Can You Change the Locks When You Move Into a Rental?

It depends on your lease and your state. Texas law bars a tenant from changing or rekeying a lock without the landlord's permission, while New York City lets tenants in multiple dwellings, generally buildings housing 3 or more independent households, add a second lock as long as they give the landlord a duplicate key on request. Where no statute addresses it, your lease decides, so get any permission it requires in writing and plan to give the landlord a key. You may not need to do it yourself: Texas requires the landlord to rekey within 7 days after each new tenant moves in, at the landlord's expense.

Does the landlord have to rekey after the last tenant?

In Texas, yes. Under Texas Property Code section 92.156, the landlord must rekey every lock opened by a key, card, or combination, which includes keypad codes and key cards, within 7 days after a new tenant moves in. Rekeying means changing a lock so the old key, card, or code no longer opens it. You can also ask for more rekeys at any time and as often as you like, but you pay for those, and the landlord is presumed to have a reasonable time of 7 days to do them. That drops to 72 hours if you tell the landlord that someone broke in or tried to break in to your unit, or that a break-in or violent crime happened elsewhere in the complex in the past 2 months.

If a Texas landlord does not rekey after you move in, you can:

1. Have the locks rekeyed and deduct the reasonable cost from your next rent payment, notifying the landlord of the deduction when you make that reduced payment.
2. Send a written request and end the lease if the landlord does not comply by the third day after receiving it, or by the seventh day if your lease contains the underlined or bold security-device disclosure required by section 92.164(b).
3. After that same 3-day or 7-day period following the landlord's receipt of your written request, if the landlord still has not complied, sue for a court order, your actual damages, a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500, and attorney's fees.

These remedies depend on being current on rent: the landlord has a defense if you owed rent on the day you gave the required notice.

Other states set different rules. California requires a working dead bolt on each main entry door and working security or locking devices on windows designed to open. The window rule excludes casement and louvered windows, and windows more than 12 feet vertically or 6 feet horizontally from the ground, a roof, or another platform. You must tell the landlord when a required device stops working; the landlord then has a reasonable time to fix it. That law says nothing about rekeying between tenants. In Massachusetts, the landlord may charge you the cost of buying and installing a new lock and key at the start of the tenancy, so a lock charge on your move-in statement should come with a new lock. Where no law requires a rekey, ask the landlord in writing, before you sign, whether the locks were rekeyed after the last tenant.

Testing the locks is one step on our move-in checklist, and our move timeline covers the weeks before key day.

Can you change or add a lock yourself?

Start with the lease. Look for clauses on locks, keys, and alterations, and follow what they require. Then check your state:

• Texas: a lock the landlord installs, changes, or rekeys becomes a fixture, a permanent part of the unit, and Texas Property Code section 92.163 bars you from removing, changing, rekeying, or altering it without permission, except under the rekey-and-deduct remedy above.
• New York City: Multiple Dwelling Law section 51-c lets tenants in multiple dwellings install their own extra lock on the entrance door, no more than 3 inches in circumference. A lease clause charging you for that right is void, and you must give the landlord a duplicate key if it asks. The rule does not cover two-family houses, public housing, hotels, or dormitories.
• Other states: if the lease says nothing, ask anyway and get the answer in writing, because a lock the landlord cannot open can block entry the law allows.

A key also lets the landlord use the entry rights state law gives it. Washington, for example, lets a landlord enter with 2 days' written notice, or without notice in an emergency, and bars you from unreasonably refusing entry for repairs or inspections. A tenant who keeps breaking those rules after one written notice can owe up to $100 for each later violation. Our guide to privacy rights and landlord entry lists notice periods by state.

If the landlord agrees to a change:

1. Get the permission in writing, including whether you will rekey or replace the lock and who pays.
2. Hire a locksmith and keep the itemized receipt.
3. Give the landlord a key when the work is done and save its written confirmation.
4. At move-out, return every key and ask in writing whether to leave the new lock or put the old one back.

A landlord who changes the locks to keep you out is a different situation with its own rules, covered in lockouts and lock changes.

Who pays for a lock change?

A Texas landlord also cannot charge you to repair or replace a lock worn out by normal use. It can charge for damage or misuse only if an underlined clause in a written lease allows it.

Lock changes for domestic violence survivors

These four states give survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking a right to new locks:

Rules in other states, and the federal protections that apply in subsidized housing, are in our guide to domestic violence protections for tenants.