These are the questions Westchester homeowners, landlords, practice managers and congregations ask before a smart lock goes on a door, grouped by situation: houses that sit empty all day, the back and upper doors burglars favour, owners who live alone, co-ops and two-families on the city line, pools, and business doors. Price and scheduling questions are in the FAQ further down. Nothing here is legal advice; where a law, a code or a police report is mentioned we name it so you can read it yourself.
Houses that are empty all day
We're on Metro-North from early morning until after dark — what should the locks be doing while the house sits empty?
Three things, without anyone touching a phone. First, locking themselves: every smart deadbolt should be set to auto-lock a minute or two after its door closes, so the door the last person forgot is locked anyway. Second, reporting: the app should send an alert if any smart-locked door is unlocked, or is opened, during hours when nobody is expected, and a daily "all locked" check is easy to set. Third, letting in only who is scheduled: the cleaner's code works on Tuesday between nine and one, the dog walker's at midday on weekdays, and nobody else's at all.
The police advice that accompanies most Westchester burglary reports adds one more job: make the house look occupied. Scarsdale police asked residents to put lights on timers and keep all exterior doors locked with deadbolts; the State Police alert of January 2025 suggested timed interior lights when away. Many lock apps and hubs can tie a "house empty" routine to lights as well as locks, so the same tap that confirms the doors are locked switches the evening lamps on at dusk.
What the locks can't do is cover the doors that don't have them. If the slider at the back and the door from the garage are on a key, the app knows nothing about them. That's why we walk every door first and decide, with you, which ones need a smart lock, which need a contact, and which just need a proper deadbolt that somebody remembers to throw.
Police warnings keep mentioning second-floor doors — should the balcony door upstairs get a smart lock too?
It should get attention, and sometimes a smart lock is the right answer. The pattern described by Greenwich police in 2023, and reported by Patch for Westchester and Fairfield towns, was crews entering high-end homes in the evening through a second-floor window or door while the family was out. The State Police alert in January 2025 asked residents of Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam to lock "second-floor entry points." Upstairs doors are often the weakest in the house: a light half-glazed door onto a balcony or porch roof, a cheap knob lock, and nobody in the habit of checking it.
If the upstairs door is used regularly — a bedroom balcony that people step out onto in summer — a smart deadbolt makes sense, because it can lock itself and tell you if it hasn't. If it is opened twice a year, a solid keyed deadbolt plus an alarm contact is usually better value; the contact reports the door opening whether or not anyone locked it, and the Patch report noted that the crews tended to flee when an alarm sounded. Either way we check the door itself: a deadbolt only holds as well as the frame and strike behind it.
Look up as well as at the door. A porch roof, a trellis, a stack of patio furniture or a ladder left in the yard is how people reach those doors. Scarsdale police described a burglar piling up lawn furniture to reach a second-storey window in 2015.
The landscaper, the cleaner and two contractors all know our garage keypad code — does that undercut the smart locks on the house?
Yes, if the garage leads into the house or holds what someone would need to get in. In the Scarsdale police report of November 2015, a ladder kept in a garage that could only be reached with the door keypad code was found next to a house's damaged second-floor windows, and police said they were looking into the people who had access to that code. A garage keypad code that has been the same for years, shared with every crew who ever worked on the property, is effectively a key that you can't take back.
The fix has two halves. Change the garage keypad code now, and from then on give it only to people who need the garage, changing it whenever a crew finishes. Then make the door from the garage into the house a real lock: a smart deadbolt there gives each person their own code and a record of when it was used, so the landscaper can get to the mower without being able to walk into the kitchen.
Where the garage opener itself is app-connected, check what it can and can't talk to before planning around it. Chamberlain, for instance, moved in 2023 to block unauthorised third-party apps from its myQ system, which ended some home-automation links owners had relied on. We plan the house door so that it doesn't depend on the garage system at all.
Our kids get off the school bus mid-afternoon while we're at work — can the lock tell us each one is home?
Yes, and it's one of the most popular reasons Westchester parents give us for going keyless. Give each child their own code or fingerprint, and the app can send a notification naming who unlocked the door and when. Most apps let you choose which users trigger an alert, so you hear about the children and not about yourself coming home.
