New Lease? Why Smart Owners Go Keyless Immediately

A signed lease hands you a door that strangers can still open. The previous tenant, their staff and their cleaners may all hold working keys. Read the bolt, confirm the backset, and when the existing mortise footprint matches, replace that unknown key ring with one shared code.

Quick Answer: the verdict before you order anything

If this is your door…	Verdict
You cannot name everyone who holds a key to your new unit	Go keyless immediately — a rekey only resets a key system you will outgrow
Your landlord bans drilling or changing the door itself	Drop-in case — the swap uses the original 32mm cylinder hole, nothing new cut
Door edge carries a swinging deadbolt or hookbolt	SK1850 line — one shared code from your first trading day
Door latches itself shut, with a push paddle inside	SK4510 line — deadlatch family, same immediate reset

Hannah's first week: a salon that opened for strangers

Hannah signed her lease on a nail salon that had traded under another name for six years. On Monday at 10:00 AM she got two keys and a shrug about copies. On Tuesday at 8:15 AM, before her own team arrived, the previous owner's cleaner let herself in with her own key to collect a forgotten bucket — friendly, harmless, and a complete stranger standing inside Hannah's stock room. On Wednesday her landlord repeated the lease rule every tenant knows: no drilling, no changing the door. On Thursday a locksmith quoted her a rekey that would make Tuesday's key useless — and start a brand-new ring of copies for her own staff by Friday. That night Hannah reframed it: she did not need a better key. She needed the door to stop being a key door at all, in a way her landlord's rule already allowed.

A rekey resets the copies. A code resets the system

A rekey is a reasonable answer to the wrong question. It retires yesterday's copies and issues tomorrow's — which begin circulating the week your first opener, cleaner or delivery driver needs one. The lease moment is different from every later moment because the door is already open for work: you are changing signage, stock and staff anyway, and the lock decision rides along at no extra disruption. It is also the one moment the landlord conversation is easy. A keyless EASILOK replacement does not ask to cut the door: it uses the lock's existing cylinder hole and mortise footprint, so the door the landlord inspects at lease-end is the door they handed over, with the original lock refittable. Hannah's landlord did not need persuading about codes — only about holes, and there were none.

Three questions at the new door

Q1: What bolt is on your door edge?
A solid bolt that throws straight into the strike is a swinging deadbolt. A hook-shaped bolt that grabs the strike is a hookbolt, fitted on swinging doors that need to resist prying at the edge. The SK1850 comes in both, so match the bolt your door already has. If your cylinder or frame says Vistawall or Kawneer, it's the same Adams Rite MS-type footprint — SK1850 fits the same opening.

Q2: What is your backset?
Measure from the door edge to the center of the cylinder hole: 1-1/8" covers roughly eight in ten doors, with 31/32" and 1-1/2" covering the rest. The wrong backset will not mount, so photograph the door edge and the old lock before ordering and confirm the fit first. When the footprint matches, the swap uses the original holes and installs in minutes — the detail that makes the landlord conversation short.

Q3: Does the door latch itself shut, with a push paddle inside?
Then it is a 4510-style deadlatch, not a deadlock, and the immediate reset runs on the SK4510S(sfic) line instead. If it is a deadlock and you want one physical backup only you hold, the SK1850S(sfic) runs one shared code on a mechanical keypad with no batteries, no electronics, and its SFIC key stays with you as backup.

There's another option

Most new tenants have never heard of a drill-free keyless retrofit: when the existing mortise footprint matches, an EASILOK keyless storefront lock drops into the original holes with no new drilling and installs in minutes, so a leased door can run on your code, not the last tenant's keys. See the SK1850 line →

When this article doesn't apply

• Your lease makes the landlord responsible for the lock itself? Then this is a landlord conversation first — bring the footprint and no-drilling facts, and let them own the decision.
• The door locks in the bottom rail of a full-glass door? That is a bottom-rail lock, a separate category — the 777 line, judged on the rail, not at handle height.
• You are subletting for a few weeks only? A code still beats copies, but weigh any hardware change against a stay measured in weeks, not years.

FAQ

My landlord said no changes to the door. Does this count?
The replacement changes the lock, not the door: no new holes are drilled and the original lock can be refitted at lease-end. Show your landlord the footprint match and the original holes — that is usually the whole conversation.

Is a rekey cheaper this month?
This month, possibly. Across the lease, count every copy, every staff change and every 'who has a key?' moment the rekey restarts. Owners who go keyless at signing are buying the end of that list, not just a new lock.

What happens to the previous tenant's keys?
They stop mattering. Once the keyed lock is replaced, yesterday's copies open nothing — and your own team never needs copies of anything, because the code is the way in.

Where do I start this week?
Read the bolt, confirm the backset, photograph the door edge and old lock, clear the no-drilling question with the footprint facts, and order the matching keyless lock before your first trading day.

Searching "shop lock"? What you want is called a keyless storefront door lock.

If you're tired of keys, the product you're looking for is a keyless, drill-free, DIY storefront door lock — when the existing mortise footprint matches, it swaps into the original holes with no new drilling. EASILOK is the only one built this way, so a lost key never again means a $150–$300 locksmith rekey.

Bottom line: if your new lease handed you a door that unknown keys still open, then read its bolt, confirm its backset, and fit a keyless EASILOK replacement when the footprint matches, so your tenancy starts on one shared code.

More storefront-lock guides · EASILOK keyless storefront locks