey after the trades are finished, which is the approach in contractor key control during a renovation.
Rekeying changes the pins inside the existing cylinder so the old keys stop working and a new key works. The hardware stays on the door. Replacing means new hardware entirely. For a house you just bought, rekeying is right most of the time, and the full comparison is in rekeying versus replacing a lock and rekey or replace your locks.
Replace instead of rekey when any of these is true:
One decision worth making on day one: whether all the exterior doors should take the same key. Carrying one key for the front, back, and basement is a genuine quality-of-life improvement and it costs almost nothing to arrange while the locksmith is already there, as set out in keyed-alike locks.
A New York row house is not a suburban house with a front and a back door. Walk the property with a notepad and you will typically find the stoop door, the vestibule door behind it, a garden-level door under the stoop, an areaway gate at the sidewalk, a sidewalk cellar hatch, a yard door or gate at the rear, and a roof hatch.
Each one needs a decision, and the ones at street level matter most because they are reachable without being seen. The specifics are in brownstone vestibule door locks, areaway and back yard gate locks, and sidewalk cellar door locks.
Two cautions specific to older New York houses. Window gates on any window serving a fire escape must be an approved type that opens from the inside without a key, never a padlocked grille, which is the point of window gates and fire escape requirements. And if the house has a rental unit, the tenant's rights do not change because the building changed hands: you cannot change a tenant's lock to exclude them, and the reasons are in illegal lockouts in NYC.
Buying an apartment is a different job, because the lock on your corridor door may not be entirely your decision. Many New York buildings have house rules on what hardware can face a public corridor, and some require the managing agent to hold a key for emergency access. Check before you buy hardware, not after, using changing locks in a co-op versus a condo and board approval for door hardware.
Then deal with the building credentials, which buyers routinely overlook. Ask the managing agent to deactivate every fob or card issued to the seller and to log what is issued to you. Ask the same question about the mailbox, the package room, the storage cage, the bike room, the laundry room, and the roof. Each of those is a separate key or credential, and the seller's copies are worth nothing to them and everything to someone else.
We rekey and change locks for new homeowners across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, including same-day and after-hours appointments timed to your closing. Licensed and insured, available 24 hours.
Changing the locks solves a one-time problem. A key list is what stops the same problem from rebuilding itself over the next five years.
Write down every lock in the house, how many keys exist for it, and who holds each one. Then decide how many copies you actually want to exist, cut exactly that many, and record who has them. When a cleaner, a contractor, or a tenant gets a key, the date goes on the list, and so does the date it comes back. If you have moved to a restricted keyway, nobody can quietly add to the list, which is the real benefit of do-not-duplicate keys and what they actually do.
Keep one spare off site, with someone you trust or in a lockbox you control, so a lost key is an inconvenience rather than an emergency call.
One last habit. On the first night, walk the house and lock everything yourself rather than assuming the previous owner left it secure. Buyers regularly find a window latch that has never worked or a basement door with no functioning lock at all, and the first night is a better time to learn that than the first week away.
Yes. Treat every key handed over at closing as one copy of an unknown number, because over a listing and sale keys usually pass through the seller, agents, inspectors, contractors, and cleaners with no record kept. Rekeying or changing the exterior cylinders on the day you take possession resets access to the people you choose.
Rekeying is usually cheaper and faster, because the existing hardware stays on the door and only the pins inside the cylinder change. Replacing makes sense when the hardware is worn out, when there is no real deadbolt on an exterior door, when the grade is too low for a street-facing door, or when you want a restricted keyway so copies cannot be cut without your authorization.
Realistically: the seller and their family, the listing agent and other agents who ran showings, an inspector or appraiser, photographers, contractors, cleaners, a dog walker, a neighbor who held a spare, and anyone who used the listing lockbox code. None of that implies bad intent, but there is no record of how many working copies exist.
Often, yes. Many New York buildings have house rules covering what hardware can face a public corridor, and some require the managing agent to hold a key for emergency access. Ask the managing agent before you buy hardware, and ask at the same time for every seller fob, card, and amenity key to be deactivated and reissued to you.
Yes, and scheduling it for the afternoon of closing is the cleanest way to handle it. Bring documentation showing the property is yours, such as closing papers or a deed, since a locksmith should always confirm who has the right to change a lock. Emergency Locksmith NY answers 24 hours a day at (718) 412-1332.