Tenant locked themself out of the house.

[Brad Spies]

I recently had a tenant lock herself out of her house at 9:30 at night. Luckily, I was available and only live a few miles away to come unlock it for her. Does anyone have a good system in place to deal with this. I’ve talked with our local locksmith in town and they only take calls during normal work hours. Me going over to unlock it even if there is a fee is not ideal to say the least. Any comments would be appreciated!

[Joe Splitrock]

@Brad Spies we did the same thing as @Kyle J. and we remove any locking door knobs, so you can't lock without a key on the deadbolt. I have never had a lock out since then. We also include a lock-out policy in our lease that charges for us to come over. I would avoid electronic key pad locks, because then you need to deal with batteries.

Another tip on the door knob we use a commercial grade keyless knobs. Since they are turned multiple times every day, you don't want to go cheap on a door knob. For deadbolt, we use Kwikset Smartkey. I can rekey in 5 seconds so no more lock smiths or expensive landlord locks.