Emergency Locksmith in New Haven, CT

When a lock problem cannot wait

Most lock trouble can be scheduled. In New Haven, it becomes urgent when:

• Someone is shut out in the cold. Get anyone without a coat, a child or someone who needs medication to shelter first.
• A door will not secure after a storm. Coastal flooding from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 reached 5.3 feet at New Haven. Doors that have been soaked can swell and stop latching, and flooded locks can seize.
• A long outage has cut off a smart lock. After a storm such as the 2011 Halloween nor'easter, a lock that relies on Wi-Fi or an app can lose remote access, and then only its backup key opens the door.
• A door has been forced. A split frame or bent bolt leaves the home open.

If anyone is in danger, call 911 before anything else.

After a break-in

Call the police first, and leave the door and lock as they are until officers have seen them. After that, the job is to secure the opening, then arrange lock replacement or frame repair. In a two- or three-family house, such as the worker housing around the old Winchester plant in Newhallville and Dixwell, a forced shared entry affects every unit, so tell the owner and the other households too.

A lock change for a protected tenant

This is general information, not legal advice. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-7b, a tenant protected by a court protective or restraining order that requires the other party to stay away from the tenant's home may give the landlord a copy and ask for new locks. Within six hours the landlord must say whether it will change them or let the tenant do so; if the landlord does it, the deadline is 48 hours. If the landlord leaves the job to the tenant or misses the deadlines, the tenant may install locks of similar or better quality and must give the landlord a key within two business days unless good cause prevents it.

What to send

1. What happened, and whether anyone is at risk.
2. The street, nearest cross street, building type and which door.
3. A photo of the lock and frame, if you can take one safely.

More on emergency locksmith requests and New Haven.