Residential Locksmith
In a New York City apartment, the window hardware that matters is usually not the one with a key. The crescent cam latch on a double-hung window is a closure, not a security lock, and the practical upgrade is a secondary sash stop that limits how far the window can be raised. But one rule overrides every upgrade: a window that opens onto a fire escape is a legal exit, and it has to open from the inside without a key, a tool, or special knowledge. That rules out padlocks, chains, and keyed gates on those windows entirely.
In most of the country a window is secure because it is twelve feet off the ground with nothing to climb. New York removes that assumption. Fire escapes run past every bedroom. Airshafts and courtyards put windows within arm's reach of each other. Setbacks, parapets, and low neighboring roofs turn a fifth-floor window into a ground-floor window. And a sidewalk shed going up for facade work puts a working platform outside the second and third floors for months.
So the question to answer before buying any hardware is not "is this window high up," but "can a person stand in front of it." If the answer is yes, that window deserves the same attention as the apartment door - our guide to improving apartment door security covers the other half of the opening.
The sweeping lever that pulls the two sashes of a double-hung together. It aligns them and stops rattling, and it is held on by two short screws into wood or vinyl - frequently loose, mismatched, or missing a half on an old painted-over window. Treat it as a closure: it is why the window does not blow open, not why someone cannot open it.
The single most useful window upgrade in an apartment. A sash stop is a block or pin fitted into the upper track that stops the lower sash rising past a set point - about four inches, enough to ventilate, not enough to climb through. The better versions flip down or release with a key so you can clear them instantly from inside. Because the stop is mechanical, the window simply does not open further until someone inside releases it.
A hole drilled through the inner sash into the outer, with a steel pin dropped through it. Crude, nearly free, and the classic fix for a wooden double-hung whose latch is beyond saving. A second hole a few inches higher gives you a vented position. It puts a permanent hole in the sash, so renters should ask first.
A sash lock that needs a key to release. Reasonable on a non-egress window in a ground-floor or basement unit, dangerous anywhere you might need to leave in a hurry, and not acceptable at all on a fire escape window. If you fit one, the key lives on a hook within reach of that window.
The horizontal bars across the lower half of so many New York windows. These are child-fall protection required by the Health Code, engineered to hold a small child rather than resist a pry bar. Useful, legally required in many apartments, and not a security product. More on the rules below.
Full-height gates on rear, courtyard, airshaft, and ground-floor windows. These genuinely are security hardware - and they are where New Yorkers make the single most dangerous mistake on this page, by fitting the wrong kind or padlocking the right kind.
A window that gives access to a fire escape is part of the building's means of egress. In an emergency it is how you and everyone above you get out, which is why it cannot be secured in any way that requires a key, a tool, or special knowledge to open from the inside.
What that means in practice:
The same logic governs the doors on the way out, which is covered in fire escape door lock requirements in NYC. If you are unsure whether the gate already on your window is an approved type, a licensed locksmith can tell you by looking at it.
Window guards are a separate legal obligation from anything you do for security, and they fall on the building owner. In New York City multiple dwellings, owners must install approved window guards in any apartment where a child ten or younger lives, and whenever a tenant requests them, child or not. Owners send an annual notice asking whether a young child lives in the unit - returning it is how the request gets on the record.
Two details people get wrong. Guards are not installed on windows that give access to a fire escape - egress wins. And a guard is not a burglar bar, so a window that needs real protection needs an approved gate instead. If your apartment should have guards and does not, that is an HPD complaint through 311, and not something you should be paying for.
If your apartment has a sliding balcony or terrace door, it has its own failure modes and its own fixes - see sliding glass door lock security in NYC. Before a long trip, run the window list alongside the holiday travel lock security checklist.
We assess and secure apartment windows across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island - sash stops, secondary locks, approved egress-safe gates, and post-break-in repairs. Licensed and insured, 24/7.
A locksmith is the right call for the hardware: assessing which windows are reachable, fitting sash stops and secondary locks, specifying and installing an approved gate on a non-egress window, replacing a gate that was never egress-safe, opening a gate whose key is long gone, and re-securing an opening after a break-in. Broken glass, a rotted sash, or a failed frame belong to a glazier instead. And in a rental, window guards and basic window repair are the owner's responsibility - see who pays for a locksmith, tenant or landlord.
Photograph the window, frame, sill, and any marks outside before you touch anything, then secure the opening the same day. Treat every other reachable window as suspect - the one that was used was chosen for a reason that probably applies to its neighbors. If keys were taken, the door locks change too. Full sequence: what to do after a break-in in NYC.
No, your windows are not required to carry a keyed lock. What the law requires is that the owner keep windows and their hardware in good repair, so a broken, loose, or missing sash latch is a repair to report in writing. Separately, approved window guards are required where a child ten or younger lives and whenever a tenant requests them - installed and paid for by the owner, not the tenant.
On a window that is not part of the fire escape route, yes - subject to your lease, your building's rules, and a co-op or condo board. On a window that gives access to a fire escape, only a gate approved for egress use is permitted, and it must release from inside without a key, tool, or special knowledge. A padlocked or chained gate on an egress window is never acceptable.
No, and confusing the two is common. A window guard is child-fall protection required by the Health Code and sized to hold a small child. A security gate is burglary-resistant hardware. A guard slows a casual attempt and nothing more, so a window that genuinely needs protecting needs an approved gate.
It depends entirely on whether the particular window can be reached, which is why this guide asks you to sort your windows rather than quote a statistic. Fire escapes, airshafts, courtyards, low neighboring roofs, setbacks, and sidewalk sheds all create reachable windows in buildings where residents assume height is protection. A window nobody can stand in front of is a low priority. A window with a scaffold outside it is not.
Usually, yes. Gates left behind by a previous tenant with no key are a routine call, and the outcome is normally opening and rekeying the existing gate or replacing it with hardware correct for that window - which matters, because an inherited gate on a fire escape window is often the kind that should not be there. Call Emergency Locksmith NY at (718) 412-1332 and describe the window and the gate.