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The key cut · six guides

Hiring a locksmith: the licence, the quote and your rights

A guide to hiring a locksmith, published by Dotto from the official sources listed at the foot of each page. It follows one key blade: each cut is a question to settle before the work starts, from the licence to the complaint.

No official page this guide draws on describes lockouts or sets locksmith prices, so neither appears here. What those pages do cover, state by state, is below.

A brass key blade drawn side-on, with six cuts of different depths along its edge, one for each guide

Whatever the hour, three things are worth settling before anyone touches the lock: whether the person holds the licence their state asks for, what the job will cost in writing, and what you can ask for if the work is not right. The official pages answer each of those, though not in the same words in every state.

The six cuts

Each guide is one cut in the blade, in the order you meet the question.

  1. Cut 1: Do locksmiths need a licence?What NSW, Queensland and WA require, and where to ask in the other five.
  2. Cut 2: Checking a locksmith’s licenceSeeing the card, and the public registers that point to it.
  3. Cut 3: Call-out prices and quotesQuotes, the price in writing, and when to pay.
  4. Cut 4: Your rights when a locksmith does the jobThe consumer guarantees, and what a major or minor problem gets you.
  5. Cut 5: Door-to-door and unsolicited locksmithsUninvited sales, visiting hours and the 10 business day cooling-off.
  6. Cut 6: Complaints about a locksmithRaising it with the business, then the agency or licensing body.

Where licensing reaches locks

Three states put work on locks inside their security licensing, each in its own words.

NSWNSW Police’s licensing directorate says a Class 2 security licence covers specialist fields that include “working as a locksmith”, and its FAQ puts it plainly: “Locksmiths must hold a Class 2C licence to work in the security industry.”

QLDQueensland’s Office of Fair Trading says: “In most cases you need a licence to be a locksmith.” The licence it means is the security equipment installer licence.

WAWA Police divide security installers into four classes under Regulation 27, and one of them, Class 4, is to “Install locks of a kind referred to in Regulation 6.” The page does not use the word locksmith. It says the installer licence does not cover fitting security equipment in vehicles, vessels or aircraft, and it lists the other classes too, so read it before assuming which class a job needs. WA also requires an installer who is self-employed, or subcontracts under their own ABN, to hold their own Security Agent’s licence.

For South Australia, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the licence guide says what their licensing pages say about locksmiths, and links the body to ask in each.

Three questions at the door

  1. May I see your licence?

    In NSW, locksmiths must hold a Class 2C security licence, and a condition of every Class 2 licence is that the holder must produce it for inspection on demand by a member of the NSW Police Force or by any person they deal with while doing security work. Queensland’s Act asks the same of a licensee who is not wearing the prescribed identification, when the person they are dealing with asks. The Security Providers Act 1993 is the place to read it. More in the guide to checking a licence.

  2. What will it cost, in writing?

    Access Canberra’s advice for hiring a tradesperson is that “You’re under no obligation to accept a quote.” The quotes guide gathers what each state says to put in writing.

  3. What if it is not done properly?

    The ACCC says service providers “must carry out all services using an acceptable level of care and skill.” Those rights come automatically. The rights guide explains what a major or minor problem gets you.

Each cut lists the official pages it draws on at its foot, so you can hold what a licensed locksmith tells you about your own door, lock or keys against what those pages say.