A Guide to Rental Property Keys

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) has released some points Landlords and Property Managers should follow when it comes to managing the keys of their rental properties.

Storage

Ensure the keys stored in your office are locked away and there is no record of property addresses attached to the keys in case they are misplaced or lost.

Providing keys to tenants

The Landlord/Property Manager must give at least one of the tenants a key for every lock that is part of the premises. This includes sheds, gates and letterboxes. If there is more than one tenant named on the tenancy agreement, you must supply each of the named tenants on the tenancy agreement with a key for each lock that is required to access the premises.

If a tenant has locked themselves out, be mindful of who is collecting the set of keys. You should have procedures in place to confirm identity and confirmation from all tenants of who you are providing access to.

Changing locks

There is no legislation requiring that locks need to be changed between tenancies. However, it would be a safe precaution on behalf of landlords, as there is no real tracking method to identify if tenants have had general keys cut during their tenancy.

Access to tradies

When something in a tenancy needs to be fixed, you can provide a work order with tenant contact details to tradespeople with the aim of the tradesperson and tenant negotiating access together.

However, you need to consider what processes you have in place to verify communication if there is no request to issue a Form 9 entry notice.

Without an entry notice, there must be consent from the tenant for a tradesperson to access the home. Once the tradesperson contacts your office to arrange the collection of keys, communication is quickly sought from the tenant to verify the arrangement or have the tradesperson provide evidence of approval in the way of email or text.

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