Nightcrawler: "I live in a 32 family building. The LL has no keys. He has everyones phone numbers and can get in touch with them if need be." "I live in a mega apt neighborhood, huge tenements, most LL do not take keys." If that is true, then the property owners in question are idiots. Nightcrawler's solution if there is a problem is for the property owner to go up the fire escape, smash the window, and get in like that, or just wait until the tenants show up (if ever). Last week we had a complaint of considerable water coming in through the ceiling of a bathroom in a multi-unit (55)apartment building. There are four bathrooms on four floors immediately above the one with the leaky ceiling. We had to go into each unit to find the problem, which was the goofball tenant on the top floor was washing clothes in the tub, left the water running, and then went to work. If I followed Nightcrawler's technique, I would have had two choices: 1) track down four different tenants, and wait until they showed up (some might be out of town), with potentially thousands of dollars of water damage occurring in the interim; or 2) climb up an ice encrusted fire escape, smash four windows ($100+ each), climb over broken jagged glass without slicing myself open, and then have the tenants complain that there is broken glass & a broken window in sub-zero temperatures. Of course it would then take days to get those windows fixed (for example, try to get a window fixed over a holiday weekend). Let's look at some other reasons why it is a good idea for the property owner to have keys, instead of doing hundreds of dollars of damage by smashing a window or door to get in, or paying a locksmith $100 or more to come and change the lock: 1) Tenants losing keys; 2) Tenants leaving for the christmas holidays to some other country, leaving a window open that cannot be reached from the outside (potentially causing pipes to freeze & thousands of dollars of damages); 3) Surprise fire inspection from the city (resulting in a fine if the inspection cannot be completed at that time); 4) Surprise housing code inspection from the city (also resulting in a fine if the inspection cannot be completed at that time); 5) Tenants asking for a specific repair to be completed, we arrange for a plumber / electrician to come, tenants are not there at the appointed time, cannot be reached by phone, and the plumber / electrician charges us $150 just to show up and do nothing; 6) Tenants ask for a new appliance, we agree, arrange for a specific delivery time, tenant is not there, so we have to pay a delivery charge for nothing. We make sure we have keys, but each of these examples actually happened with tenants who thought it was a good idea to change the locks on their own without giving us a copy. In each case they were either charged the full cost of their action plus double penalty, or were evicted. We change the deadbolt locks for each new tenant. Your property owner is exposing himself to significant potential liability if he did not change your deadbolt locks, and you should insist on them being changed. But if you change them yourself without giving him a copy, you are exposing yourself to significant potential liability if a problem arises and it is difficult to get in, and damage to the building (or to persons) occurs as a result. We also do a full criminal / credit / background check on maintenance personnel. If they would steal from the tenants, they'd steal from the owner, so it is in our interest to make sure they are 100% ok. Dreamgarden: The property owner does not want to take your crappy stuff (kitchenware? old CDs? I don't think so). You are much more likely to get robbed by someone you know. If you don't like property owners who are proactive and try to maintain things to a high standard (ie fix stuff before it becomes an emergency, or install brand new windows in your case), then there are many buildings where you can move to where the owners never fix anything, and could not care less if you had a leaky faucet or drafty windows. Nightcrawler "If you lived in a house would you let a real estate agent bring prospective buyers a tour through your house while you were at work?": Of course, that is standard practice.

Should be standard operating procedure, but definitely change them and notify the contractor about needing to contact you for access as well.

A lawyer and your own state's laws are your only hope. Warning for others: This is why I never suggest that you put anothers name on any thing you own unless you put it as a transfer on death, TOD. I have seen too many well meaning people that lost ever thing trying to prevent costs. Even a POA can result in this type of thing happening. Things happen that result in losing what you have including lawsuits, accidents, bankruptcy. A POA is only good as long as the person issuing it is alive. In most states it ends when the person dies.

Picture looks like a standard lock and handle set. Should be no problem to pickup parts at local hardware store or locksmith. DIY - no prob. Not sure why this is in the metal working category though, as your same posting in remodeling seemed a better place. Someone had already offered to help you in woodworking as well.