New homeowners & rekeying

How many keys to your house are already out there?

Ask a new homeowner how many keys to their house exist and they will say however many they were handed. The real answer is that nobody knows, including the people who gave them to you.

By Timmy Creighton, founder and licensed locksmith · Major Key Locksmith · October 2026

Where keys go

Think about everyone who might reasonably have had a key to a house in the last ten years:

• The previous owners, their children, and the relative who checked on the house when they travelled.
• A cleaner, a dog walker, a babysitter, a home health aide.
• Every contractor who needed in while nobody was home.
• A neighbor holding a spare.
• The listing lockbox, which every agent showing the house could open.

And a standard house key can be copied at a hardware store counter or a self-serve kiosk in about a minute, with no questions asked. So even the people on that list may not know how many copies they made.

Codes count too

A keypad lock, a smart lock or a garage keypad is a key you cannot see. If the code was shared with a contractor or written on the fridge, it is still out there. If a smart lock has old users in its app, they may still be able to open it.

The fix is not counting. It is starting over.

You cannot recover keys you do not know exist. What you can do is make them all stop working. A rekey does exactly that: every existing key, every copy and every copy of a copy is dead the moment the pins change. Reset the keypad codes and delete old app users on the same day and the count is genuinely zero.

Then keep the count yours

• Write down who has a key. Five keys, five names. When someone gives one back, cross it off.
• Give people codes instead of keys. A code can be deleted in seconds. A key that went missing means rekeying again.
• Consider a key that cannot be copied. A patented key system means copies come only through an authorized locksmith, so the count you wrote down stays true.

Questions people ask

The previous owner said they gave me every key. Should I still rekey?

Yes. They almost certainly believe that, and they are almost certainly wrong, through no fault of their own. Keys get copied and lent for years. Rekeying is the only way to know.

How do I reset a keypad or smart lock someone else set up?

Most can be reset to factory settings or have users deleted from the app or the keypad itself. The method varies by model. If we are installing or rekeying, we clear and set them for you on the same visit.

Does a DO NOT DUPLICATE stamp stop copies?

Not really. It is a request, not a lock. Plenty of places will still copy the key. Real key control comes from a patented or restricted keyway, where the blanks are not sold to the public.

Keep reading

Any price mentioned here is the one published on our pricing page as of October 2026. The final price is always confirmed with you before any work begins. More answers from the blog →