Lock changes for landlords
If you own a holiday let property, you should be well aware of the new fire regulations that suddenly hit last summer. I know many of you have been spending all your profits to ensure your properties are up to scratch for the coming season.
But what about long term lets?
Well, if you read the fire risk assessment that has to be carried out by holiday let owners, it states “any property you pay to stay in.” If that doesn’t already mean long term lets, then it certainly will if the government of the day decides that the measures taking place with holiday lets are a success. After all, the more they make you spend, the more they get in tax.
If you own properties that you let out to tenants, then it might be an idea to get ahead of the curve. Locks are being changed all the time through abuse, lost keys, evicted tenants, etc. What better time than now to make sure that the new locks going in are keyless escape versions. In the event of a fire, your tenants can get out quickly without having to find keys in a panic situation?
AC Locksmiths Norfolk can change your locks for you, We will ensure that all replacements are kite marked products, so all insurances will be valid.
But while thumb turn (escape) locks are great for getting out easily, they can be a reduction in your security. There are tools that can go in through letterboxes and rotate the inner thumb turns, it is important to consider options to cancel this short fall. Letter catching cages are a great remedy to this, or mounting a post box outside your house, while disabling any door positioned letter plates is even better.
Changes are coming. I have spoken to several holiday let owners who have changed locks recently, only to have to change them again in light of the new legislation. It’s worth thinking about being ready for the inevitable.
Any questions regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact me through any of my contact methods. https://www.ac-locksmiths-norfolk.co.uk/contact-us-here/
Thanks for reading.
A day in the life of your friendly neighbourhood locksmith
Just recently I had a call from a gentleman looking to start up as a locksmith in another county. He wasn’t going to be my competition, so I thought I’d take five minutes to answer his questions and give him some advice. Half an hour later, we were still talking and I had only scratched the surface. Being a locksmith in the UK is hard compared to other places.
From what I read of American locksmiths, their locks are pretty easy to pick but they are pretty standard, so locksmiths tend to re-key locks rather than replace the whole thing. That means they are used to dealing with the same locks day in, day out. Re-keying is where you take out the old pins, put new ones in, using a different configuration and cut keys to match. Across as much of Europe as I have been, the locks are usually euro cylinders, the type we see most commonly in UPVC doors. These are everywhere, and again, pretty easy to get through if you know what you are doing and have the correct tools.
But here is the UK, you never know what sort of lock you are going to find. Nightlatches (Yale locks), mortice (Chubb) locks in 2, 3, 5 or even 7 lever varieties, Rim locks mounted on to one side of the door with a long key, wooden doors, metal doors, composite doors, hollow doors, upvc doors and on and on and on. UPVC doors have in excess of 37 mechanism manufacturers, all whom produce multiple designs with multiple sizes of those designs. To be prepared for any situation, I would need to go to every job in an articulated lorry! If you ever think of going into this business, you must be prepared to learn a lot on the job. Even now, I am coming across things I have never seen before in over 13 years on the job.
So what is my day like? Unlike city locksmiths, being one of the few Norfolk locksmiths, my area is huge. Norfolk has quite a sparse population well spread out and with a notion that we are a ‘safe’ county. That means I can drive for up to an hour to reach my jobs. Admittedly, I do try to keep local, but right now, there is a massive shift in holiday let fire regs and I am racing across the North Norfolk coast fitting thumb turn locks for all those that need keyless escapes. That means from my base, I travel all the way to Hunstanton in one direction and as far as Happisburgh in the other. I will go further, but this is my main focus.
So, Monday means getting to the first job for 9. Mondays are always busy so this will be booked from last week. By the time I finish the first job, I’ve been interrupted by two more bookings and two or more advice calls. With something unexpected happening at the first job (customer not there because they decided to walk the dog and leave me waiting for half an hour, I am already late for the second job. But one of those calls I just received is from someone locked out with desperate need to get back in and pick up the CV they need for their job interview. They are also on a large divert from a direct route to my original second (now third job). With no time to put anything away tidily in my van (my wife never believes that), I hurry to the lock out. Five minutes away, I get the call that the lockout has found a neighbour with a key and they don’t need me. So now I am really late for the second job and have nothing to show for it. Luckily, when I get to the second job, it is really easy for me and I am away in fifteen minutes, catching up time, but not enough to keep my van tidy (honestly, wife!)
