Changing the Locks After a Break-Up Amsterdam

Locksmith Amsterdam

Changing the Locks After a Separation in Amsterdam

Changing the locks after a break-up in Amsterdam is the replacement of your front door cylinder so that a former partner’s key no longer opens the home you live in.

This is one of the calls we take most seriously and one people put off longest. There is usually a reason to hesitate: shared belongings, a joint tenancy, the hope that things will settle down. In the meantime you are living somewhere that somebody else can walk into.

Who is allowed to change the lock

If you are the sole tenant or the sole owner, and the other person is not registered at the address, you may change the cylinder. Where both names are on the contract or the deed, the position is different and it is worth taking advice, because a joint tenant has a right of access until that changes formally.

We are locksmiths rather than lawyers, so we will not tell you what your rights are. What we can tell you is that we do not open or change a lock for someone who cannot show a link to the address.

How quickly it can happen

Usually within 30 minutes of the call, at any hour, and the work itself takes about ten minutes. The door, handle and lock case stay as they are and only the cylinder is replaced, so a rented flat can be returned to its original state later by refitting the old part. It is standard work, listed on our locksmith services page.

If you feel unsafe

Say so when you call and we treat it as urgent. Beyond the front door, ask about the balcony door, the garden gate and any storage cage, because those are the routes people forget. Where you would rather not be at home for the appointment, a neighbour or a friend can let us in, provided we have your confirmation and they can show the address.

If there is any threat involved, contact the police as well. A new cylinder solves access; it does not solve everything.

The other ways in

The front door is the obvious one and rarely the only one. Balcony doors, garden gates, a storage cage in the basement, a bike store, a garage side door. Where a key existed for any of those, it is still a working key. Walk the property once with that in mind, or ask us to, because it takes five minutes and it is the part people discover weeks later.

Doing it quietly

If you would rather not have a conversation about it at all, that is entirely your decision and we do not need a reason. The work takes ten minutes, makes very little noise, and the door looks exactly as it did before. You do not have to explain anything to us and we do not put anything on the door or the invoice that says what the job was for.