Lock Rekeying in Salem, OR

What rekeying changes

Rekeying resets the pins inside a lock cylinder so that old keys stop working and a new key takes over. The lock body, handle and deadbolt stay on the door. That suits a lock that is still sound but whose keys are out of your control, and it keeps the hardware on an original door, which matters on an older house in one of Salem's historic districts.

Renting and moving in

Across Oregon, renters live in 36.9 percent of occupied homes, above the 34.7 percent national share. Each move-out can leave keys with former occupants, cleaners, contractors and neighbors. Oregon's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, ORS chapter 90, addresses locks in a few places:

• Between tenancies. ORS 90.320(1)(L) treats a unit that substantially lacks working locks for all entrance doors, and latches for the windows it can be entered through, as unhabitable. A turnover is a natural time to check each lock and rekey it.
• A lost tenant key. ORS 90.302(7)(c) leaves the cost of replacing a key the tenant lost outside the statute's limits on landlord fees, so ask the landlord how it is handled before anyone changes a cylinder.

This is general information, not legal advice.

New owners

After closing, rekey every exterior lock, including the back door and any door between the garage and the house. That goes for a house in Sunnyslope, Morningside, Northgate, West Salem or any other of the city's 17 neighborhood associations. The Salem page names several more.

Older knob locks and deadbolts

Salem sits close to the state pattern, with 16.3 percent of homes built in the 1970s. On a house of that age the knob lock and the deadbolt can take different keys. When both cylinders accept the same key blank, rekeying can often set them to one key, so a single key on the ring covers the whole door.

Details for a rekey request

1. How many locks, and which doors they are on.
2. A photo of each key face and each lock.
3. Which keys, if any, should keep working.
4. Your neighborhood, plus whether you are in West Salem.

A cylinder that is worn, loose or damaged may need lock replacement instead.