- Bayside and South East Melbourne
- Victoria Police Security Registration No. 72185491
- Mon to Fri 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, Sat 7:00 am to 1:00 pm
- 0421 767 767
November 5, 2026
When someone dies, and their home sits empty, the family's first instinct is to gather the keys back: the set the carer used, the spare next door, the one a cleaner kept on her ring, the copy a grandchild had for after school. Once those keys are sitting in an envelope, the house feels closed. It is a natural and understandable belief, and it leaves the locks exactly as open as they were the day before. A returned key tells you nothing about the copies cut from it, and the cylinder on the front door will still turn for each of them.
Why Collecting the Keys Back Leaves the Locks Open
Inside a standard house cylinder sits a row of small pins, each one set to match a cut on the key. Slide in a key with the right cuts and the pins line up so the plug can turn. The cylinder has no way of telling an original from a copy. Any key carrying the same cuts, whether it came from the box the lock was sold in or from a key-cutting counter ten years ago, lifts those pins the same way.
That is the gap in the envelope approach. Over years of care and visits, a key can be copied by anyone who held it for an afternoon. A carer's agency may have cut a second set for a relief worker. A neighbour may have had one made for a son who checked on the house during a hospital stay. Nobody involved was doing anything wrong, and none of them would think to mention it. Getting the keys you know about back is still worth doing, because it tells you who held access. It just does not close the house.
How Rekeying Shuts Out Every Copy at Once
Rekeying changes the pins inside the cylinders already fitted, and fresh keys are cut to match. The lock bodies, handles, and deadbolts stay on the doors, and every old key, including the ones nobody can account for, stops turning.
This suits an estate house well. The hardware is sound, but the key history is uncertain, and the work does not change the look of the front door or leave a pile of old locks to dispose of. Where several doors still use the same make and keyway, they can be rekeyed to share one new key, which keeps the number of keys in circulation small from the start.
Ask for the new keys to be cut from the lock's code on proper equipment, and keep that original set together. Copies made by tracing a copy lose a little accuracy each time and can start catching in the lock.
Rekeying or Replacing While the House Sits Empty
Rekeying is the default when the locks work well. Replacement earns its place in a few situations:
- A broken or badly worn lock: A cylinder that grinds, a bolt that sticks, or a latch that no longer catches reliably is better replaced than rekeyed, because new pins will not fix worn parts around them.
- A mix of brands and keyways: If the back door, the front door and the side gate each take a different key profile, the odd ones out can be replaced with hardware that accepts the same key as the others.
- Locks that cannot be secured properly: A back door with only a snib latch, or a door with no deadlock at all, will need hardware added before it can be left safely.
Older houses deserve a careful look before anything is pulled out. A mid-century mortice lock or an original rim latch can still be in good order, and it deserves an assessment on the door before anyone decides it has to go. Whether the house will be sold, leased or kept in the family can shape that choice, and that is a conversation for the family and whoever is managing the estate.
The empty house helps the work along. With no one coming and going, every door can be done in a single visit and tested properly with the doors open and then closed, so a bolt that throws freely on an open door but drags into the strike shows up before anyone relies on it.
Finding Every Lock the Old Keys Fit
Front and back doors are the obvious ones. An estate house can hold keyed hardware nobody remembers: a second lock above the handle, the door through to an attached garage, a granny flat or studio with its own entry, keyed window locks and the padlocked shed or side gate. List what you find before the job is quoted.
The loose keys in the house help with that list. Gather them from hooks, drawers and bedside tables and bring them to the appointment. A locksmith can tell a key's lock type from its profile and markings, and a key that matches nothing on the list may belong to a storage cage or another property the estate holds.
Giving Agents, Family and Tradespeople Access
Who should be allowed into the house, and when, is not a locksmith's decision, and questions about authority over the property are ones to put to a solicitor. Expect a careful locksmith to ask who is arranging the work and to want some reasonable link between you and the house before changing anything. Once the family and whoever is managing the estate have agreed on who needs access, the locks can be set to match.
Two keying arrangements cover the usual needs:
Every rekeyed door takes the same key. It is simple and works well when only one or two trusted people hold the keys.
Different keys open different doors, with one master key opening all of them. A real estate agent could hold a key that opens only the front door; a family member could hold one for the front door and the garage; and whoever is managing the estate could hold the master key that also opens the shed where the tools or valuables are kept. Each group gets the access it needs and nothing more.
For a house that will see a stream of visitors, from valuers and cleaners to removalists and gardeners, it is cleaner to have one person meet them at the door than to hand out extra keys for a single appointment. Every key given out for a day is another one that has to come back.
Keeping a Key Register Until the House Changes Hands
A rekey is only as good as the record that follows it. Give each new key a number and keep a register with a line for each one. Each line should show:
- the key number and which doors it opens
- who holds it, with a phone number
- the date it was handed over
- the date it came back, and who received it
Keep the register with the estate papers and update it each time a key moves. Ask anyone who holds a key not to have copies made. If a restricted key system has been fitted, copies are cut only through authorised channels, never over a general key-cutting counter.
If a numbered key does not come back, the register shows which doors it opens, and only those cylinders need new pins.
A house that held a life for decades leaves a long trail of trust in the form of keys handed to those who helped. Changing the pins is a quiet way to close that chapter respectfully, without asking anyone to account for a key they may have forgotten they had.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Once every cylinder the old keys fitted has new pins, the old keys open nothing on the property, so they can be kept, given away or recycled. Keep them apart from the new set from the start, on a separate ring or in a labelled bag, so an old key is never handed to an agent by mistake.
Copies of a restricted key are cut only against the authorisation card or signatory record created when the system was set up. Look for that card among the person's papers. Who can sign for new keys on the estate's behalf is a question to put to a solicitor before the order is placed.
Often, where the lock is still sound. A mortice lock with a removable pin cylinder is rekeyed like any other cylinder. A lever mortice lock has no cylinder, so its key is changed by re-levering inside the case where the maker allows it; where it does not, the choice is a conversion or a new lock. Either way, the lock can be serviced in the same visit, so a sound original stays on a period door with its matching handles and escutcheons, working smoothly on a new key.
No. A safe has its own key or combination, entirely separate from the door cylinders. Rekeying the house leaves the safe as it was. Opening a safe is a separate decision from the door work, and who should be present is worth settling with a solicitor first.
That is the buyer's call. What helps them is a complete handover: every numbered key on the register, the register itself, and any restricted key card, so the new owner starts with an exact count of what exists.
Yes. If two branches of the family each want to be present, or need to collect new keys separately, the work can be split across visits. The register is updated at each visit so no key is issued twice.
Arrange a rekey of the estate house before more keys go out — new pins in every sound cylinder mean only the numbered keys on your register will open the doors. True Locksmith serves Bayside and South East Melbourne. Call 0421-767-767.
