Whether you lost your house keys, car key, garage keys or keys to your shop, it’s never a good thing. And you will need to act instantly to get on with your day to day activities comfortably. Losing a key is a common thing that happens to most of us. You could have a key in your hands right now, and 20 minutes later, you start wondering where it might be.
If you’re confused and don’t know what to do, the first thing to do is to remain calm. Below are some primary steps you can take if you lose your keys.
Ask those close to you.
If you don’t live alone, then you should do this. Call your roommate on the phone, or partner or child, and ask them if they’ve seen your key. Chances are, they might’ve. And if they don’t know exactly where it is, they can give you a petty reliable guess on where to check for the keys. And if you’re lucky, your keys might not be lost after all.
Although if you live alone, it will be quite challenging to find your lost keys. Because you don’t have anybody to ask if they’ve seen it, you wouldn’t want to ask your neighbours unless you’re super close to them else they might label you a careless tenant. Some neighbours are like that.
Read: How to Find a good locksmith
Ask your landlord for a spare
If you lost your house keys, one of the easiest ways to get a new one is to approach your landlord and request another key from him or her. Once again, if luck is on your side, your landlord will give you another key to your apartment, although this is easier said than done. Some landlords do not keep spare keys to an apartment.
When a tenant moves out, they retrieve all the keys and await the next tenant to move in. Most landlords don’t bother about keeping spare keys.
But what if the keys you lost are your car keys? Well then, your landlord cannot help you with that. It’s not a landlord problem; it’s your problem. And unlike house keys, losing a car key has more complications than losing a house key. If you take a car to work every morning, you will not be able to ride to work the next morning if you lose your car keys.
If you’re locked out of your home because you lost your keys, you could crash at your friend’s place if it’s late and you have not yet decided what to do by morning. But if you lose your vehicle keys and want to use a car, you can’t instantly get a new car or borrow someones. You’d have to take the bus or something else to wherever you want to go.
Read: How do you unlock a door if you lost the key
Here’s what to do
If you lost your car keys, the best thing to do is call out a locksmith. Not just any locksmith. You will need to call out an automotive locksmith to get the job done. What a locksmith will do is re-make your car key. And to do that, some locksmiths will request for a spare key. The thing is, most cars don’t come with extra keys. Most car manufacturers have like one car, one key policy.
If you don’t have a spare key, a locksmith will have to re-make your car key. If your car is a modern vehicle with certain enhanced features, it will be more difficult for the locksmith to re-make the key. And if your key has a “do not duplicate” written on it, then you may have to contact the car manufacturers for authorisation. If authorised, the locksmith can successfully re-make your car key.
For your house key or any other lost key, you can call out a locksmith and have them replace the lost key. For tenants, if your landlord doesn’t provide a spare key, the least they can do is permit you to have one re-made or have the locks rekeyed.
Changing your locks means a new lock and key. Rekeying your lock means you don’t necessarily have to change the lock, just rekeying it in such that the lost key can no longer be used to open it.
Read: What Should You Do If You Lose Your House Keys
Conclusion
For some apartments, landlords do not take it likely when you call in a locksmith to change your lock. So it best to let your landlord know if you’re calling in a locksmith to come work on their property. If you lose your keys next time, take a deep breath and make sure you follow the above methods in this article.
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