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New home in Halifax? Make the old keys stop working
The keys you were handed on closing day are not the only ones. Sellers, builders, trades, agents and the neighbour who fed the cat may all still have a copy. A rekey on move-in day retires every one of them, and the checklist below covers the rest of your first week.
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Should I change the locks when I buy a house?
Change the keys, at least. A rekey resets the pins inside each lock so that every key from before your purchase stops working, and you keep the hardware already on the doors. Replace a lock only where it is worn, loose, damaged or not the type you want.
How many keys are out there?
Start counting and the number climbs quickly. The sellers and their grown children. A cleaner, a dog walker, a contractor from the last renovation. The listing agent's lockbox. A neighbour who kept a spare for emergencies. If you're renting the place out or bought from a landlord, add every tenant who lived there. If it's a new build, add the builder, the site supervisor and each trade that needed to get in.
You won't recover those keys and you'll never know if you got them all. A rekey makes the question irrelevant in one visit.
Your first week, door by door
- Every exterior door gets rekeyed, including the back door, the side door from the garage, and the door to a basement suite. One key for all of them where the locks allow.
- Clear the garage door opener. Erase the remotes stored in the opener's memory and re-pair the ones you were given, then change the keypad code. Our garage door openers page covers help with that.
- Reset smart locks and keypads. Delete the previous owner's codes and app users, or factory reset the lock and set it up again under your own account.
- Check the patio door. Make sure the latch catches firmly, and drop a bar in the track if the slider can be lifted.
- Test the basement windows. Their latches are the ones nobody looks at.
- Change the alarm codes and update the contact list with the monitoring company.
- Sort the mailbox. Community mailbox keys come from Canada Post, which takes requests for new keys and a changed compartment lock after a move. In an apartment or condo building, the property manager handles mailbox keys.
Older homes on the peninsula and in Dartmouth
Many of the older wooden houses on the Halifax peninsula and in downtown Dartmouth still have original hardware: mortise locks, storm doors with their own latch, and deadbolts that have been painted over or have drifted out of line with the strike as the frame moved. Some of that is worth keeping and rekeying. Some is worn past the point where a rekey makes sense. Our guide to rekey or replace helps you decide, and we'll give you a straight answer for each door on the visit.
New subdivisions and condos
In the newer neighbourhoods of Bedford, Clayton Park, Fall River and Hammonds Plains, a move-in rekey is close to routine, because nobody can say how many construction keys went around. In a condo, your suite door is yours to rekey, while the main entrance, fob system and mailroom belong to the building, so speak to the property manager about those.
Salt air and move-in day
If your new place is near the harbour or the coast, look closely at the exterior locks before you decide what to keep. Salt and damp corrode cylinders and hinges over time, and a lock that already feels gritty on day one won't improve. Better to replace a corroded lock now than wait for it to seize during a freeze-thaw week in winter.
Keyless from the start
If you'd rather use codes than keys from the day you move in, we can fit smart locks during the same visit as the rekey. Choose a model with a key cylinder or an external battery backup, so a flat battery never leaves you on the step, and remember that app control relies on your Wi-Fi, which goes down with the power in a storm.
Book ahead of closing day
Closings tend to pile up at the end of the month and in the busy spring and summer moving season. Book early, tell us how many doors there are, and send a photo of the locks if you can. You'll know the price before we begin, as our price promise explains.
Where we go
Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford and out across HRM. See every community we cover; the real timing is given on the phone.
Questions people ask
- Do I need new locks, or is a rekey enough?
- For locks that turn smoothly and latch properly, a rekey is enough. Where a lock is corroded, sloppy or you'd like a stronger deadbolt or a smart lock, replace that one. We'll look at each door and tell you which is which.
- Can the front, back and garage side doors share one key?
- In most homes, yes, as long as the locks take the same type of key. It's the request we hear most often from people moving in.
- The house is brand new. Is a rekey still worth it?
- Yes. Keys pass through a lot of hands during a build. Some builders use construction cylinders that lock out the trades' keys once the owner's key is used; many don't. If you can't confirm which you have, rekey.
- Who replaces the community mailbox key?
- Canada Post, not a locksmith. If the previous owner can't hand them over, Canada Post takes a request for new keys after a move and changes the compartment lock. In a condo or apartment building, ask the property manager.
Book a time, or ask a question.
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