The third job is a long distance one, so there and back is nearly three hours. Unfortunately, I need to order parts, so apart from getting them secure, there is not much to do. That’s three (nearly four) visits and only two have resulted in me getting paid today (I don’t usually charge if I can’t do anything). I then come home. I have a backlog of paperwork to do, parts to order and a van tidy to ignore (tomorrow when the weather is better!) During this time, more calls come in and more appointments/queries need to be addressed via email. But Monday is my favourite day. I play football on a Monday night so it is the one time I can switch off. I have been known to go to jobs after playing 5 aside football, but now I ache too much. Any other night I am ready to go when the phone rings. This last week it was Friday and Sunday nights, but luckily on both, I was home by 11pm, so in bed ready for the next day. Tuesday is likely to be more easy jobs like measuring up for thumb turn locks, because I am a wuss with the football (maybe next day for the van tidy!). But the emergencies come in anyway and I can only hope for the long drives in between!
99% of people understand that locksmiths are different to most other traders. We don’t often get big jobs like builders. Most of our time is in between jobs. So when we turn up and get you inside your home in five minutes, the money you pay is for the time to get to you, to return home, the fuel, wear and tear on the van, the time advertising, doing paperwork and eventually tidying the van!
Holiday let owners – are you aware of holiday let and keyless exit point regulations?
In light of the new self assessment fire regulations for owners of holiday lets, here are some things I have noticed people getting wrong:
Firstly, your front door and back door may not be the only fire escapes. If you are in a room with French doors and the fire is the other side of the interior doors, then the French doors are your exit point. Every final exit door is a fire exit and therefore every final exit door must me converted to keyless escape.
Secondly, if you have a porch, the inner door must either be converted as well or left unlockable by the customers. This can be as simple as taking away that key. Alternatively, convert the inner door and remove the key for the outer porch. Either way, the entire route must be keyless escape to meet the keyless exit point regulations.
Finally, this conversion is a serious impact on security. There are tools available that can come in through the letterbox and rotate the thumb turn/push the lever. As these are your holiday lets, I doubt you get much worthwhile mail, so either invest in a letterbox guard, letter collecting basket or seal off the letter box and put a posting box on the wall outside.
So what does the conversion to keyless exit point regulations consist of?
Well, if you have a door with a lift handle mechanism then it simply means changing your double key cylinder for a key and turn cylinder
Double key cylinder
Key & turn cylinder
Prices start from £55, although I see no reason to go for high spec when you are making life easy for the burglar under these new regulations.
If you have a wooden door, you are turning this 
into this
On wooden doors, you also have the option to install a kite marked nightlatch /Yale type lock
If you need me to come and do a keyless escape conversion for you, please book a free assessment/measure up where I will give you a final no obligation quote and book you for fitting at the next convenient date. Most work can be carried out during changeover days.
It’s that time of year again when the weather starts to do funny things to our doors. I am already being called out to do jobs that could be avoided with some basic maintenance for your locks.
Here on the Norfolk Coast, locks are not only at risk of rusting, but also damage from sea salt and wasps (more on those later).
So what can you do to avoid having to call me, or at least make the call a bit cheaper?
Firstly, keep your door (and window) locks clean. It’s very easy to forget about the front edge of a door when it is shut while you clean, but I see some shocking sights in my work. The more dirt and dust is allowed to build up, the more it finds its way into the working parts of your lock eventually causing damage.
