Moving house: the security checklist nobody gives you

1. Rekey every external cylinder. Week one.

Start here, because everything else on this list is smaller. When you take possession of a property you inherit an unknown number of keys in unknown hands: previous owners, their adult children, a cleaner, a gardener, three tradespeople, a real estate agent, a neighbour who watered the plants once.

Rekeying changes the pins inside the locks you already own so every one of those keys stops working. It costs a fraction of new hardware, it is usually done inside an hour for a typical house, and it is the single highest-value thing on this page.

2. Ask for the doors to be keyed alike while you are at it

If your cylinders are compatible, they can all be rekeyed to one key — front, back, garage, side gate. It costs very little more than doing them separately and it saves you carrying a bunch of keys you cannot tell apart. Ask when you book; it is much cheaper than a second visit.

3. Check that every deadbolt actually throws

Turn the key on every external door and watch what the bolt does. A surprising number of Melbourne homes have deadbolts that only partially engage because the door has dropped on its hinges or the strike plate has shifted. A bolt that only goes halfway in is not doing the job you think it is, and it is usually an adjustment rather than a replacement.

4. Deal with the doors you are not thinking about

The front door is almost always the best-secured entry on a property and almost never the one used to get in. Look hard at:

• The laundry or side door — frequently a latch with no deadbolt.
• The garage personnel door, especially if the garage connects internally.
• The rear gate, particularly on a terrace with laneway access.
• Sliding doors, which often lock against sliding but not against being lifted out of the track.

5. Look at the windows

Ground floor, anything reachable from a fence, flat roof or carport, and any window with a latch that no longer catches. Window locks are inexpensive and are often the difference between a walk-in and a break-in.

6. Find out what the insurer expects

Home and contents policies frequently specify minimum standards — deadlocks on external doors, key-operated window locks — and a claim can be affected if they are not met. It takes five minutes to read that section of your policy and it is worth doing before you need it.

7. Change the garage remote and any codes

Garage remotes and keypad codes are handed over about as reliably as keys, which is to say not reliably at all. Reprogram the opener and change any keypad code on day one.

8. Get a spare car key while you are organised

Unrelated to the house, but this is the week you are thinking about keys. A spare cut while you still have a working key costs a small fraction of an all-keys-lost job. Almost nobody does it until the expensive version has happened to them.

9. If you are renting, check before you change anything

In Victoria, security between tenancies is generally the landlord’s responsibility, and many will arrange a rekey on request. You usually cannot alter locks on a rented property without consent, and you may need to provide a key. Ask your agent first — it is often free, and doing it the other way round can cost you your bond.