Should the locksmith work for free or should the landlord eat it?

Hello all, shortly before their vacate date my tenant re-keyed locks and refused to respond to messages to schedule move out and handing over of keys and was unavailable at the property on the last day of lease.

Remove the door hardware and perhaps replace with a cover plate --- you can pick that up from a locksmith store or probably home depot, too. 

Make friends with a local locksmith, you'll need him when you have a new tenant anyway and you'll REALLY need him at eviction/lockout time.

I rekey (or re-lock) after all work is done and ready for the new tenant.

Easier still is to call a locksmith and have them change the locks on the coin machines.

The goal is to get them out asap and then have a locksmith on the premises the second the eviction is enforced.You're almost done...it will never happen to you again. 

Also tell him if he has the keys, you want them back or you will send him a bill for re-keying the place!

I use the Kwisket rekey locks, this way, you can recycle keys!

Needless to say I won't be using that roofing company again due to the "change order"So $47k was the total initial cash outlay of downpayment ($15,500), closing costs ($5,500), repairs ($12,150), personal "float" to cover mortgage / lienable utilities while tenants were placed factoring in that 1st month's rent to PM for leasing ($2184), a fridge replacement for one unit, carpet cleaning for the other unit, and rekeying for all locks.But yes there are various places that we could have optimized, I wish I could have avoided these problems before they happened, but sometimes you have to get burned to know how to properly handle a fire going forward.