The next step is oiling your locks. There is a lot of argument in the locksmithing world as to whether WD40 or graphite is better. For me, I say WD40 used twice a year (every time you change your locks is an easy way to remember and perfect for changes in weather) works just fine because it coats and flushes at the same time. Oiling does not mean just squirting a bit of oil where you put your key in the lock. If you have a wooden door with a mortice (“Chubb” type) lock, then the part inside stops the oil getting to where is needed and if you have a lock with a “Yale” type key, then oil in the key way is only getting a tiny percentage of what needs to be oiled. If you have any lock with a latch, either pull the handle down or rotate any lever knob to retract that latch. If you look where the latch retracts, you will see that the wedge shape of the latch will create a perfect gap for you to put in the straw provided with cans of WD40. Squirt for about 5 seconds (10 seconds if first time) and then work the handles, etc a few times to get the oil all over the insides.
On doors with multipoint locking systems (eg UPVC doors) you should also look at the front edge and lift the handles up and down a few times. Give another squirt of oil to anything you see moving. When you do this, you might even find the sticker that tells you to oil the door that you never knew was there and the installer never told you about! If you have a wooden door with a single deadlock, unscrew the faceplate at the front and take it off. This will now give you a larger gap around bolt. You might have to hold the WD40 straw in one corner, but squirt what you can, being aware you might get some splash back at you and oil does not clean up from clothes easily, so no maintenance in your wedding dress/designer suits. Don’t forget to put the face plate back on afterwards. In all cases, put some rags on the floor as oil will run down and drip off the bottom of the door and WD40 even stains paving stones.
Once you have done all the above, keep an eye on how difficult your door is to open. Hotter summers are warping even doors that never recognisably warped before. If your door is becoming difficult to operate in any way, there will be undue stress on various parts of your lock which will eventually lead to something breaking. The most common problem last year was French doors shrinking away from each other and the hooks of the multipont mechanisms not being able to get into their slots. Multipoint mechanism doors are usually adjustable, if your door is not as easy to operate when closed as it is open, best get the door adjusted before something breaks and you will have to add a locking product on to the cost of the adjustment.
Finally, those pesky wasps. If you have a wooden door with a multipoint locking system (lift the handles to lock) and it does not have top and bottom bolts, there will be a gap at the top behind the metal faceplate. This gap runs down behind the faceplate as far as the first moving part you can see. It is the perfect size for wasps to make cells in which to grow more baby wasps. Those cells harden a lot and can cause the mechanism to break. My advice is to at least put insect repellent all over the top of the door and then maybe stick a small cotton wool ball just in the top to bar access. I’ve dealt with a few of these cases now, and I really don’t like angry wasps trying to get me while I destroy their hard work!
If you have any questions regarding the above information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by phone, text or email.
Thanks for reading.
New laws implemented for holiday lets
Very soon, all holiday let properties are going to be required by law to be keyless exit in case of emergencies. For properties with UPVC or similar doors where the handle needs to be pushed up before locking, the lock changes are straight forward and the existing cylinder just needs to be changed for one that has a thumb turn on the inside rather than a key.
But if you have a wooden door with a mortice (Chubb type) lock, then you will need a complete conversion kit consisting of replacement lock case, thumb turn cylinder and Euro cylinder handles. Most of this is straight forward, but sourcing handles to match your existing ones can be a drain.
If you do not get this work done and your tenants have an emergency, there will be no cover from your insurance should the worst happen due to them not being able to escape.
Here at AC Locksmiths Norfolk, we are happy to work around your changeover days and with your management company to get the locks changed seamlessly without hassle for you or your customers.
Should you require any more information, please contact me for an informal chat.
It is well known that business properties, especially where the public has access, should have secure fire exit doors, which means that all locked doors should be able to be opened from the inside without a key.
But many people renting out properties for holidays do not realise that these fire exits should have easy escape capabilities. The logic behind this is that if the lock is key operated on the inside, the customers may well lock the door, put the key somewhere safe, and then should the worst happen and a fire break out, in their panic and being away from home, they could well forget where they have put the key and be caught in a tragic accident.
So if your wooden door has a nightlatch (often called a ‘Yale’ lock), and that lock has a British Standard Kite mark, you are fine.
