If you own rental property in Palm Beach or Broward County, rekeying between tenants is one of those jobs that's easy to treat as optional — right up until the day it isn't. I do a lot of turnover work for landlords and property managers down here, and this is what I've learned is worth doing, what's worth skipping, and one thing that can land you in real legal trouble if you get it wrong.
Quick note before anything else: I'm a locksmith, not an attorney. The legal section below covers the general rules as they're commonly understood in Florida, but if you're in an active dispute with a tenant, talk to a landlord-tenant lawyer before you touch a lock.
"They gave the keys back" is not the same as a rekey
Every landlord has had a tenant hand over two keys at move-out. The question nobody can answer is how many keys existed.
Over a two or three year tenancy, keys get copied and handed out casually — a boyfriend, a roommate who moved out early, a dog walker, a cleaner, a contractor, the tenant's mother. Nobody's being malicious. It's just what happens when people live somewhere. Getting two keys back at the end tells you nothing about the other four.
That matters for a practical reason beyond security: if something goes missing from that unit during the next tenancy, and you never rekeyed, you have a genuinely awkward conversation with your new tenant and possibly your insurer. Rekeying between tenants is cheap, it's fast, and it closes that whole question.
Rekey or replace the hardware?
For most turnovers, rekeying is the right call — it's meaningfully cheaper than new hardware, it takes minutes per lock, and if the deadbolt is in decent shape there's nothing wrong with it. Rekeying changes the pins inside the existing cylinder so every old key stops working, while the lock itself stays on the door.
Replace the hardware instead when:
- The lock is visibly corroded or the key already has to be jiggled — coastal units go through hardware faster than inland ones.
- It's a builder-grade knob-and-deadbolt set from fifteen years ago that's on its last legs anyway.
- You're standardizing a building and want every unit on the same hardware, which makes every future job cheaper.
- You want to move to keypads, which I'll come back to.
A reasonable middle path for a portfolio: rekey on every turnover, and replace hardware on a rolling schedule as units come up. Our rekeying and lock change pages break down what each one involves.
Master keying: one key for you, a different key for every unit
This is the upgrade most small landlords don't know is available to them, and it's the one that saves the most time.
A master key system means each tenant's key opens only their own unit, while one key in your pocket opens all of them. No more labeled key ring in a drawer, no more driving over to meet a plumber because you can't find the right key, no more guessing which of the eleven identical keys goes to 3B.
It makes the most sense for multi-unit buildings and for anyone managing more than a handful of doors. The setup cost is a one-time thing, and afterward each turnover rekey just gets pinned back into the same system. If you've got common areas — laundry, mail room, pool gate, storage — those fold into it too.
Keypads change the economics of turnover
For a rental, a keypad deadbolt does something a regular lock can't: you change the code between tenants in about thirty seconds, yourself, for free. No service call, no coordinating access, no wondering about copies — because there's no key to copy.
It's also genuinely useful during turnover. You can give a painter a code on Tuesday and delete it on Friday. Showings become easier. A tenant locked out at 9 PM is your problem far less often.
The trade-offs are real but manageable: batteries need changing roughly once a year, cheap units don't survive coastal humidity well, and you want one with a physical key override for when a battery dies unexpectedly. For a unit that turns over every year or two, they tend to pay for themselves quickly. Our keypad and smart lock page covers what I install and why.
The part that can actually get you sued
Here's the one to get right. In Florida, you cannot change the locks to remove a tenant who hasn't moved out. Not for unpaid rent, not for a lease violation, not because they've stopped answering your calls.
Florida law prohibits "self-help" eviction — which specifically includes changing the locks, as well as shutting off utilities or removing a tenant's belongings. Doing it can expose you to damages well beyond whatever rent you were owed, and it hands the tenant the stronger position in a dispute you were probably going to win.
The legitimate route is the court process: proper written notice, an eviction filed in county court, and a judgment resulting in a writ of possession executed by the sheriff. Once the sheriff has executed that writ and the unit is legally yours again, changing the locks is not only allowed, it's the normal next step — and it's usually done right then, with the deputy present.
That's the work I do on eviction lock changes: I meet you at the property at the scheduled time, and the locks are changed on the spot once possession has been restored. What I won't do is change a tenant's locks without that writ, and any locksmith who will is doing you no favors.
Making turnover easier on yourself
A few habits that save landlords real money over a few years:
- Build the rekey into your turnover checklist, alongside paint and carpet cleaning, so it's never a decision.
- Standardize your hardware across units. It makes every future job faster and cheaper.
- Schedule it with the rest of the make-ready, not on move-in day. I can usually do several units in one visit, which costs you less than three separate trips.
- Document it. A dated line item showing the unit was rekeyed between tenancies is a useful thing to have.
I work with landlords, property managers, and realtors across Palm Beach and Broward County, seven days a week from 9 AM to 7 PM, and I quote every job up front before anything starts. If you've got multiple units turning over, call me and we'll schedule them together — it's cheaper for you and easier for me. Our realtor and property services page has more on how that usually works.