Locked Out of Your Rental: What to Do

If you locked yourself out, call your landlord or property manager first, then a licensed locksmith if no one can come, and have proof that you live there ready. If your landlord changed the locks or blocked the door to make you leave, that is an illegal eviction in California, Florida, New York, Texas, Washington, and Chicago: call the police, show proof of residence, and ask a court to restore you if the landlord refuses. Those laws also make the landlord pay, such as 3 months' rent or your actual damages, whichever is greater, in Florida.

If you locked yourself out

State laws require the landlord to provide working locks and keys. Washington requires reasonably adequate locks and keys, Florida requires landlords of units other than single-family homes and duplexes to provide locks and keys unless the lease says otherwise, and Texas requires a keyed deadbolt or doorknob lock on each exterior door, window latches, and door viewers. None of these laws requires the landlord to come open the door when you lose or forget your key, so your lease and the manager's policy decide whether someone will come and what it costs.

1. Call the office or the emergency maintenance number. Ask whether it offers lockout service, how long it will take, and what it charges. Check your lease for a lockout or after-hours fee before you agree.
2. Call a licensed locksmith if the landlord cannot help. Expect to prove the address. In California, a locksmith who opens a home must record your name, address, phone number, date of birth, and driver's license or ID number on a work order that you sign.
3. Bring proof that you live there. Have a photo ID, and if it shows an old address, add a lease, a utility bill, or mail in your name.
4. Ask the locksmith to open the lock, not replace it, unless your landlord agrees. Texas bars tenants from changing or rekeying a lock without the landlord's permission except under the narrow repair remedies in its lock law.

If you lost the key and want the lock rekeyed, Texas puts the cost on you: the landlord must rekey at your expense whenever you ask, and the charge cannot exceed a third-party contractor's price for parts, labor, taxes, and extra keys. A Texas landlord also must rekey at its own expense within 7 days after a new tenant moves in; see changing the locks when you move in.

If your landlord locked you out

Changing the locks to force a tenant out is a form of self-help eviction, meaning an eviction without a court order. California's Attorney General told police in 2022 that only a sheriff or marshal can remove a tenant, only after a court judgment, and that this holds even if the tenant owes rent or has received an eviction notice. Florida bars changing the locks or using a boot lock, a device that blocks the lock, to keep you out. New York bans changing the entrance lock without giving the occupant a key, and Chicago bans plugging, changing, or adding a lock to force a tenant out.

Two exceptions:

• Repairs. A landlord may remove or replace a lock for a genuine repair. Texas requires the repair to be done promptly, Florida allows it only for maintenance, repair, or replacement, and Chicago allows a temporary interference only as needed for repairs or an inspection.
• Texas rent lockouts. A Texas landlord may change your locks for unpaid rent only if the lease allows it and it gives written notice at least 5 days ahead by mail, or 3 days ahead by hand delivery or posting inside your main door. It must then post a notice with a place open 24 hours, or a phone number answered 24 hours, where you can get the new key, and give you the key at any hour whether or not you pay. If it uses the phone option, it must deliver the key within 2 hours after you call. It cannot change the locks while anyone is inside or more than once per rental period.

What to do right away:

1. Call the police. California's bulletin tells officers to instruct the landlord to let you back in and to write a report even if no one is arrested. Ask for the report number.
2. Show that you live there. The bulletin lists an ID, mail, a utility bill, a vehicle registration, or a pay stub, and notes that neighbors can confirm who lives in the unit.
3. Record the evidence. Photograph the new lock and any notice on the door, and save texts from the landlord.
4. Ask a court to put you back in. In Texas, file a sworn complaint for a writ of reentry, a court order restoring you to the unit, in the justice court for your precinct; the judge can issue it without first notifying the landlord, and a sheriff or constable enforces it. California and Florida law let you ask a court for an order that stops the lockout.

New York's unlawful eviction law covers anyone who has lived in the unit for 30 days in a row or has a lease.

When you can change or rekey the locks yourself

Read your lease first, and follow any clause that requires the landlord's permission for a lock change or a copy of the new key. Keeping the landlord out can create its own problem: New York's Attorney General notes that a landlord may enter without notice in an emergency such as a fire or water leak.

State rules that let you act:

• New York City: In an apartment building covered by the state's Multiple Dwelling Law, you can add your own lock to your apartment door, in addition to the landlord's, if it is no more than 3 inches around. You must give the landlord a duplicate key if asked, and refusing can be grounds for eviction. A lease cannot charge you extra for the added lock.
• Texas: If the landlord does not rekey after the prior tenant moved out, or does not repair a broken lock within a reasonable time after receiving your repair request (ordinarily presumed to be 7 days), you can have the work done and deduct the reasonable cost from your next rent, telling the landlord when you pay. Give the landlord a key if it asks in writing.
• Washington: If you use the state's repair-and-deduct remedy to fix a lock, you must promptly give the landlord a key to the new lock.
• California, for survivors of abuse: When the abuser does not live in your unit, the landlord must change the locks within 24 hours of your written request with your choice of a protective order, police report, qualified third-party statement, your own signed statement, or other documentation reasonably verifying the abuse. If it does not, you can change them yourself, even if the lease says otherwise, using locks of similar or better quality, then notify the landlord within 24 hours, give it a key, and get reimbursed within 21 days. See tenant protections for domestic violence survivors for other states.

If a lock is broken or a door will not secure, report it in writing as a repair; see how to report maintenance issues to your landlord and, for a door that will not lock at night, emergency repairs.