If your wooden door has a mortice (often called a ‘Chubb’ lock), with key operation on both sides, there is a conversion that can be done to use a Euro Cylinder that has a thumb turn on the inside. This means changing the lock and handles but can use the existing space with minimal visible change.
If your door is UPVC or has any mechanism where the handles must be lifted before locking, it is a simple matter of swapping the existing Euro Cylinder for one with a thumb turn on the inside.
This is a key both sides Euro Cylinder: 
And this is a standard thumb turn Euro Cylinder: 
There is a slight worry with installing these fire escape systems, though and that is I have a tool that can go in through letter boxes and turn the thumb turn allowing me access to the property. We have two solutions. Firstly, certain thumb turns on the very best cylinders are designed to be difficult for tools to turn. They might require a push while turning or just plain difficult for the tool to purchase.
Alternatively, you can buy specially designed sloped guards for your letterbox (although even these can be bypassed with ever more clever locksmith tools).
Or better yet a letter catching cage on the back of your door will stop all tools that I know of at time of writing.
If you own or run holiday lets, you might find your public liability insurance does not pay out if you have not taken the correct measures to ensure the safety of your guests.
I am noticing a lot of village halls are also suddenly finding out from fire inspections that they are not up to scratch. Please check the regulations specific to you if you run any property that is not a private home.
Click here for Government guidance on fire doors/fire safety
Should you have any questions regarding the above information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks for reading.
Common key & lock mistakes – And How To Avoid Them
It has been a while since I have produced a blog helping you to avoid needing to call out people like me. So here is a short list of common, avoidable mistakes people make that might just help you not make those same mistakes, hopefully saving you time and money.
Safe Keys
Putting override keys inside your battery operated safe: Safes are great, but if you have a key operated safe, the safe is only as good as the place you hide the key. People are quite obvious in hiding places, so digital safes are a lot better then simple key turn safes. The only problem is that digital safes have master key overrides and the safest place for these keys is in the safe itself. But if you only use your safe rarely there is a good chance you will forget about it, It gets placed in a built in cupboard, covered in clothes and out of sight, out of mind. The batteries start to die and because it is covered in clothes, you don’t hear the warning beep and pretty soon, you have a keypad that you cannot use. Thankfully, you have override keys…. But they are inside the safe. At this point, you can call a domestic locksmith who will gain access by destroying your safe and you will have to pay him for the privilege. You then have to buy a new safe. Potentially £100s because you forgot to change the batteries and left the override keys inside the safe. You can try a safe specialist to come and pick the lock, but the cost might still be £100s because safe specialists are rare (the courses and equipment are expensive) and they don’t get many calls compared to standard locksmiths.
How to avoid disaster? Firstly, take those override keys and trust a family member/good friend to look after them for you. If their house gets broken into and a burglar finds your safe keys, they have no idea what safe they open or where it is. But if they find those keys in your house, they can get into your safe. So, get those keys away from your property. Surprisingly, now your keys are not easily accessible in your safe, you will be more likely to check your batteries! But don’t rely on that. Check how long your safe manufacturer says batteries should last and halve it. Write on the calendar when to change the batteries. Use the old batteries for something else, but keep new batteries in your safe. I love Autumn and Spring because we change our clocks and this gives us a great time to do other things like regular battery changes. Have a list of other maintenance things to do like pre-winter gutter cleaning, etc, and put safe battery changes on that list. This will ensure that if you do have to call someone to open your safe, it will be because something has gone wrong rather than having to explain an expensive memory failure.
Car keys on holiday
I wish I had a sum of money for every time someone called me to say they lost their keys on the beach and the spare car key is 400 miles away on the other side of the country… Oh wait, I do! When you drive somewhere on holiday, take your spare key. When you get to your hotel/air B&B/caravan, etc leave your key somewhere safe at your destination. If you lose your car key, it will be a lot cheaper to get a bus/cab back to your holiday base than it will to call an auto locksmith to come and make a new key on the spot for you. A lot quicker too. Even when you go out on a normal day, if you have someone with you, get them to carry the spare key. If you bring the spare out and leave it in the glove box, you are making life difficult for everyone except car thieves.
