Lock Rekeying in Kansas City, MO

Rekeying after a move in Kansas City

Rekeying replaces the pin set inside a lock cylinder so that every old key stops working while the lock itself stays on the door. It is the usual first step after buying a house, when nobody can say how many copies earlier owners, tenants and contractors kept.

Hyde Park, between Gillham Road and Troost Avenue from 32nd to 47th Street, shows why that count can be hard here. Many of its houses became apartments after World War II and went back to single-family use from the 1970s. A buyer there may inherit more locks than the house now needs, such as old unit locks left on inside doors. Rekeying the doors you keep to one new key turns a ring of unlabeled keys into a single key.

Standard knob locks and deadbolts rekey readily, and many older mortise cylinders can be rekeyed as well, which keeps an original door intact.

Landlords, tenants and short-term hosts

Kansas City's Healthy Rental Homes article, Chapter 34, Article XIX, requires owners to hold a city rental permit for each residential rental property under Sec. 34-832. Units rented only for periods under 30 consecutive days are excepted. For a long-term rental, rekeying at each turnover closes out the last household's copies. A short-term host turning over guests every few nights faces the same key problem more often, which is one reason some move those doors to a keypad; see smart lock installation.

A tenant thinking about rekeying should read the lease first, since some leases require giving the landlord a key. This is general information, not legal advice.

What to include in a rekeying request

• the number of exterior doors, plus any garage, basement or former unit doors
• the brand name on each lock face, if you can read it
• which doors should share one key
• whether you own the property, manage it as a landlord or rent it

For the service itself, see lock rekeying; notes on the city's other neighborhoods are on the Kansas City page.