A Cleaner or Contractor Still Has Your Key

Locksmith Amsterdam

When the Cleaner, Builder or Dog Walker Still Has Your Key

An unreturned service key in Amsterdam is a key given deliberately to someone who no longer works for you, which is a key you can no longer account for even when nothing has gone wrong.

This is rarely a story about theft. A cleaner changes agency, a builder finishes a kitchen and moves to the next job, a dog walker stops taking clients. Everyone means to return the key and nobody does, because the working relationship simply ended one Tuesday.

Why it is worth acting on anyway

The person you trusted may be entirely trustworthy. What you cannot see is what happened to the key afterwards: passed to a colleague, kept in a van, lost in a toolbag, dropped somewhere with a job sheet showing your address. A key that has left your control is not a key you can rely on.

Renovation work is the worst case. Over a few months a set of keys can pass through electricians, plasterers and delivery drivers, and nobody kept a list.

Reset and then set it up properly

Change the cylinder once the last person has finished. Ten minutes, no drilling, and every old key stops working. Then arrange future access so you never repeat the situation: a certified key safe with a code you change between users, or a certified cylinder with a security card so extra keys cannot be cut without you.

For a larger house with several people coming and going, a small master key plan gives each person access only to what they need. All of it is set out on our locksmith services page.

Saying it without a row

You do not need to accuse anyone. “The lock has been changed, here is the new arrangement” is enough, and any professional will understand it immediately. The people who mind are the ones you were right to worry about.

Renovations, and the moment to reset

The right moment to change the cylinder is the day the last trade leaves, not six months later when you remember. During a build a key can pass through more hands than anyone tracks, and the person who finally hands it back is rarely the person you gave it to. Putting a cylinder change on the snagging list costs ten minutes and closes the entire question.

Holiday lets and repeated access

Where the same door is opened by a rotating group of people, a one-off cylinder change only resets the count. What keeps it under control afterwards is access that expires: a key safe with a code you change between users, or an electronic cylinder that issues codes with an end date. Both put you back in the position of knowing exactly who can open the door this week.