Locksmiths Editing and Proofreading Services

A man rings at eleven at night saying he is locked out of a flat. He may be. He may also be locked out of his ex-partner's flat, or a property he was evicted from last week, or somewhere he has never lived. A locksmith who opens the wrong door has committed something serious, and the only protection is a set of questions asked before setting off and a record of the answers.

We edit what locksmiths produce — identity and authority verification procedures, quotations given before attending and their basis, emergency callout pricing and its structure, non-destructive and destructive entry explanations, lock, standard and insurance requirement information for customers, terms of business and payment terms, key control and restricted key documentation, landlord, agent and eviction attendance procedures, invoices and their itemisation, and security survey and recommendation documentation. Our editors work on the questions asked before the van moves.

The identity and authority check is the professional core of locksmithing, and its failure is a procedure that exists in somebody's head. A locksmith who asks the right questions on a Tuesday and skips them on a Saturday night has no procedure. We write these so the questions are a fixed short list asked on every job — the address, how long they have lived there, what is in the room to the left of the front door, whether anybody else has a key and where, and something that ties them to the property — since the answers matter less than the fact of asking and somebody without authority usually fails on the third question; so the document evidence position is stated with what is accepted, what is not and what happens when somebody genuinely has nothing, given that the honest answer is often to open the door and photograph the identification inside; so the situations requiring a different process are named — a dispute between occupants, an eviction, a deceased person's property, a rented property where the caller is not the tenant — because these are the jobs where a locksmith is used as an instrument; so the record is stated as something written at the time with the questions and answers, as this is the only defence available afterwards; so the price is quoted before attending with the two or three things that could change it, since arriving and then pricing a distressed customer is what gives the trade its reputation; so the non-destructive position is stated honestly with when drilling is genuinely necessary; and so the customer is told what standard of lock their insurance requires. Procedures written this way protect the locksmith and the person behind the door.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including procedures, pricing and customer records. We are editors rather than locksmiths or legal advisers, and we offer no view on entry, authority or security. What we can do is turn a procedure in somebody's head into one that is followed on a Saturday night.