Melbourne homes, heritage and the rental rules

Rekey or Replace? Deciding After You Move Into a Melbourne Home

9 August 2026 · Easy Pick Locksmiths

You have the keys the agent handed over. What you do not have is any idea how many other keys exist, or who has them — the previous owners, their family, a cleaner, a tradesperson, a tenant from two tenancies ago. Nobody is being sinister; keys simply accumulate over years and nobody keeps a register.

What rekeying actually is

The lock body stays on the door. The cylinder is taken apart and the pins inside are changed to match a new key. Every old key stops working immediately, and you keep the hardware you already own.

It is faster and cheaper than replacement, and for a house full of sound locks it is almost always the right answer.

When replacement is the honest answer

The cylinder is worn, stiff or seizing — rekeying a dying lock buys you months, not years.
There is no deadlock at all, only a latch.
The lock does not meet the standard the property needs, which for a rental is a compliance issue rather than a preference.
The door or frame has moved enough that the whole assembly needs attention, not just the pins.
The hardware is a budget cylinder that is not economically rekeyable.

Key alike: the part people do not know to ask for

If your front, back and garage-side doors take three different keys, they usually do not have to. Where the cylinders are compatible they can be keyed alike, so one key opens all of them.

It is the single most appreciated thing we do on a move-in, and it costs less than people expect because the locks are already being worked on.

Do the whole perimeter, not the front door

The front door gets the attention and it is rarely the weak point. The rear door, the laundry door, the side gate onto a laneway and the garage side door are the ones that are quiet, unlit and unobserved — which is exactly what someone standing at one of them wants.

In inner Melbourne, laneway access behind terraces is a real feature of the housing stock, and a beautifully secured front door on a property with an unsecured rear gate is a very expensive way to feel safe.

If you are renting

There are rules about changing locks in a rented property, and you should talk to the rental provider before doing it rather than after. What you can reasonably raise is compliance: every external entry door other than a screen door has to be securable with a functioning deadlock, or at minimum have a lock a key operates from outside, under the standards that apply to agreements from 29 March 2021.

If you need a hand with this

Call (03) 7303 3713

Questions people actually ask

How soon after moving in should I do it?

The first week, ideally before the boxes are unpacked. It is one of the few security jobs where the risk is highest at the start and drops afterwards.

Can every lock be rekeyed?

Most can. Some budget cylinders are not economically rekeyable and some high-security systems need their own components. We check on site and say which is which.

Is rekeying as secure as a new lock?

For the problem it solves — unknown key history — yes, completely. The pins are genuinely changed and the old keys genuinely stop working. What it does not fix is a lock that was not good enough to begin with.