Letter boxes
Sticking with cars, most cars are stolen from driveways or outside homes using the keys which have been lifted – either because the front door is left unlocked, or the thief has fished the keys through the letter box. Tools for opening locked doors via the letterbox are getting cheaper, easier to use, and ever more sophisticated. Even if you have an angled guard, there is a tool that goes around it. You might think this is a step back to your Grandma’s house, but a letter basket with closing lid, is a great way to foil the letterbox thief. Better still, seal up the letterbox, and have an external box. If you have room, get one that is big enough for parcels, We get so much delivered these days, a lockable parcel box is a great idea. At the same time, door cams record anyone approaching your door and will have images sent to your phone before they can vandalize it. But I digress..
Copy keys
If you are renting out a holiday home or have multiple carers, etc, get a locksmith to install a new lock, with all new, branded additional keys tried and tested before the lock goes in. Almost every time I get called back to job where the lock has failed, the customer shows me a key that has been copied elsewhere on some poor-quality blank. If you get keys copied and they foul up the lock, that is invalidating any guarantee the locksmith gives you, but if you are using additional keys supplied with the lock at time of installation, you are completely covered. But, if you must get copies made, make sure the original keys are the ones that get used most. I.E. let the guests use them. Yes, they might lose them (less likely if you request a deposit), but if they have poor quality keys and the lock fails and they are locked out waiting for a locksmith who destroys the lock getting in, the cost just multiplies. If you need multiple carers, please get a keysafe. It is better than having to collect keys later and ensures better keys are used.
5 lever locks
Know your terminology; there is a difference between a five lever mortice lock and a multipoint locking system. If you have a wooden door the mortice lock, (often called a ‘Chubb’ lock) is the one that should be 5 levers. If you look at the front plate, It will tell you that it is either 2, 3 5 levers and preferably will display a British Standard kite mark that tells you it has been tested against picking, drilling, sawing and most other forms of attack. If you have a door where you lift the handle and various hooks/bolts/mushrooms, etc. move, this is not a five lever lock. This is a multi-point locking system and your insurance is happy with that, which is bizarre because these systems are only as good as the locking barrel you put your key into and insurance companies are yet to wake up to how easy these can be to bypass. Again, digressing, but please talk to your local locksmith about kite-marked barrels. And if your architect/builder/designer tries to tell you these new multi-point doors without handles are a good idea, ignore them. When there is no handle, all the force of opening the door goes through the key. The leverage ratio is tiny compared doors with nice big handles, and at some point, you will snap your key in your lock.
Complacency
My last one for this blog; Just the other day, I fixed a basic lock on the top half of a stable door. It was not insurance compliant. When I challenged the customer regarding this and told him that his insurance company would not pay out if he were burgled, he replied with one I have heard often: ‘This is Norfolk. Although I know someone in the next village got burgled and lost a lot, it’s highly unlikely I will.’ So why pay for insurance at all? If you are paying for insurance, you owe it to yourself to make sure you are compliant. A second house this week is having three locks replaced after one has stopped working. I pointed out the three locks were all 3 lever and not insurance compliant, so the customer in this case, ordered new locks without delay. If you have an older house, don’t just assume the locks are up to spec. Most decent locksmiths do a free security check and, speaking for myself, when I do security checks I will tell you where advice is necessary and where advice is just personal recommendation.
This article about insurance required locks is quite good.
Should you have any questions regarding the above, please get in touch.
Thanks for reading
Smart Locks again
Is now the right time for a smart lock?
Smart speakers, smart cars, smart fridges, smart thermostats, smart light bulbs, the list goes on and on. In that list are a massive number of smart locks. You can find them all over the internet, from the very cheap to the ultra expensive, basic to very flashy.
