Category: Business Security

Ask a landlord when they last changed the locks on a unit and you get one of two answers. Either “when we bought it”, or a pause followed by “I would have to check”.

Meanwhile the unit has had four tenants, two renovations, a cleaner, a property manager and at least one contractor with a key for a fortnight. Nobody counted. Nobody could.

The Arithmetic Nobody Does

Think about a single unit over five years. Each tenancy involves the tenant, usually a partner, sometimes a family member with a spare, occasionally a friend who was staying for a while. Add trades during turnover, a cleaner between tenancies, and an agent doing showings.

Every one of those keys was legitimate at the time. Almost none were returned, because almost nobody remembers the spare they cut in year one. This is not tenants behaving badly — it is how keys work.

The number of working keys to your unit is unknown, and it only ever goes up.

Why Rekeying, Not Replacing

Rekeying changes the pins inside the existing cylinder so a different key turns it and every old key stops working. Your hardware, finish and door prep stay exactly as they are.

It costs a fraction of new locks, takes well under an hour for a typical unit, and produces exactly the same security outcome as replacement. If a locksmith recommends replacing hardware that is working perfectly, ask why — there is a reasonable chance the answer is that replacement carries a parts margin.

What Ontario Law Actually Says

The Residential Tenancies Act governs this and the relevant parts are short.

• A landlord generally cannot change the locks on an occupied unit without giving the tenant a replacement key. Locking a tenant out is not a remedy available to you, whatever the dispute.
• A tenant generally cannot change the locks without the landlord’s consent.
• Entry normally requires twenty-four hours’ written notice, with emergencies and certain defined situations as exceptions.
• Once a unit is legally vacant and possession has returned to you, securing it is your responsibility and doing so promptly matters for insurance.

We are locksmiths, not lawyers, and we do not adjudicate disputes. What we do is work inside those rules and document what was done and when — which protects everyone.

The Turnover Visit: What To Actually Do

1. Rekey every exterior cylinder the unit uses. Not just the entry door — the back door, the basement walk-out, the garage side entry if it is included.
2. Keyed alike where it makes sense. One key per unit is easier for the tenant and easier for you.
3. Do not key the unit to a building master unless it is designed that way. Ad-hoc master keying by successive contractors is how buildings end up with cylinders nobody can account for.
4. Check the strike plates. Three-inch screws into the stud cost almost nothing during a visit you are already paying for, and they matter far more than the cylinder.
5. Change smart lock codes, including any installer or factory default, and make sure the admin account is yours.
6. Reset the garage opener if there is one. Old remotes and keypad codes travel with previous tenants.
7. Record it. Date, unit, doors done, keys cut, who received them.

Multi-Unit Buildings And The Master Key Problem

If you run a building with a master key system, the risk concentrates in one place. A lost or stolen master compromises every cylinder it opens, and the only complete answer is repinning the site.

Two things reduce that exposure enormously. First, a documented key schedule: which key opens which door, how many exist, who holds them. Second, a restricted keyway, where blanks are not sold to the public and copies are only cut on your written authority. On a multi-unit building that is usually the single upgrade most worth paying for.

What It Buys You Beyond Security

A documented rekey at every turnover is also the record that answers awkward questions later. If a tenant reports an entry they did not authorise, or a deposit dispute turns on whether keys were returned, a dated invoice describing exactly which doors were rekeyed on which day is the document that settles it.

That is worth more than the cost of the visit on its own.

The Short Version

Rekey at every turnover. Batch it across units. Fix the strike plates while somebody is already there. Keep a written record.

See our rental property service, or call 647-330-7919 — and if you hold several properties around Whitby, Oshawa or Ajax, tell us on the first call so we can start a schedule for them.

Every commercial locksmith in Ontario has had this conversation. A business owner asks for something perfectly reasonable-sounding — a deadbolt on the inside of the back door, a padlock and hasp overnight, a bolt that staff throw at closing — and we have to say no.

It is not caution and it is not upselling. Those arrangements are code violations, they are the arrangements that have killed people in fires, and there are compliant ways to get what you actually want.

The Rule, In One Sentence

Ontario’s Building Code and Fire Code require that occupants be able to leave through an exit door in a single motion, without a key, and without special knowledge.

One push, or one turn of a thumbturn, and out. No fumbling for a key. No knowing that you have to release the bolt at the top first. No remembering which of the two locks is the one that matters. Somebody who has never been in the building before, in smoke, must be able to get out.

The Four Things We Are Asked For And Cannot Fit

A key-operated deadbolt on the inside

The most common request. It feels sensible: staff leave through the front, the back door is secured with a key. In a fire, anyone in the back of the building is now standing at a locked door looking for a key that is in someone else’s pocket.

A padlock and hasp overnight

Common on restaurant and warehouse back doors. Perfectly secure and completely non-compliant if anyone is inside — and someone always ends up inside, doing a deep clean, taking a delivery, or finishing paperwork.

A secondary bolt that must be released manually

A barrel bolt or a drop bolt thrown at closing and released in the morning. This is “special knowledge” and it is exactly what the code prohibits. It also fails the single-motion test.

Removing the door closer

Usually because the door slams, or because staff want it propped open on a hot day. On a rated fire door the closer is part of the rated assembly, and removing it voids the rating on the whole door.

What A Rated Fire Door Actually Involves

If your back door is a labelled fire door, the label states a rating in minutes and that rating covers the whole assembly: the door, the frame, the hinges, the closer and the lock.

That means fitting a non-rated hinge because it was what the supplier had, or a hardware-store deadbolt because it was cheaper, voids the rating on the entire door. So does drilling it for something it was not prepared for.

Inspectors know exactly where to look. The label, the closer, the gap around the door, and whether anything has been added that should not be there.

What You Can Have Instead

Everything a business actually wants from a secure back door is achievable within the code. Nobody is asking you to leave the building open.

• An exit device with an outside keyed cylinder. Locked from outside, always free from inside. This is the standard answer and it is what belongs on nearly every commercial back door.
• An alarmed exit device. The door still opens freely in one motion, and it sounds a local alarm when it does. This solves the “staff keep using the fire exit” problem properly.
• Delayed egress, where genuinely justified. Permitted only under specific conditions with signage, alarm interfacing and a defined release time. It is a real solution for stock rooms, not a workaround.
• Access control on the outside only. Card or code to get in, free push to get out. Full control over who enters and no compromise on egress.
• A door position alarm. Tells you when the back door has been opened or propped, without touching how it operates.

Why This Matters Beyond Inspections

Three reasons, in ascending order of seriousness.

An inspection finding is inconvenient and usually comes with a deadline. An insurance claim after an incident is worse: if a non-compliant arrangement contributed, the conversation with your insurer becomes difficult in ways that make the cost of a proper exit device look trivial.

And the third is the actual one. These rules exist because of specific fires in which people died at doors that had been secured in exactly these ways by owners who were not careless and were not cutting corners. They were trying to protect their premises, the same as you.

If You Already Have One Of These

Tell us. Nobody is in trouble for having inherited an arrangement from a previous tenant or a well-meaning contractor. Replacing a chained back door with a proper exit device is a routine, same-day job, and it is considerably cheaper than the alternative in every scenario where it matters.

See commercial locksmith services, or call 647-330-7919 and describe what is on your door now.