Emergency Locksmith in Hartford, CT

What makes a lock problem urgent in Hartford

If someone may be hurt, or a child or pet is shut in a house or car, call 911 first.

• Dangerous cold. NOAA's state climate summary gives Hartford two days a year below 0°F. On a night like that, get somewhere warm first. A door that will not latch lets the cold in, and anyone else.
• Storms and outages. The 2011 Halloween nor'easter left more than 700,000 Connecticut residents without power, and for some it lasted over a week. An outage like that can leave a smart lock unreachable by app, and ice can hold a door shut.
• After a break-in. Call the police first and let them see the damage before anything is repaired. Get the report number, then secure the door.
• A car on the street before a snow ban. Blue lights signal a coming snow emergency parking ban, and a street-parked car with the keys locked inside can be ticketed and towed once the ban takes effect.

Tenants facing urgent lock situations

This is general information, not legal advice.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-7b lets a tenant covered by a court protective or restraining order that keeps the other party away from the home, or a set distance from the tenant, hand the landlord a copy and ask for new locks. The landlord has six hours to answer whether it will change them or let the tenant do it, and 48 hours to finish if it takes the job. When the landlord leaves the work to the tenant or misses those deadlines, the tenant may put in locks of similar or better quality, and must then give the landlord a key within two business days unless good cause prevents it.

Section 53a-214 makes it criminal lockout, a class C misdemeanor, for a landlord, owner or agent to keep a tenant out of the unit without a court order. That is a matter for the police and the courts.

What to send

• The address or cross streets and your neighborhood.
• What happened: lockout, break-in, broken key or a lock that will not latch.
• The police report number, if there was a break-in.
• Photo ID or papers showing you live or work there.

See emergency locksmith, house lockout, car lockout or the Hartford page.