Apartment Lock Rekey in Los Angeles

Rekey means we pull the cylinder out of your existing lock, swap the internal pins to a new pattern, and cut new keys to match. The lock body stays. Cost is $85 for a single cylinder because the pin-kit hardware itself is only $15 to $30 — you're paying for labor and the licensed locksmith. Replace means a new lock body, which runs $60 to $150 per cylinder for the hardware alone, plus labor. Rekey is the right call 90 percent of the time. Replacement only makes sense when the lock is damaged, the brand isn't compatible with a rekey kit, or you're upgrading to a smart lock.

Because you cannot prove who has a copy. Over a one or two year tenancy, keys leave the unit — sublessees, ex-partners, dog walkers, contractors, locksmiths the prior tenant used, the friend who watered plants. Collecting the keys you handed out doesn't recover any of those copies. California Civil Code section 1941.3 requires landlords to provide functioning locks on all exterior doors as part of habitability, and case law has treated a unit with circulating prior-tenant keys as arguably non-compliant. Rekeying for $85 is the cheapest insurance policy a landlord buys all year — it's two and a half hours of vacancy loss on a 1BR.

Yes. Every locksmith dispatched through TurnOver LA holds an active LCO license issued by the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. California Business and Professions Code section 6980 makes it illegal to operate as a locksmith in this state without one — and yet roughly half the listings on Yelp and Google for LA locksmiths are unlicensed operators using stock photos and burner phone numbers. Always ask for the LCO number before you let someone touch your lock. Ours is documented on the work order we leave at the unit.

Technically yes, practically no. Kwikset SmartKey hardware lets a homeowner rekey without tools using the original key, and YouTube has a thousand tutorials. The two reasons it's a bad idea anyway: first, if you damage the cylinder you've now bought a new lock plus a service call, which costs more than the original rekey. Second — and this is the one that matters in LA — if you're a landlord and a tenant later disputes a lock-out or a habitability claim, the fact that an unlicensed person rekeyed the unit becomes an exposure. A licensed locksmith on the work order ends that argument before it starts. $85 to make the paper trail clean is worth it.

Sometimes. Smart locks make sense when you're turning the unit over more than twice a year, when you self-manage from out of state, or when the unit is a short-term or mid-term rental. Schlage Encode, August, and Yale Assure are the three brands we install — all support a permanent landlord master code so you keep access without a physical key. They run $265 installed and paired. Smart locks do not make sense for rent-stabilized buildings, where the tenant is allowed to install their own deadbolt or supplemental lock under California law and the local RSO — paying for a smart lock the tenant may legally swap out is just spending money. They also don't make sense when the unit door is a non-standard thickness, which a lot of pre-1960s LA buildings have.

The mailbox cylinder is included in the Full Apartment Rekey package and can be added to any other package for $25. For USPS-managed cluster boxes — common in newer buildings — the carrier has to be present or the building manager has to authorize it, so we coordinate the visit. For landlord-owned mail slots in the door or wall-mounted boxes, we rekey on the same trip. Either way the new mailbox key gets cut to match the apartment key set so the tenant carries one ring, not three.

Single cylinder is $85. Front door plus deadbolt is $135 (the most-booked package — most LA apartment doors have both). Full apartment rekey including entry, deadbolt, mailbox, and garage cylinder where applicable is $185. Smart lock install with landlord master code setup runs from $265 depending on the brand. For comparison, calling a standalone LA locksmith typically costs $150 to $250 just for the trip charge before any work — we wrap rekey into the turnover so you don't pay the trip charge twice. Text the unit address and which package to 310-774-0099 and dispatch confirms a window in under 15 minutes.