Lock Rekeying in Greensboro, NC

Rental turnover and the keys it leaves

Census Bureau estimates for 2024 put renters at close to half of Greensboro households, against 33.2 percent of occupied homes statewide. Each move-out can leave keys behind, including copies nobody remembers making. Rekeying changes the pins inside a cylinder you already own, so old keys stop working and a new one takes over while the lockset stays on the door.

College Hill, between UNCG and Greensboro College, shows the pattern: its nomination for the National Register says new apartment buildings were added there largely in response to student demand. Rekeying when a lease ends leaves the incoming tenant and the owner or manager as the only holders of a working key.

Sunset Hills: house and garage on one key

A. K. Moore Realty Company filed the Sunset Hills plats in late 1926, and the houses there, overwhelmingly brick veneered, date from the late 1920s through the early 1960s. Many properties keep a historic garage. Where a garage still has its own key, rekeying can put house and garage on one key, if the cylinders can share a keyway; if not, one may need replacing first.

Lock changes for survivors under state law

Under G.S. 42-42.3, a tenant can tell the landlord, orally or in writing, that a protected tenant is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking and ask for the locks to be changed. If the perpetrator is not a tenant of the unit, the landlord has 48 hours to change them or let the tenant do it. If the perpetrator is a co-tenant, the tenant first provides a court order directing the perpetrator to stay away, and the landlord has 72 hours. The protected tenant pays. If the deadline passes, the tenant may change the locks and must give the landlord a new key within 48 hours. This is general information, not legal advice.

Before you ask

List each door, any garage or outbuilding you want on the same key, and whether you own or rent. See lock rekeying for the service. A cylinder too worn to rekey moves the job to lock replacement, and the Greensboro page describes the neighborhoods.