Locked Out Of Your Rental? What To Do, And The Cost

You're on the doorstep, it's dark, and the keys are on the kitchen table. Or in a taxi. Or gone entirely.

The practical bit is straightforward. The bit worth knowing in advance is what this is allowed to cost you, because a lot of agents charge more than the law permits.

The short version

• Try the free options first. Housemates, letting agent, landlord, spare key.
• Use a locksmith who quotes before they arrive, and never one who insists on drilling straight away.
• You can only be charged the reasonable, evidenced cost of a replacement key. Flat admin fees for lost keys are unlawful.
• A landlord must never lock you out deliberately. That's a criminal offence, not a dispute.

What to do, in order

1. Check every way in, safely

Back door, ground floor windows, anything a housemate may have left on the latch. Don't climb anything, don't break glass, and don't force a window. Injuring yourself or damaging the property turns a £90 problem into a much larger one.

2. Housemates and anyone with a spare

Obvious, but people panic and skip it. If you're in a shared house, someone may be twenty minutes away.

3. Your letting agent, during office hours

Managing agents usually hold a set of keys and will often let you collect them or meet you there. Many charge nothing during working hours, some charge a call-out. Ask what it costs before you agree.

4. Your landlord's emergency number

If it's a managed property there should be an out-of-hours contact. Worth finding that number now and saving it, rather than at eleven at night.

Be clear that a lockout is not an emergency repair in the legal sense, so nobody is obliged to come out. What counts as an emergency repair covers what genuinely is.

5. A locksmith

The last resort and the expensive one.

Choosing a locksmith without being fleeced

Lockouts are a market built on desperate people at inconvenient hours, and it shows.

• Get a firm price before they set off, including call-out, labour and any lock replacement. Ask if it's a fixed price or an estimate.
• Check they're local. National call-centre numbers often subcontract at a markup.
• Look for MLA approval (the Master Locksmiths Association), whose members are vetted and inspected.
• Be wary of anyone who says drilling is the only option. A skilled locksmith can pick or bypass most domestic locks non-destructively. Drilling means a new cylinder and a bigger bill, and some firms lead with it because it pays better.
• Get a receipt itemising the work. You'll need it if you're claiming the cost back or defending a deposit deduction.

Expect roughly £70 to £150 for a non-destructive entry at a reasonable hour, and more late at night. If someone quotes £49 on the phone and it becomes £300 on the doorstep, that's a known trick. You can refuse and send them away.

What you can legally be charged

Here's the part that saves people real money.

Since the Tenant Fees Act, almost every fee a landlord or agent used to charge is banned. Lost keys fall into one of the few permitted categories, a "default fee", and it comes with strict conditions:

• It must be for something your tenancy agreement actually provides for.
• It must be the reasonable cost actually incurred, not a round number.
• The landlord or agent must give you written evidence of that cost before charging it.

So a charge of £12 for cutting two keys, with the receipt attached, is lawful. A flat "£50 lost key admin fee" with nothing behind it is not. Neither is charging you for the agent's time in handing over a spare.

If you're charged something that looks like an admin fee, ask in writing for the evidence of the actual cost. Quite often it quietly disappears. Our guide on the Tenant Fees Act in plain English lists what's still allowed.

Where a lock genuinely has to be replaced because keys are lost rather than locked inside, that's a real cost and you can be asked to cover it. Reasonable, evidenced, and the price of a lock rather than an upgrade to the whole door.

Changing the locks yourself

Generally you shouldn't, and if you do you'll need to put the original back at the end and give the landlord a key in the meantime.

There's one important exception. If you're at risk from someone who has a key, such as an ex-partner or a former housemate, changing the lock is a reasonable safety step. Tell your landlord promptly, in writing, explain why, and offer them a key. Most will be fine about it. Our guide on staying safe in your rental covers this and the related steps.

When the lockout isn't an accident

This is the serious one, and it's worth stating plainly.

If your landlord has changed the locks, removed your key, or is refusing to let you in, that is not a lockout. Under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 it's a criminal offence to evict someone without a court order or to harass them out of their home.

It doesn't matter if you owe rent. It doesn't matter if they've given you notice. Until there's a court order and a bailiff, you're entitled to be in your home.

If it happens:

1. Call the police and use the words "illegal eviction". It's a criminal matter and they can attend.
2. Contact your council's housing options or tenancy relations team. Many have officers who deal with exactly this and can intervene quickly.
3. Record everything. Photos, times, messages, witnesses.
4. Get advice from Shelter on their free emergency helpline.

Compensation for illegal eviction is often substantial. Our guide on landlord harassment covers what counts and what to do.

Stopping it happening again

• A key safe, if your landlord agrees. Ask first, since it's fixed to the wall.
• A spare with someone you trust nearby. Not under the mat, which is the first place anyone looks.
• Save the numbers now. Agent, out-of-hours line, a local MLA locksmith. Put them in your phone tonight.
• Check your contents insurance. Many policies cover lock replacement and emergency access after lost or stolen keys, and people routinely forget they have it.
• In a shared house, agree the spare key arrangement early. Shared house rights covers the wider practicalities.

One thing to be careful with: don't put your address on a keyring. A lost keyring with an address on it is an invitation, and it's the kind of thing that makes an insurer ask questions.

The honest summary

Work through the free options before you call anyone with a van. Get a fixed price, insist on non-destructive entry, and keep the receipt.

Then check what you're charged. A reasonable evidenced cost is fair. A flat fee with no breakdown is not lawful, and asking for the evidence in writing usually settles it.

And if an agent charged you an unexplained lockout fee or left you on a doorstep for three hours, other renters would want to know before they sign. Reviewing them on Marks Out Of Tenancy takes a few minutes.

---

This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate rules on fees and eviction. General information rather than legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK, Tenant Fees Act guidance, Shelter, illegal eviction.