Call any time
Locked Out of Your House What to Do in the Next 10 Minutes
A practical 10 minute checklist for anyone standing outside their own front door: who to call first, what not to try, and what a locksmith will cost if you need one.
Locked out right now? Get help
Tell us what you need and we will call you straight back. Calling is quickest: 07520 644 595. Photos by WhatsApp: 07466 695655
Safety check before anything else
Child, pet or vulnerable person inside, or a hob or bath running? Ring 999 first.
Spare key list to work through
Housemates, neighbours, family, carers, landlords and letting agents.
Insurance and tenancy checks
Key cover or home emergency cover may pay the locksmith bill.
Door opening from £59 to £79
Daytime non-destructive entry, price agreed on the phone before we travel.
If you are locked out of your house, what to do first is check that nobody and nothing inside is at risk, then try every safe way back in and every spare key before paying anyone. If that fails, a local locksmith can usually reach Oxford addresses in 10 to 30 minutes and open most doors without damage for £59 to £79 in the daytime.
This guide is the order we would work through ourselves if we were standing on your doorstep. It takes about 10 minutes, and roughly half the people who ring us could have avoided the bill by following it. If you are already sure you need help, our emergency lockout service runs 24 hours a day.
Minute one: is anyone or anything at risk inside?
Ring 999 before you ring a locksmith if:
a baby, child, elderly or unwell person is alone inside and cannot open the door, a pet is shut in a hot room or conservatory, a pan is on the hob, a bath or sink is running, or you can smell gas or smoke. The fire service and police can force entry far faster than anyone else and will not ask you for proof of address first.
Once you know the situation is simply inconvenient rather than dangerous, slow down. Rushing is how people end up climbing onto flat roofs, cutting their hands on glass or breaking a door that a locksmith could have opened cleanly.
Also check your pockets, bag and car properly. A surprising number of lockouts end with keys found in a coat lining or the footwell of the car parked outside.
Locked out of your house: the 10 minute checklist
- Walk the whole building. Try the back door, side door, patio or French doors and any garage door that has an internal door into the house. Many people only ever try the front.
- Look at windows from the ground. A ground floor window left on the night vent or a top light open is worth noting, but do not climb, do not stand on bins and never reach through broken glass.
- List everyone who holds a key. Partner, housemates, grown up children, a neighbour, a cleaner, a dog walker, a carer or a relative. Ring them all before deciding nobody can help.
- Check for a key safe. If a carer or family member fitted one, someone in the family will know the code.
- Renting? Ring the landlord or agent. Most keep a spare set and some have an out of hours number. More on this below.
- Check your home insurance app or policy email. Key cover and home emergency cover often include lockouts.
- Then call a local locksmith and agree a fixed price before anyone sets off.
Doing these in order matters. Ringing a locksmith before you have tried your partner, only for them to turn up with a key five minutes later, can still mean a cancellation charge if the locksmith has already set off. Ours is £40 in that case.
Why forcing your way back in usually costs more
When you are cold and fed up, the shoulder against the door feels like the quick option. In practice almost every forced entry we are called to afterwards costs more than the lockout would have. Here is what typically happens.
| What people try | What usually goes wrong | Likely bill afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Shouldering or kicking a timber door | The frame splits around the keep, the door often stays shut anyway | Break-in repair or make safe £89 to £189 plus materials |
| Levering a uPVC door with a screwdriver | Bent hooks or a cracked gearbox in the multipoint lock, gasket and frame scarred | Mechanism replacement £85 to £125 plus mechanism £65 to £150 |
| Breaking a small pane to reach the handle | Cut hands, a glazier bill, and the door may be deadlocked so it does not open anyway | Glass replacement on top of a locksmith visit |
| Tutorial video tricks on the cylinder | Damaged pins or a snapped tool stuck in the keyway | Extraction or a new cylinder, plus the opening |
There is a security angle too. A door frame that has been split will not hold properly until it is repaired, so you can end up needing an emergency door and frame repair as well as getting in. A trained locksmith opens the vast majority of house doors non-destructively, so the door locks normally again the moment you are inside.