Make sure the door they use is the one with the lock. Children tend to come in through the garage or a side door rather than the formal front door, so that's often where the keypad belongs. A keypad with physical buttons is easier for small fingers and gloved winter hands than a touchscreen, and a fingerprint can't be left at a friend's house. Auto-lock behind them matters as much as the notification: a child coming in with a backpack, a scooter and a friend will not always turn round to lock up.
Two cautions. Don't use a child's code to unlock for someone else — give the sitter or a neighbour their own. And keep a physical key somewhere a child can reach in an emergency, such as with a trusted neighbour, because a lock with flat batteries or a door that has swollen shut is rare but possible.
Back doors, sliders and the way burglars come in
The door we all use is a sliding patio door onto the deck — can a slider get a smart lock?
Sometimes, but with caution. A sliding door has a narrow frame and a hook latch that grips the jamb, not the bored hole a standard smart deadbolt needs. Keyless locks made specifically for sliders exist, as do keypad units designed to mount on a patio door, and on some doors they work well. On others the frame is too thin, the door rattles in its track, or the existing latch is too worn to hold anything.
Sliders are also a known way in. Scarsdale police described burglars entering through a rear window or sliding glass door in their 2015 report, and in September 2024 News 12 Westchester showed video of two men prying open a back sliding door with a crowbar in Pelham Manor before dawn, then leaving with a handbag, car keys and the family's car. A smart lock on a weak slider does not change that. So we look first at the basics: an auxiliary lock that pins the moving panel, a bar or block in the track, and an alarm contact that reports the door opening.
If the family really does use the slider as the main door, there are two routes. Fit a slider-specific keyless lock where the frame can carry one, or move the daily keyless entry to an adjacent hinged door — a mudroom or garage door — and keep the slider locked and alarmed. The second route is usually the more secure.
Owners who live alone
My father lives on his own in Elmsford — if he falls, how would paramedics get through a smart-locked door without breaking it?
Plan it before anyone needs it. There are three common routes, and the best arrangements use two. The first is a residential key box: the Elmsford Fire Department, for one, describes a Residential Knox-Box that lets first responders "let themselves in" with a high-security master key held by the department, aimed at seniors living at home who may not be able to reach the door. You buy the box through the fire department's programme; we can mount it and make sure the key inside works the door it is meant for. Ask your own department whether it takes part.
The second route is a person nearby with their own credential: a neighbour or relative who has a code, kept for emergencies and deleted if they move. The third is remote unlocking by a family member, which only works if someone answers the call, is near their phone and knows who is at the door — a doorbell camera makes that last part much safer. What doesn't work is relying on the lock's app alone, held on a phone that belongs to the person who has fallen.
Make sure the lock itself suits him too. A keypad with large physical buttons, a fingerprint enrolled on two fingers, or a fob on his keyring all spare him a phone. And keep the inside dead simple — one turn to open, nothing to remember — because the most likely person to need that door in a hurry is him.
Co-ops, two-families and the city line
Does New York City's apartment-lock law reach our Yonkers or New Rochelle apartment?
Not directly. The city's rules on extra locks and duplicate keys come largely from the state Multiple Dwelling Law and the city's own Housing Maintenance Code. The New York Attorney General's office explains that the Multiple Dwelling Law applies to cities with a population of 325,000 or more, while the Multiple Residence Law applies to cities with fewer than 325,000 people and to all towns and villages. By that population test, every city in Westchester, Yonkers included, falls on the Multiple Residence Law side of the line, and the city's Housing Maintenance Code doesn't apply here at all.
Some state rules do follow you over the line. The Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law, section 768, makes it unlawful for anyone to evict an occupant by, among other things, changing the lock on the entrance door without giving the occupant a key, and the Attorney General's guidance says this is a class A misdemeanour statewide. Beyond that, what you may put on a co-op or rental door in Westchester is decided mostly by your lease or proprietary lease, the house rules, and your city's or village's code.
So the practical route is the same in Yonkers as anywhere: read the lease and house rules, ask the managing agent in writing, and choose hardware that can be removed cleanly if the board or landlord objects. If you need a firm answer for your building, that's a question for a tenant advocate or a lawyer who practises in Westchester, not for a lock installer.
Pools and outdoor gates
Can the gate in our pool fence take a keypad lock without breaking the state's pool-barrier rules?
