As a tenant of any residential or commercial premises, you need to know that the absolute responsibility of securing the premises lies with you; once the keys are handed over to you. The keys are not just the basic tools to open your door locks but are also a symbolic representation of the trust that has been reposed in you by the house-owner to take care of the house in his absence. There are certain common mistakes that tenants make which require changing the locks of your home as the best feasible option. You may not want to distrust somebody but keep in mind that you may not be the only person who may be having a copy of the keys of your house.
Better Safe Than Sorry
- You have bought a new property: Opening the lock of a newly purchased property offers an unmatched thrill but this is the time you should not get carried away by emotions and start changing the locks of your home as construction workers, builder and his employees, brokers, past owners may still have copy and not returned it owing to malafide intent.
- You have fired an employee or vendor: Revenge can be a problem and as the new tenant of the property, you might get caught in the cross-fire. If your business is such that you keep cash collected from customers in an overnight vault, then ensure it is of the highest security in case of any trespass by a previous employee.
- Your Wife/ live-in partner has moved out: “Love and marriage is as good as it lasts” goes the saying and you need to change all locks when the other partner moves out. You never know when revenge gets the better of his or her judgement and you are at the receiving end of a nasty surprise.
- Keys stolen: This is an emergency situation and requires you to change the locks of your home and also inform everyone concerned that the keys have been stolen or given to someone whom you cannot trust anymore.
- Locks have become old: Common sense is the most uncommon thing in the world goes the saying and usually out of lethargy or emotions we do not change the locks which have become old.But every few months,there are advances being made in the security space and manufacturers have now come up with highly secure locks that cannot be broken or opened up without the approval of the owner.
Moving into a new property- the earlier tenant may have a copy: shocking as it may sound as most tenants return the keys in lieu of the security deposit but there is no guarantee that he will not back-stab his earlier landlord in case the exit has been less than peaceful or his refundable security deposit is delayed. Your laptop, mobiles, tablets, wallets that are kept in the house when you go for a movie should be secured in an almirah with a password protected lock. These days you have exothermic safes that release liquid in case the electronic safe catches fire, keeping the valuables inside safe.
