New residents do not always get all the keys.

Source: securitynews.co.uk 

Almost 40% of new owner-occupiers think they did not receive all the keys when the house was handed over. At around 30%, new rental home owners score slightly lower on this point. This reports the National Burglary Prevention Weeks foundation.

So while the majority of new residents of a house for sale or rent are sufficiently confident that they have received all the keys from the previous owner or landlord, on average a third are much more suspicious. There are clear provincial differences. Age also plays a role: the older people are, the more distrustful they are of a complete key handover. When asked whether people still have keys to their previous homes, one in five people do. The average number of keys is 3*).

Transfer
"You may not give it much thought, but you actually just assume at a key exchange that you will get all the issued keys from the previous occupant. Unfortunately, this does not always turn out to be the case. On average, 8 out of 9 main residents give two keys to third parties. These include (out-of-home) child(ren) (46%), neighbours (37%) and (in-law) parents (41%). So when moving house, these usually do not always all return," said Coen Staal, chairman of National Burglary Prevention Weeks. "In our opinion, when buying houses, the buying agent has an informative role to play; he should point this out by recommending new cylinders. By replacing the cylinders on all locks, you immediately order them equal-locking and only need one key for all doors. Then also take the best secured cylinder, bearing the SKG*** seal." Steel continues: "While you're at it with your locks, also check your door hardware and the lock itself. With the easy-to-use Burglary Prevention Check on www.inbraakmislukt.nl that check is so done."

Other lock
The survey therefore also asked whether, after a possible move, people would plan to install (or have installed) another lock immediately or in the short term. As many as 55% indicated that they would do so. If one has experienced a burglary (attempt) before, two in three movers would have new locks installed.

Striking differences
While on average 34.5% of respondents think they have not been given all the keys, this distrust is much higher in Drenthe (47.1%) and Limburg (41.2%). Conversely, in Friesland (19.1), Overijssel (25%) and Zeeland (24.8%), people are more confident. Under-30s are also more confident about a full key transfer (29.6%). The older one gets, the greater the distrust. Over-50s think they have not been given all the keys in 2 out of 5 (41.3%) cases.
Interestingly, higher-income respondents were much more likely (59%) to give a key to their (in-law) parents, compared to lower-income people (18%). The latter group in turn gives a key more frequently (64.9%) to the child(ren) compared to people with higher income (29.7%). Owners of owner-occupied houses give keys to their neighbours more frequently (43.1%) than residents of rented houses (25.8%).

About the National Burglary Prevention Weeks Foundation
The National Burglary Prevention Weeks Foundation is a public-private partnership aiming to make homeowners more aware of good burglary prevention. In order to contribute to the Ministry of Security and Justice's goal of substantially reducing the number of burglaries and burglary attempts. While there were 91,000 burglaries or attempted burglaries in 2012, this had fallen to 55,000 in 2016. The foundation campaigns twice a year, in May and November. Partners in the foundation are the companies Assa Abloy, Nauta Safe and SecuProducts in close cooperation with the Ministry of Security and Justice and the Association of Insurers.