House Lockout in New Haven, CT

Which door you are locked out of

In Newhallville and Dixwell, the streets around the former Winchester Repeating Arms plant filled after 1870 with one-, two- and three-family worker housing. In a two- or three-family house there, you can be shut out of a shared front door, a back door or your own flat's door, and each may take a different key. Say which door is locked and whether the doors behind it are locked too.

Downtown, the Ninth Square Historic District is mostly late-19th- and early-20th-century commercial blocks. In a mixed-use building with a shop below and flats above, the door that closed behind you may be the street door to the upper floors rather than your own.

Two things to check first

This is general information, not legal advice.

• Your landlord's emergency contact. Paragraph 304 of the New Haven Housing Code requires owners of buildings with two or more units to post an emergency contact name, or the landlord's or managing agent's home phone number, on the premises or give it to each tenant in writing. That person may hold a key.
• Whether the lockout was deliberate. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-214, a landlord, owner or agent who keeps a tenant out of the unit without a court order commits criminal lockout, a class C misdemeanor. That is a police matter, not a lock problem.

Waiting outside in a New Haven winter

Seasonal snowfall along the Connecticut coast runs 30 to 35 inches, and New Haven averages about one day a year below 0°F. If you are out without a coat or with a child, get to a neighbor's hallway, a warm car or a store before you deal with the door. A door that is stuck or iced up should not be forced.

What to have ready

1. Photo ID showing the address, or mail addressed to you there.
2. A lease or deed if your ID still shows an older address.
3. The street, cross street and floor, whether it is a multi-family house or a mixed-use building, and whether the door has a knob lock, a deadbolt or both.

More on house lockout and New Haven. If the key is lost rather than locked inside, consider lock rekeying afterward.