New Home Security First Day | What to Do in Order

You get the keys at midday. By evening you'll have carried in thirty boxes, lost the kettle, and completely forgotten that the previous owners gave a spare set to the cleaner, the mother-in-law, and possibly a neighbour in Burley-in-Wharfedale who fed the cat three owners ago.

That's the problem with moving day. Everyone's focused on the van, the furniture, the kids. Nobody thinks about the lock on the back gate until something goes wrong.

This is the order to work through it. Some of it you can do yourself in under an hour. Some of it needs a locksmith. I'll tell you which is which.

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First: Work Out What You've Actually Inherited

Before you change anything, do a walk-round. Take ten minutes. You're looking for every point of entry and every lock on the property. Write it down on your phone if that helps.

Check:

• Front door. How many locks? What type? Is there a cylinder, a nightlatch, a deadlock, a multipoint lock?
• Back door. Same questions.
• Any side or utility door.
• Garage. Manual up-and-over, roller, electric? Is there a personal door into the garage from the house?
• Side gate. Padlock, deadbolt, bolted from inside?
• Outbuildings, sheds, workshops.
• All ground-floor windows. Do the handles lock? Are there separate window lock pins?
• Any patio or bi-fold doors.

Don't assume the estate agent's photos told you everything. I've done jobs on new builds in Weston where the buyer had no idea the integral garage door had a separate euro cylinder on it, completely separate from the main house locks.

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Step One: The Front Door Cylinder. Do This First.

If your front door has a multipoint lock, the cylinder is the oval barrel that your key turns. It's usually held in by a single retaining screw inside the door edge. You can swap it yourself if you're comfortable with a screwdriver and you know what size to order.

But here's the thing most people get wrong: they buy any cylinder that fits, not one that's actually rated to stop an attack.

What you need on a front door cylinder in 2025:

• TS007 3-star rating. That's the standard a burglar's snap attack won't beat.
• Or a cylinder that carries the Sold Secure Diamond or SS312 Diamond mark.
• Brands that meet this: Ultion, Avocet ABS, Mul-T-Lock, and the higher-end ERA ranges.

A cheap euro cylinder from a DIY shed costs £8 and snaps open in under ten seconds. I've seen it done on doors in the Cambridge Street area, in Menston, in Guiseley. It's not rare. Anti-snap cylinders start around £35 to £45 for a decent one. A locksmith-supplied and fitted Ultion typically runs £85 to £100 all in. That's a permanent fix, done in fifteen minutes.

If you're not sure whether your door has a euro cylinder at all, look at the front of the door where the key goes. Oval? That's a euro cylinder. Round, with a key that looks like it belongs to a shed? That's a nightlatch. Different job.

For a door with a nightlatch only, no multipoint, no deadlock, I'd strongly recommend adding a BS3621-rated deadlock at the same time you change the nightlatch barrel. A nightlatch alone is not enough on a front door.

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Step Two: Back Door. Don't Skip It Because It's Harder.

Back doors get ignored on moving day because you're coming in and out of the front. That's exactly why they're a preferred entry point.

If it's a uPVC back door with a multipoint lock, same cylinder logic applies as above. Change the cylinder.

If it's an older wooden door with a rim lock or a basic deadlock, check whether it meets BS3621. There should be a kitemark on the faceplate inside. If there isn't one, or if the lock is old enough that you can't tell, replacing it is worth doing in the first week. Not an emergency for the first hour, but don't let it drift into month three.

Check whether the door also has:

• Top and bottom bolts, shoot-bolts in the door edge that drop into the frame. If so, test them. If they're stiff or not engaging, that's a frame alignment problem and worth sorting before winter.
• A door chain or door bar. Less critical, but useful if you're going to be at home with the door unlocked during the day while moving boxes in.

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Step Three: The Garage. Most People Forget This Completely.

Garages are how a surprising number of residential burglaries in West Yorkshire start. Not through the garage door itself, most of the time, but through the door from the garage into the house.

That internal door is often a hollow-core or lightweight door with a basic rim lock. It should be treated the same as an external door. BS3621 lock minimum. Solid core door if it isn't already.

For the main garage door:

Up-and-over doors with a central handle lock. The lock is usually a basic cam lock, easily defeated. If the garage contains anything worth stealing (tools, bikes, a second car), fit a ground anchor and a Sold Secure Gold-rated padlock as well. Abus, Mul-T-Lock and Squire all make padlocks at that level. Expect to spend £40 to £80 on a good padlock.

Electric roller doors. The motor has a manual release cord. Test that you know how it works. If the door can be forced open when power is off, check whether there's a manual locking bar or slide bolt you can use at night.

Garage side doors. Same cylinder logic as the house. If there's a euro cylinder on a side garage door and you haven't changed it, you haven't secured the garage.

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Step Four: Side Gate and Rear Access

A side gate that's unlocked or poorly secured gives a burglar a private space to work on your back door without being visible from the street. That matters on any property, but particularly on terraced and semi-detached houses where the side alley is shared or narrow.

Check:

• Is the gate just on a latch, or is there an actual padlock?
• Can the gate be reached over or through to lift an internal bolt?
• If there's a padlock, what's it rated? Anything below Sold Secure Silver is not worth fitting on a rear gate.