But the big problem with almost all of them, is that they will compromise your security, or you will need a whole load of other stuff to make them work. If you have a smart lock on a standard wooden door in the UK, the chances are it will be a latch lock. The problem here is that UK insurance companies don’t like latch locks because the latch can be ‘slipped,’ an attack method that can silently take seconds to get into your home with the correct, very cheap equipment. British Standard (BS3621) latches are allowed but the springs are much stronger on these making smart conversions a bad idea as there is a good chance of over-burdening the turning motor inside the smart lock. There are solutions for wooden doors, but you should really expect to allow a further £200 minimum for the needed conversions, and it would be much better to consult your local locksmith to ensure the end result will meet your insurance company requirements.
If you have a door with a euro cylinder (the type where you normally lift the handles before locking/unlocking), then insurance requirements are not the issue. The issue is the whole lifting handle before your smart lock can do anything smart. For example, on a standard door, you will have to either not fully lock your door when you leave, (only possible if the outer handle is a dummy handle that does not retract the latch) or you lift handles, use your phone to do what the key would have done and leave. Then, when you come back, you use your phone to unlock, physically push the handles down to disengage the bolts, etc, and then use your phone again to open the latch and have the door swing open because that is what you wanted the smart lock for – to have the door open for you when you are carrying lots of stuff. So here, you gain nothing over a straight forward key. I do know of one company that does a complete smart lock/handle, but it is stupidly expensive, only works with the same brand locking system, and the two I have fitted both failed to set up properly.
So my advice is this. Think long and hard about that smart lock. First and foremost, is it going to compromise your security? Secondly, is it actually going to make life easier? Is getting out and firing up your smart phone, searching for the app, searching for the right button within the app, turning it all back off again, etc, actually better than just pulling out your key and turning the lock? Thirdly, ask your local locksmith, and if your locksmith suggests an alternative, ask him/her to explain exactly how their solution meets the above requirements.
Thanks for reading
Previous Smart Lock blog here
Smart Locks – Again! I am having a growing number of people asking me for help with smart locks they are buying for themselves. Many of you are expecting simple installation (as advised by the manufacturers) only to find things a bit more complicated than you might expect. The same can be said for some smart doorbells and supposedly easy installation security equipment like smart CCTV and alarms.
Smart security is still a young technology. Smart locks can decrease your security level and even make your insurance void in many cases. A lot of smart locks are aimed at an American market and their lock requirements are not as stringent as ours.
Smart locks are not always more convenient than key operated locks either. With a key operated lock, you take your key out of your pocket as you approach your door, and you are in without thinking about it. With a smart lock, you might have to carry a tag (easier to break than a key) or you might have to get out your phone, wait ages for the phone to recognise your face/thumbprint/pin code, find the app, open the app and then find the unlock button within the app.
Smart doorbells/doorcams can take loads of footage and send you endless emails of people passing your property but not actually approaching your door, or better still the spider web spun overnight and blowing in the breeze, setting off the sensor. You have to weigh up the options of battery (not good if your door opens onto a busy street) versus mains power (might need long wires or an electrician to wire it in safely).
Your smart CCTV might not be able to tell the difference between a small dog and a human, in which case you are going to be poring through hours of watching what Fido was doing while you were out all day while Fido himself is desperately waiting for you to take him walkies!
And smart alarms can be much better than you thought. Would you like your elderly Mum to just have an alarm for when she goes out to the shop, or would you like a system where if she takes a fall, she can press a button on a neck loop and the alarm system not only calls you, but lets you speak two-way to asses the potential emergency. Do you want your alarm system to incorporate a smoke detector and CO2 detector. Which virtual assistant device do you want it to be compatible with? Do you want it easy to take with you to a new property? Do you want it future proof or easy to do add-ons in order to keep the initial cost down?
There are so many things to think about when buying smart security products and they are rarely as easy to install as their blurb would have you believe. Any decent locksmith/security installer will provide you with free advice and quotations. You should always consult a professional before purchase. Not the person in the shop, but a person who installs and knows the pitfalls.
If you have any questions regarding the above information, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or phone 07846643176
Thanks for reading!
Previous Smart Lock posts: When is a smart lock not so smart
Smart Locks – what you need to know
