Lock Rekeying in Reading, PA

Rekeying in a city of older homes

Rekeying changes the small pins inside a lock cylinder so that old keys stop working and a new key does. The lock body, trim and door stay as they are, which makes it the usual step when a sound lock has an unknown key history.

Reading has plenty of that history. The city's 2024–2028 Consolidated Plan reports that 52% of rented units and 69% of owner-occupied units were built before 1950. A lock in a house that old may have served many owners and tenants, and nobody can say how many copies of its key are still around.

Who usually rekeys

• New owners. After closing, rekey every exterior lock, including rear and basement doors, so anyone holding a spare loses access.
• Landlords of divided houses. Rekeying the shared street door changes the key for every tenant behind it, so the new street-door key has to reach all of them when the work is done. Each unit door can be rekeyed on its own between tenancies.
• Owners with a two-door entry. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission's rowhouse manual treats the entry vestibule as a feature worth keeping. Where an outer vestibule door and an inner door both lock, both can be set to one key.
• Tenants. Read the lease and ask the landlord before changing any cylinder. The article on Pennsylvania landlord–tenant lock changes covers lock changes between tenants.

When the owner lives elsewhere

Reading's Responsible Local Agent Form, which cites Ordinance § 308-110, requires an owner who lives 25 miles outside the city to name an agent. The agent must live in, or keep a principal office in, Berks County, can accept notices for the property and must give the city's code official access for inspections. A tenant who needs a rekey approved by a distant owner can start with that agent. This is general information, not legal advice.

What to include in a request

List each lock and the door it sits on, whether street, vestibule, unit or rear, and say which existing keys, if any, should keep working. A worn or damaged cylinder may call for lock replacement instead. How the work is done is on the lock rekeying page.