If the gate opens inward and there's no way to reach the internal bolt from outside, a heavy-duty bolt on the inside is fine for overnight and when you're out. If the gate opens outward or is accessible from above, you need a padlock hasp and a proper padlock. A 50mm Squire SS50CS on a quality close-shackle hasp is a reasonable combination for a domestic gate and costs around £30 to £50 total.

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Step Five: Window Locks, Ground Floor First

Most uPVC windows made after about 2005 have a handle that locks when you turn it 90 degrees from horizontal. Some don't. Some have the locking mechanism but the gearbox inside is worn and it doesn't actually secure the sash anymore.

Test every ground-floor window:

1. Lock the handle.
2. Try to push the sash open from inside. Push hard. If it moves, the lock isn't engaging properly. Could be a worn gearbox, a misaligned keep, or the mechanism was never fitted correctly.
3. Check whether the handle itself has a key-lock. Some do. If so, find the key. If you can't find it, a replacement handle with a new lock cylinder is under £20 for most standard uPVC windows.

For timber-framed windows, you're more likely to have separate window lock bolts, small metal locks that pin the frame when you push them down. Check each one engages and the key fits all of them. Previous owners routinely lose one key and just stop using half the locks.

First-floor windows matter less for direct entry but can be used as secondary exit points once a burglar is in downstairs. Don't ignore them entirely, but ground floor is your priority on day one.

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Step Six: Patio Doors and Bifolds

Sliding patio doors have two failure points: the cylinder lock or handle lock on the door itself, and the anti-lift protection that stops someone lifting the door out of its track.

For the anti-lift: slide the door to the closed position and try lifting the door leaf upward. Good modern doors won't move at all. Older doors sometimes lift enough that the bottom of the door clears the track and the whole door can be removed. If yours does that, fit anti-lift blocks in the top track, small plastic or metal inserts that fill the gap. They cost almost nothing.

For the lock: if it's a euro cylinder, apply the same 3-star logic as the front door. If the patio door is timber-framed and old, check whether the lock meets BS3621.

Bifold doors are less of a problem on good modern hardware from brands like Maco, Roto or Winkhaus, which build in multi-point locking as standard. What matters is whether every panel locks into the frame at multiple points. Stand outside and check each panel. If any of them only lock at one point, the mechanism needs adjustment or the lock hardware needs upgrading.

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Step Seven: Key Control. Boring But Important.

This is the part that takes five minutes and most people never do it.

Sit down with the previous owner's keys and account for every one you've been given. Then think about who else might have one.

• Estate agents sometimes keep a spare during the sale period. Ask whether all copies have been returned.
• Key safes on the exterior of the property. Did they remove the code or change it? Did they tell you the code? If there's a key safe fitted and you don't know the code or what's in it, remove it.
• Ask the seller directly: has anyone else got a key? Cleaners, contractors, family? You won't always get an honest answer, but ask.

If there's any doubt at all about key history, just change the cylinder. It's the cleanest solution. You don't have to change every lock in the house, just the one barrel, and you know from that point forward exactly who has access.

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The Bits That Can Wait (But Not Too Long)

Not everything has to happen on day one. A few things that matter but aren't emergencies:

Smart doorbells and cameras. Good to have. Set them up in the first week. A visible camera on the front elevation is a deterrent. Pair it with one covering the rear if your garden is accessible.

Alarm systems. If the property has an existing system, get the codes and service records from the previous owner. If it's an old system with no records, have it serviced before you rely on it. If there's no alarm, it's worth considering, but it's not the priority on the first day. Locks first, always.

Letterbox security. A letterbox cage or restrictor prevents someone using a fishing tool through the slot to hook keys left on a hall table. If your hall is small and the keyhole is close to the letterbox, fit one. They're under £15.

Door viewers. If there isn't one, fit one. A wide-angle 180-degree viewer is less than £10 and you should always be able to see who's at the door before you open it in a house you've just moved into and don't know the neighbours yet.

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What to Do Right Now If You're Already Moved In and Haven't Done Any of This

Start tonight. Get a torch and do the walk-round. Check the front door cylinder. If it's a basic Yale or similar cylinder with no 3-star marking, that's your first call tomorrow.

You don't have to do everything at once. Priority order:

1. Front door cylinder.
2. Back door lock.
3. Internal garage door if you have one.
4. Side gate.
5. Ground-floor windows.
6. Patio or bifold doors.
7. Key control.

For a typical three-bed semi in Otley, Pool-in-Wharfedale or Arthington, the front and back cylinder changes plus a check on the garage and gate can be done in a single call-out. Budget roughly £150 to £220 for lock changes on both doors with quality cylinders, plus a locksmith's time. You can spend less by buying the cylinders yourself and having them fitted, or more if you're upgrading to full multipoint hardware. Either way, it's a one-off cost on a property you're presumably planning to live in for years.

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Fort Secure covers Otley and the surrounding LS postcodes, Guiseley, Yeadon, Bramhope, Ilkley, Menston and out to Burley-in-Wharfedale. Most call-outs arrive in under 30 minutes. Pricing is given honestly on the phone before anyone comes out. If it's a job you can sort yourself, I'll tell you that too.