Usually, if the keypad is added to a gate that already does what the code requires rather than replacing any part of it. The New York Department of State's technical bulletin summarising residential pool rules, written for the 2020 Uniform Code, says all gates must be self-closing, pedestrian gates must open outward away from the pool, and gates must be self-latching with the latch handle on the pool side at least 40 inches above grade — with extra conditions if it is lower than 54 inches. It also says gates must be securely locked "with a key, combination, or another child-proof lock" when the pool isn't in use or supervised.
A keypad or combination lock can be that lock. What it must not do is defeat the self-closing hinge or the self-latching latch: a keypad that holds the gate open, a latch that only catches when someone pushes it, or a lock mounted where a child can reach the release from outside all undo the barrier. We fit gate-rated, weather-resistant keypad locks that work alongside the existing hinges and latch, and we test the gate swinging shut from fully open.
The 2025 Uniform Code is now in force, and your town's building department inspects pool barriers, so confirm current requirements there before changing a gate. And give the pool gate its own code, separate from the house: the pool service needs the gate, not the kitchen.
Practices, offices and congregations
Our practice on the Platinum Mile keeps patient records on site — what does HIPAA expect of our door locks?
HIPAA's Security Rule doesn't name a lock, but it does ask for physical safeguards you can show. Under 45 CFR 164.310, a covered entity must have policies and procedures that limit physical access to its electronic information systems and the facility they're housed in, while letting properly authorised people in. The rule's addressable specifications include controlling and validating each person's access based on their role, including visitors, and documenting repairs and changes to the physical security of the facility — "for example, hardware, walls, doors, and locks."
A keypad or reader with individual credentials fits that well. Front-desk staff can open the reception door; only clinical and IT staff can open the server closet or records room; the cleaning company's code works after hours and nowhere near the medication store. The lock's log then becomes part of your evidence that access is controlled by role. HHS's own guidance on physical safeguards mentions door locks that rely on a card or badge reader as one common control.
We hand over what your compliance file needs from us: a list of each door, the hardware fitted, who holds which credential, and the date of the work. Your privacy officer decides the policy; we make the doors able to enforce it.
Our congregation was awarded a state security grant — can it cover keyless doors, and what paperwork will the grant office want from you?
Possibly, but the grant's own documents decide. New York's Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes programme, run by the Division of Criminal Justice Services, funds safety and security projects at nonprofits at risk of hate crimes because of their ideology, beliefs or mission. The Governor's office describes it as covering interior or exterior security improvements such as alarms, panic buttons, fences, shatter-resistant glass and public address systems, "among other items," plus training and cybersecurity. Whether access control or keyless locks fall within your award depends on the request for proposals you applied under and the budget DCJS approved.
Before we start, check that the doors and hardware in our quote match the line items in your approved budget; changing scope after an award usually needs the funder's agreement. We provide an itemised quote naming each door, the hardware and the labour, an invoice that matches it, and photographs of the finished doors if your grant administrator asks.
For the doors themselves, the usual plan is one or two controlled entrances with readers or keypads, push-to-exit hardware inside that never needs a credential to leave, and the other doors kept locked from outside with panic hardware for exit. Schedules let the office door open during weekday hours and stay locked during services when ushers manage the main entrance.
Our office landlord says the 2025 state code now applies — does that change what can go on our suite door?
It may change the details, and it confirms the principle. The 2025 Uniform Code took effect statewide on December 31, 2025, and the 2025 Building Code of New York State is based on the 2024 International Building Code. For electrified locks on egress doors, the model code's door-hardware-release rules require that operating the door's inside hardware directly cuts power to the lock and unlocks it immediately, and that losing power unlocks the door. Sensor-release doors need a sensor on the inside that detects someone approaching, plus a "PUSH TO EXIT" button 40 to 48 inches above the floor within five feet of the door that keeps the lock released for at least 30 seconds, and they unlock when the fire alarm activates.
In practice that means a keypad or reader outside, an electric strike or a lock built into the lever, and an inside release that needs no knowledge or credential. A battery-powered keypad deadbolt on a suite door is a different kind of device; whether it is acceptable on your particular door depends on your occupancy, the number of people the room serves, and the code official's view. That's a question for the building department, through your landlord.
Bring us the landlord's tenant-work rules and any letter from the building department, and we will quote hardware and wiring that fits both. If a permit or filing is needed, your landlord or architect usually holds that process; we supply the product data sheets and wiring details they ask for.
