On 31/07/2013 22:27, Tim Watts wrote:
On Wednesday 31 July 2013 22:09 Nightjar wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On 31/07/2013 21:51, charles wrote:
In article , The Medway Handyman
...
They might well be security keys. If they have a 'very' long number
stamped on them, only the locksmith who supplied the locks can cut keys,
only with the written authority of the owner.

I understood that it was ruled an infringement of free trade to make that
condition. Certainly I have had no difficulty in obtaining duplicates of
apparently "secure keys" from a repautable locksmith.

I was under the impression that refers to restricted profile keys,
rather than high security keys.

Colin Bignell

There's alot to be said for card keys or dongle keys - you can program the
lock to renounce all previous keys and effectively have multiple keys that
have their own ID (so any single one can be removed from the system).

Also makes the handling of "master keys" infinitely flexible.

I can see the advantage of card keys where there is a high turnover
rate, such as in an hotel. The industrial estate I used to have my
factories on has contactless key fobs for the night security gates.
Their turnover is not as great and they can charge a hefty deposit for
the fobs.

For flats, I would have thought that the best option was a good quality
electronic key pad system, as I had on an office I used to rent. Each
tenant had their own code, which opened both their office door and the
common door (which could also be released by door phone). The landlord's
agent had to approve each code, so that there were no easy to guess
codes, and programmed them into the system. The multiplicity of codes
meant that none of the keys on the common door pad would show signs of
more use than others.

Colin Bignell