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That is exactly my point as well. For those saying just pay to change the locks, are you understanding that this is a new construction house? This situation is a construction defect plain and simple. Maybe you are used to letting people you have paid to do a service walk out on the deal and you just pick up the tab for "peace of mind" but having the builder pay to have a mobile locksmith come out and change the locks and hand the keys to you is not too burdensome on them and assures the owner, who has already paid for the home is not subsidizing the builder's punchlist. (and I am a commercial general contractor by the way, I wouldn't dream of treating customers this way and I expect most wouldn't; let me get away with it if I tried.)
I don't let people walk over me - I pick my battles. Honestly, it's easier and a lot less stressful to just change the locks myself. How long has the OP spent thinking on this issue??? My way it would be done and over with in as little as half an hour (work included).
Hire a locksmith and change/rekey the locks. Everyone should do this on every single home they ever buy. New or not. This is a $100 problem, just do it... don't get bogged down in it.
So the question is handle the rekey yourself, or make the builder do it.
Let me see if I got this right.
Builder Bob is using the owner keys to the house during construction, and you don't know if he or a worker made a copy of the key. You cannot trust these people because you don't know them well enough to make that call.
So you make him redo the locks and give you the new keys. What has changed? Why do you NOW trust him and his workers to not make a copy when you didn't the day before?
I was rekeying my lock for the first time. Something went wrong. Now neither key works. The old key or the new key. What do I do ?
Take it to a local locksmith shop and they can get it rekeyed for around $10 or so. I had the same thing happen with my first lock. Learned a lot and now I can rekey most locks.
A deadbolt costs $20 a doorknob lock costs less. They are easy to replace, all you need is a screwdriver. Adding a new one is hard because you have to dig into the side where the door strike is but replacing it is simple and you can ask a friend of neighbor to do it or help you or teach you. You don't even have to really change the doorknob one if it has both, no one is getting past the deadbolt that's the only one you have to change. Chances are no one is going to use the previous keys. I don't think the locks of any place i rented were ever changed and i always kept a spare copy anyway.
It cost me about $6 a lock to rekey at the local hardware store, or you can buy a rekeying set for probably $12 for four locks. Learn to use a screw driver, welcome to home ownership.
Right? I wasn't understanding this. Locks, locking doorknobs, etc. are all extremely - EXTREMELY - simple to replace in a minute or two. And very cheap. I lost the key to our front door and replaced the entire thing for $10 in a few minutes with a Phillip's head screwdriver. I actually opened the package in the store and had them make me 6 extra keys before I even bought it.
eta: Everything is on youtube. Every appliance I've fixed or car repair I've needed to do has been done by someone else with the same.exact.product and posted on youtube. lol
On the house I am in now, it came with some really beautiful upgraded hardware, so the locks got re-keyed.
When I buy a house to be a rental, my rentals are on a key system, so I replace the hardware with my own, so all of my rentals open with one master key and it takes me about 5 seconds to change the lock cylinder between tenants so that any old key no longer works.
But, agree with everyone else: something needs to be done as soon as you get possession of a new house so that there aren't any spare keys floating around anywhere. And don't forget to change the code on the garage door opener.
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