--- title: "Who Else Can Open Your Door? Counting the Keys Out There" description: "The agency, the cleaner, a neighbour, the last tenants, the builder. Counting who could open a house that stands empty most of the year, and when to stop counting." url: "https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/who-else-can-open-your-door/" business: "Locksmith Guardamar del Segura" --- # Who else can open your door? Counting the keys you have lost track of The agency, the cleaner, the neighbour, tenants from three summers ago, the builder. A way to count who can open a house that stands empty most of the year, and when to stop counting. 6 November 2026 · 4 min read A house in Guardamar that is lived in for a few weeks a year still needs people to get in while you are away: to air it, to clean it, to check it after a storm. That means keys in other hands. Over a few years those keys multiply, and almost nobody knows exactly how many are out there. ## Make the list Sit down with a sheet of paper and write every person or company who has, or has ever had, a key: - **The agency** that manages or once managed the house, and which of its staff carried the keys. - **The cleaner**, and anyone who stood in for them. - **The neighbour** who waters the plants, and whoever they passed the keys to on their own holidays. - **Tenants and guests**, if the house has ever been let, especially long lets. - **The builder, the painter, the pool man**, from any job that needed the house open. - **Family and friends** who borrowed it one summer. - **The previous owners**, if you bought it second-hand: you have no idea how many sets they handed out. ## Ask three questions about each one 1. Do they still have the key? 2. Would they notice if it were taken? 3. Would you know if they had passed it on? If the honest answer to any of them is “I don’t know” for more than one or two names, the list has stopped being useful. ## Key boxes and codes A key box on the wall makes life easy for cleaners and guests. Its weakness is the code: it is sent in messages, written in notes, and rarely changed. Change it after every season, fix the box where it cannot be seen from the street, and never keep the only key in it. ## When to stop counting At some point it is cheaper to change the cylinder than to keep wondering. A new cylinder makes every old key useless at once, and you hand out new ones knowing exactly to whom. It is booked work, done on a day that suits you; see [the lock change page](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/lock-change-guardamar/), and for a house that stands shut much of the year, [second homes](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/second-home-locksmith-guardamar/). Guardamar was rebuilt after 1829 as a town of low houses, and many still have more than one door; the guide on [a low house in the 1829 grid](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/a-low-house-in-the-1829-grid/) covers the doors people forget. For what months of disuse do to the locks themselves, read [three homes in four stand empty](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/three-homes-in-four-stand-empty/). **Not sure who has keys any more?** A forced door is made to lock again on the first visit, and high-security cylinders end the doubt about old keys. [Burglary repair Guardamar: the forced door closing and locking again](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/burglary-repair-guardamar/) Read these two next - [A low house in the 1829 grid: street door, patio and back gate](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/a-low-house-in-the-1829-grid/) · 4 min read - [Three homes in four stand empty: what the winter does to their locks](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/three-homes-in-four-stand-empty/) · 5 min read - [All the Guardamar guides](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/) ## Quicker to say it than to read it? Ring whatever the hour, or WhatsApp a photo of the lock and a pin of where you are. Open 24 hours · 7 days [+34 678 583 290](tel:+34678583290) [WhatsApp](https://wa.me/34678583290?text=Hi%2C%20I%20need%20a%20locksmith%20in%20Guardamar.%20Where%20I%20am%20(street%2C%20and%20the%20area%3A%20the%20town%2C%20the%20beach%2C%20El%20Raso%2C%20Moncayo%2C%20Los%20Esta%C3%B1os%E2%80%A6)%20and%20what%20has%20happened%3A)