Legally speaking, landlords must provide locks to secure all external doors and windows of their premises.

If you are operating a rooming house, you must ensure that each resident’s room is secure.

Landlords can keep copies of all keys and if any locks are changed, a new copy of the key should be given to the other party.

A tenant, who wants to change a lock, must get the landlords consent.

If a landlord is unreasonably holding back consent, a tenant can take the matter to a tribunal.

Many tenants cut multiple sets of keys for partners and family and landlords face the issue, of whether or not the locks should be changed at the end of the tenancy

Tenants, who are vacating a property, are required to hand over their keys and all copies to the landlord.

Tenants who are experiencing domestic violence can legally change the locks, if they have taken out an intervention order and the excluded tenant cannot enter the home.

In these cases, the tenant pays for the locks to be changed and must give a copy of the keys and a certified extract of the intervention order to the landlord.

Landlords cannot give excluded tenants copies of the keys whilst the tenant is subject to the violence order.

RealRenta Landlords have the added advantage of time and date stamped interactions.

RealRenta Tenants can submit all maintenance requests via the Platform and upload all necessary photos and documentation.

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