New Home · Destin, Sandestin & HarborWalk
You just got the keys to your new place. Congratulations. Now answer this honestly: how many other keys to your home are floating around out there right now?
The previous owner. Their grown kids. The contractor who did the kitchen. The house cleaner. The dog-sitter. An ex. The neighbor who watered the plants. The realtor's lockbox. The “spare” under a rock that nobody remembers. You have no idea — and that's exactly the point.
Moving in without rekeying means you've decided to trust your family's security to a list of strangers you've never met and can't account for. When you say it out loud, nobody's comfortable with that. Rekeying takes an hour, keeps all your existing hardware, and instantly kills every one of those old keys — they simply stop working. One new key, one clean slate.
You don't have to own the place. Many Florida leases allow — and some require — a rekey between tenants, and a good landlord would rather you ask than not. It's your safety in there. Ask before you unpack.
Here's the part that makes people rekey the same day: if someone walks into your home using an old key you never changed, there's no sign of forced entry. No broken window, no jimmied door.
That doesn't make it legal — walking into a home that isn't yours is still a crime. But “no forced entry” genuinely muddies everything that comes after: the police report is harder to build, and insurance companies scrutinize theft claims where there's no evidence of a break-in. So an unchanged lock isn't just a security gap — it can quietly become a liability problem right when you need things to be clear-cut.
(Not legal advice — just the practical reality we've watched play out. When in doubt, change the locks.)
You almost never need new locks. Rekeying reconfigures the pins in the locks you already have so old keys no longer work and you get a fresh key — faster and far cheaper than replacing hardware. We only recommend replacing when a lock is worn, damaged, or you want to upgrade to a keypad or smart lock (popular for the vacation-rental crowd out here).
We think so, and most people agree once they list out everyone who might still have a key — past owners, their family, contractors, cleaners, realtors. Rekeying kills every old key for good in about an hour and costs a fraction of replacing locks.
Often yes — many Florida leases allow it between tenants and some require it. Ask your landlord first; most would rather you rekey than worry about who had a key before you.
Rekeying keeps your existing locks and just changes what key opens them — fast and affordable. Replacing swaps the hardware, which only makes sense if a lock is damaged or you want to upgrade to a keypad or smart lock.