Always losing your keys?

shupa

That shurlock sounds good to me, as I am one of those dafties that regularly locks herself out!!! :rolleyes:

innovate

Shurlock sounds good to me too, but I can't for the life of me think of a place anywhere outside my house where I could safely fit it to, or bury........

And then, I've been picturing in my mind that crook who - under the cover of darkness - tries out all the combinations of a 4-digit dial lock..........ok, it's most unlikely he'd crack the code without real determination, and it would probably take several hours / several attempts to do it, but it can be done, can't it?

So on balance, sooz's suggestion to do a deal with neighbours sounds the best option to me

Lugh_Chronain

Poppy9 wrote:

It can work because you ring the Halifax, they take a contact number and ring their client who can then arrange to collect the keys (hopefully it's locally).

I have one of these and have often thought that some, but not all I’m sure, would rather than hand your keys to you would hand them straight in to the Halifax just to get the £10 reward. I’m not sure this is such a good idea.

gromituk

It seems a little sad that so many people seem to know none of their neighbours nowadays. Sooz' suggestion is so blindingly obvious. And of course your neighbours can leave their key with you, for the reciprocal arrangement.

lisathompson

You need to check out https://www.keysafe.co.uk
These little boxes are really strong, and when they are in their black rubber cover are not really noticable to a passer-by. They use special bolts to affix them to the wall, and I reckon anyone would have a tough time getting into one. The code is really easy to set as well.
I am a landlord who lives an hour's drive away from my rental properties - I have one installed at every rental property and they have been a lifesaver whenever a tenant locks themselves out.

rochester_house

I can recommend the keysafes made by SUPRA. Do a search on Google for a supplier. I am now virtually housebound, and have a 'careline' alarm system. If I have to activate it, the emergency services can access my house as we have a keysafe mounted on the outside of the house. The Careline service will tell the emergency services the 4 digit code to access the box. These boxes are very strong indeed. They come provided with rawlbolts for mounting. If crowbared off the wall, the manufacturer states that they will withstand an attack using sledgehammers. In practice, the burglar would use the sledgehammer to smash my door, it would be easier. my teenage chidren have used it several times when they have forgotten their housekeys :rolleyes:

innovate

Thanks lisathompson and rochester_house - the SUPRA looks miles better than Shurlock! OK, SUPRA is twice the price but it looks much, much more secure, if only because you can have more than 4 digits in the access code. Think I might get a few SUPRAs for my Neighbourhood watch team.

Thanks again!

slugbreff

Swapped keys with a neighbour about 5 years ago and all of us - including our children have locked ourselves out at some time! Bottles of wine in both directions seems to work.

rochester_house

Hi, just a few notes, the SUPRA keysafes can indeed have more than 4 digits, but you cannot use the same number more than once. They do not have to be entered in the same order every time, ie 1234 is the same as 1324. You are not limited to any number of keys to press, anywhere between 1 and 9, so the potential burglar not only has to guess your code, but also how many digits it was in the first place. I am pretty confident that our code will not be guessed!

must_dash

We have a steel box that scres on the outside of the house and has room in it for a small bunch of keys. About £20 from B&Q or a bit more from Screwfix. Thoughly recomended and used by the kids (and older kids on occasions) regularly. Also great for when you are away and that neigbour that you don't quite trust with the house keys needs access for burst pipe etc, they can phone you and then you can give the combination. Then change it afterwards.....