Renting a flat or room? Who you should call first
If you rent, your landlord or letting agent is the first call. They usually hold a spare set, and many tenancy agreements say you must not change or damage the locks without permission. A locksmith opening the door for you is fine, but a lock change on a rented home should be agreed with the landlord so they keep a working key.
Who pays?
If you simply left your keys inside, the cost is normally yours. If the lock failed through wear, such as a worn nightlatch or a uPVC mechanism that has given up, that is usually a repair the landlord should cover. Ask for an itemised invoice either way, because it shows exactly what failed and makes the conversation with the agent easier.
Students and shared houses
University and college accommodation has a lodge or accommodation office that can let you in, so try that before calling anyone. In private shared houses, a housemate is often your fastest key. If your bedroom door has its own lock, the landlord or agent may hold a spare for that too.
Landlords who want a lock changed between tenancies can book our residential locksmith services directly.
Will your home insurance pay for a lockout locksmith?
It depends on the policy, so check before you assume it does not. Look for these three things in your documents or insurer app.
- Key cover or lost keys cover. Often an add-on to home or car insurance, sometimes bundled with a bank account. It may pay for entry and replacement locks if keys are lost or stolen.
- Home emergency cover. Some policies list lockouts as an emergency, but they may send their own contractor and you may wait longer.
- The excess. If the excess is £100 and a daytime opening is £59 to £79, claiming makes no sense. If keys were stolen with your address, a claim for new locks may be worthwhile.
If you plan to claim, keep the itemised invoice we give you after every job. It lists the opening, any parts and the price agreed, which is what insurers ask to see.
What happens when you call a locksmith, and what it costs
When you ring us on 07520 644 595, we ask where you are, what type of door and lock you have, and whether the keys are inside or lost. A photo of the lock on WhatsApp helps us bring the right tools and quote accurately. We then give you a fixed price and an honest arrival time before setting off from our base in North Oxford.
| Your situation | Our price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Door opening, daytime | £59 to £79 | Non-destructive entry first |
| Door opening, after 8pm, weekends, bank holidays | £79 to £99 | Same method, later hours |
| Key snapped in the lock | £45 to £75 | Broken piece extracted, often still openable with the remainder (see snapped key removal) |
| Keys lost, not just shut inside | £75 to £125 plus locks | Entry and making the lost keys useless |
| Destructive entry | £129 to £169 plus new lock | Only if non-destructive methods fail, explained first |
Travel is free within 5 miles of central Oxford and £10 up to 15 miles. Before opening the door we will ask for ID or proof of address, such as a driving licence, a council tax or utility bill in your phone email, or a neighbour who can confirm who you are. The full list of figures is on our locksmith prices page.
Keys lost or stolen rather than shut inside?
This changes the job. If your keys are inside on the hall table, opening the door is the end of it. If they are lost somewhere in town, or a bag was stolen with a letter or driving licence showing your address, anyone who finds them can walk straight in.
In that case you need the lock dealt with the same visit. On a modern euro cylinder, the quickest answer is a new cylinder, and a same day door lock change is £65 to £85 plus a lock of £25 to £40 with three keys. On some locks we can rekey the existing lock instead for £45 to £65, so the old keys stop working without buying new hardware. Remember the back door, patio door and garage if they share the same key.
While you wait, and once you are back inside
Stay somewhere lit and dry, ideally with a neighbour or in your car if it is parked outside. Keep your phone charged so we can call on approach. Have ID ready, and if your proof of address is inside the house, tell us when you ring and we can check it once the door is open before we leave.
When you are back in, take five minutes to stop it happening again. Our guide on how to avoid getting locked out of your house again covers key safes, spare key plans and keypad locks. If you want to understand what caused this lockout, especially a key that snapped or a uPVC handle that would not lift, read the six reasons people get locked out. Both sit in our locksmith advice guides with the rest of our home security articles.
