Locked out of your house

Before you call anybody

Walk the whole property once, slowly. Front door, back door, side door, garage service door, basement hatch, patio slider. People check the door they were trying to use and stop.

Check ground floor windows. A bathroom or kitchen window left on the latch is common, and if one is open a locksmith can usually reach through and open a door in far less time than picking the lock.

Think about who else has a key. A partner, a neighbour, a parent, a letting agent, a housemate at work. A twenty minute drive from somebody with a key is cheaper than any locksmith.

If you rent, call the landlord or the managing agent first. Many are contractually obliged to help and some will send somebody at no cost. It also avoids the awkward situation of a locksmith arriving and finding you cannot prove you live there.

And check the obvious hiding places you actually used, not the ones burglars check. Under a plant pot, in the meter box, with the neighbour.

Why not to force it

Kicking a door is the most expensive way into a house.

A kicked door rarely fails at the lock. It fails at the frame, because a standard strike plate is held by two short screws into a thin jamb board. The jamb splits, the door stays attached to a broken frame, and now you need a carpenter as well as a locksmith. Two hundred to eight hundred dollars is a normal repair, more on a hardwood or a period door.

A credit card will not work on any door with a deadbolt, and on most modern spring latches either, because the deadlatch plunger is designed to stop exactly that.

Breaking a window costs less than breaking a door but it leaves you with a hole overnight, glass to clean up and a security problem until it is replaced.

A locksmith opening the lock costs less than any of these and leaves the house exactly as it was.

What a locksmith will do

On a standard residential lock the usual approach is picking or bypass. It leaves the cylinder working and your existing keys still fine, which is what you want.

On a high security lock, a lock that has already failed mechanically, or where a key has broken off inside, drilling may be the right answer. A professional will tell you that before they drill and will quote the replacement lock at the same time. If somebody reaches for a drill first thing with no explanation, stop them.

Expect fifteen to thirty minutes on arrival for a normal door. A multipoint lock on a uPVC door takes longer, and if the multipoint gearbox itself has failed the door may need the mechanism replaced rather than just opening.

When the door is open, ask them to check the strike plate while they are there. If it is held by two short screws, four three inch screws into the framing behind it is a few dollars of parts and makes the door dramatically harder to kick. It is the best value upgrade in the whole trade.

Proving you live there

A locksmith will not open a house without evidence you are entitled to be inside. That is the standard everywhere and a legal requirement in several states.

Photo identification showing that address is the simplest. A driving licence is ideal. Failing that, a lease, a utility bill, a bank statement, a mortgage statement or a piece of post addressed to you at that address, which can be produced once the door is open.

If your name is not on anything at that address, say so on the phone rather than at the door. Sometimes a landlord or the named tenant can confirm by phone. Sometimes the answer is that the locksmith cannot help, and that is them doing their job properly.

Expect them to write it down. Identification type, document, address and time. That record protects you as much as it protects them.

Afterwards

If you lost the key rather than left it inside, change the situation rather than just getting in. A lost key is a key somebody may have, and if it was on a ring with anything identifying your address that matters.

Rekeying is usually the answer. It changes which key works without replacing the hardware, costs 20 to 40 dollars per lock plus the call out, and can be done in the same visit.

Then do something so this does not repeat. A key with a trusted neighbour. A small key safe mounted somewhere sensible, which is far better than a fake rock. And if you want a code rather than a key, a keypad deadbolt removes the whole category of problem for around a hundred to two hundred dollars fitted.

Save the number of the locksmith who helped you. Choosing one while standing outside in the rain is choosing badly, and you have just done the research.