Locksmith in Walton-on-thames

Do Locksmiths Need A License?

If you’re in the UK, the simple answer to this question is no. The locksmithing industry in the country is an unregulated one by the United Kingdom’s government. Ultimately, this implies that anybody can be a locksmith with their competence, background or motive being irrelevant. Areas in the security industry that are licensed by the government include door staff as well as keyholding businesses, with the government overlooking the locksmith industry as they do not want to heighten the legislative burden on small businesses.

There are a number of implications for an unregulated industry such as the locksmithing industry. This includes:

• Anyone can wake up in the morning, pick up a set of tools and call themselves a locksmith without being termed as illegal.

• The fact that the industry is not regulated means that there’s no price structure to follow. There’s no price guide for locksmithing services, so they are free to charge whatever price they wish to. As a result, the price of a locksmith can greatly vary from the other for the same or similar tasks.

• Irrespective of your background, competence or motive, you can decide to trade as a locksmith.

Although there are about 6,500 locksmiths in the UK that are not licensed, we do have about 350 plus MLA approved locksmiths. Being MLA approved means they’ve been fully vetted, inspected and fully qualified to operate as a professional locksmith.

The Master Locksmith Association ( MLA) possesses its very own licensing scheme for MLA approved companies. This means that the locksmithing businesses that are listed on the Master Locksmith Association’s find a locksmith page and incorporate their official logo are being inspected on a regular basis, have been vetted by using the standard level DBS checks and have passed the exam based proof of competence test.

What Is A Locksmith?

A locksmith is a skilled and professional technician who is properly trained in the art of working of locks, be it on doors, cars, windows, safes and lots more. They specialize in the installation, repair and adjustment of locks in probably everything with a lock from offices and homes to cars and safes. Locksmiths are able to help individuals accidentally locked out of their homes or cars and can also be consulted by people about their security systems. This is an ancient profession which makes it a very popular one as well.

What Does A Locksmith Do?

A professional locksmith offers a plethora of residential, commercial and automotive as well as security devices solutions. They’re able to change lock combinations, fabricate locks and bypass locks when authorized. With their expertise, knowledge and skill when it comes to installing and repairing traditional security hardware as well as lock sets, they’re able to bring a lot to the table in the commercial, residential and industrial world which needs different levels of physical security to prevent any form of unwanted entry.

Although locksmiths are best known to pick only locks, they also offer several other solutions which includes:

• Provision Of Locks For Both Doors & Windows

Locksmiths are well trained in the provision, servicing and repairing of the door and window locks, which are the two most common lock types for use in both homes and businesses.

• Cutting Of Keys

Locksmiths are able to cut keys for locks in all buildings, cars, windows and more.

• Provision Of Locks For Security Safes

Unlike the door locks, security safe locks are not as common and even more complex. Locksmith are able to provide, open as well as repair all kinds of security safes and vaults.

• Provision Of Automotive Locksmith Service

In case you’re locked out of your vehicle, many professional locksmiths can help you get back in and can also program or reprogram transponder and remote keys, provide a new key for your car and repair car key fobs.

How Long Does A Locksmith Take?

It’s usually a surprising experience when a security issue that you might have thought is not resolvable or nearly impossible to overcome, took an expert locksmith just a couple of minutes to fix. This is not magic or some voodoo, it’s just a learnt skill being perfectly applied by an experienced and well versed locksmith. In this article, you’ll get to know what to expect when you call on a locksmithing professional for help with a security issue.

To determine the period of time a locksmith will take to complete his services, two factors are to be considered - the estimated arrival time as well as the service providing time.

Generally, if you call on a local locksmithing company, you should expect the locksmith to arrive within 15 to 30 minutes to your location. However, this might be shorter or longer if you put into account some influences such as the distance involved and traffic. Some companies can show up faster but charge an extra fee to it, while others will need more time to show up but offers a cheaper service. Usually, locksmithing companies will publish information about the estimated time of the arrival of their technicians on their websites. If you don’t find any, you might want to consider another company with one as this is a red flag.

The second factor which is the service providing time which depends on many influences including the type of lock and key in question. Therefore, it’s impossible to give a precise answer. However in general, a professional locksmith would not usually take more than an hour and half to create a new key for a car or house, or more than 10 minutes to unlock a house or car. Whereas replacement of a lock can take within the range 10 minutes to 40 minutes depending on the complexity of the lock.

Does House Insurance Cover Locksmith?

If you happen to be accidentally locked out of your home for whatever reason, it may be costly to hire the services of a reliable and professional locksmith for help. To mitigate this risk, is home insurance the answer?

The financial coverage provided when you get locked out of your home to cover the costs associated with hiring the services of a locksmith is called home lockout protection assistance. However, it’s very rare that this type of perk is covered by a homeowner’s insurance policy. In the common cases where it’s not included, you can file a claim for reimbursement of the costs associated with hiring a professional locksmith to re-key your lock or let you into your home. Without raising your hopes, it should however, be stated that using a house’s insurance to provide coverage for lockout will hardly work in your favour.

In order to file a claim under homeowner’s insurance coverage, it’s a must to pay your deductible upfront. This can be very costly depending on a number of factors. And to state the interesting part of it all, the locksmith services in association with being locked out of your home is, at most times, even lesser than the deductible amount you’re expected to pay to file a claim. As a result, it’s simply a no brainer to pay for the home lock out from your pocket than to use the home lockout protection assistance.

There’s however an option of getting a home lock out protection via auto club membership such as AAA. They’re known to re-imburse their premium members with a good amount of money towards the costs associated with a home lockout.