Lock Rekeying in Hartford, CT

Where rekeying fits Hartford housing

Rekeying changes the pins inside a cylinder so old keys stop working, while the lock body and trim stay on the door. In Hartford it tends to come up at three moments.

• Apartment turnover. Asylum Hill has many buildings of one-bedroom and efficiency apartments. Every move-out raises the question of how many copies of a key are still out there, and rekeying the unit lock between tenants settles it.
• Shared halls. In an Upper Albany two-family, the owner and the upstairs tenant may both hold a front-hall key, so a move-out means deciding whether the shared door, the unit door or both need new keys.
• A new house. About four in ten Connecticut homes were built between 1950 and 1979, a span that overlaps the 1940s-to-1960s houses of Southwest. A new owner rarely knows how many copies of the original keys exist.

Rental licensing and keys

The city's rental licensing program, set out in Hartford Municipal Code Sections 18-20 through 18-30, applies to residential buildings of three or more units. Section 18-20(A) exempts owner-occupied buildings of up to three units, along with certain condominium and housing authority properties. Non-owner-occupied three-unit buildings, the last group phased in, apply from July 1 through October 31, 2026. Under Section 18-29 a rental license runs up to four years and depends on housing and fire code inspections. A landlord getting a building ready for one may also want to check who holds keys to each unit.

State law touches keys at move-in. Section 47a-4d generally bars up-front charges such as move-in fees but permits a deposit for a key or special equipment. Under Section 47a-7c, a landlord must offer a pre-move-in walk-through on the Department of Housing checklist for rental agreements made on or after January 1, 2024, and a missing key or sticking lock can be noted there. This is general information, not legal advice.

What to include in a rekeying request

• Whether the building is single-family, two-family or apartments.
• How many doors, and which are shared: front hall, back stair, basement.
• Whether you want one key to work every door you control.
• Proof you own or manage the property. Tenants should have the landlord's approval first.

See lock rekeying, lock replacement if a lock is worn out, or the Hartford page.