House Lockout in Seattle, WA

Which Seattle door you are locked out of

A house lockout in Seattle can mean a street door, a garage gate or your own unit door, and each kind of building puts those doors in different hands.

• Belltown towers. Belltown sits on the downtown waterfront and is the city's most densely populated neighborhood, with high-rise residential buildings alongside warehouses. Lobby, garage and elevator entries are the building's to manage, so if you are stuck in the lobby, start with building management, and check its rules before changing your own unit lock.
• Wallingford houses. This streetcar suburb, with trolley tracks laid as early as 1907, has many 1920s box houses and bungalows. A house may have separate front, back and garage-entry doors, so say which one you are locked out of.
• Ballard Avenue. Buildings in the Ballard Avenue Landmark District have shops at street level and residences above. Say whether you are locked out at the street door to the upper floors or at your own apartment door.

Shared doors that lock behind you

In rental buildings of three or more units, the checklist for the city's Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance, or RRIO (Seattle Municipal Code Chapter 22.214), calls for exterior entrance doors that do not open directly into one unit to be self-closing and self-locking. Stepping out to the curb or the bins without a key can leave you outside the building even though your own unit door is unlocked. Tell whoever is helping which of the two doors is the problem. This is general information, not legal advice.

What to have on hand

1. Photo ID that shows this address. If your ID shows an older address, a lease, deed or other document tying you to the home also helps.
2. The neighborhood, the cross streets and the door involved: street door, garage gate, unit door, or a house's front or back door.
3. Anything urgent inside, such as a stove left on. If anyone unwell, a child or a pet is inside, call 911 first.

Lost keys, as opposed to keys left inside, call for lock rekeying once you are back in.