Residenciales, blocks and bungalows
Communal door locksmith in El Campello for residenciales and blocks
The portal that no longer closes on its own, the pool gate that bangs open, the garage door with five keys too many in circulation. Shared doors belong to everyone, which is often why nobody gets them fixed. Here is how it works when the community does.
- For presidents and administradores
- Invoices to the community
- Master-keyed systems planned with you
Why it matters here
A town of residenciales
The street register El Campello’s town hall uses to train its local police lists the town’s named buildings, and it reads like a directory of communities: about 180 apartment buildings, some 75 residenciales and around 70 blocks of apartments, plus bungalow developments with their own gardens and pools. From the blocks along Muchavista to the bungalow complexes of the northern district, a front door here very often sits behind a communal one.
Every one of those communal doors is used dozens of times a day, by residents, visitors, delivery drivers and, in summer, holiday guests who have never seen it before. Closers wear, latches drop, and keys multiply.
Under Spain’s horizontal property law the portal, the pool gate and the garage door are common elements: they belong to the community, and the owners decide what happens to them. In practice the president or the administrador calls us, and the community pays.
The doors
The shared doors of a residential community
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The portal
Electric strike, closer, latch and cylinder. When it stops closing on its own, the whole building is open. Usually adjusted or repaired the same day.
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The pool gate
Self-closing hinges and a latch that must catch every time, especially with children about. Salt and sun are hard on both.
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Garage and storerooms
The pedestrian door into the garage, the storeroom corridors and the meter rooms. The motor of the garage gate is a job for its installer; the locks are ours.
Keys
Master-keyed systems: one key per household, all the right doors
In a master-keyed system each owner’s key opens their own flat and the communal doors, but not anyone else’s flat. It is planned once, for the whole complex, and it ends the box of unlabelled keys in the president’s drawer.
Changing a communal cylinder affects every household, so it is decided by the community. Who decides what, who pays and what one owner can do alone is set out in the residencial gate lock: owner, president or administrador?
Flat doors inside the complex are a separate, private matter: see the lock change page. Owners letting a flat in the complex will find their side of it on the holiday rentals page.
Working with a community
From the first call to the invoice
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The president or administrador calls
Or a neighbour, if the building is open and nobody can be reached, with the community confirming afterwards.
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A look at the doors
Which ones, what is wrong, and whether it is an adjustment, a repair or a replacement.
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A price for the community
Agreed with whoever represents it before work starts. Written quotes by email for meetings.
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Done, tested and invoiced
The doors close and lock on their own, and the invoice is made out to the community.
Doors forced in a break-in on the block are covered on the burglary repair page, and shops on the ground floor of a residencial on the commercial page. For a written quote, see the contact page.
Asked on the phone
What presidents and administradores ask
The portal door will not latch and anyone can walk in. Who should call?
The president or the administrador, since the door belongs to the community. If neither can be reached and the building is left open at night, a neighbour can call and the community confirms afterwards; the job is invoiced to the community.
We want one key for the portal, the pool gate and the garage door.
That is a master-keyed or keyed-alike system: each owner’s key opens the communal doors, while flat doors stay individual. It is planned with the community, cylinder by cylinder, and every owner gets the same number of new keys.
An owner moved out with several portal keys. Do we need to change the cylinder?
Only the community can decide that, usually at a meeting. If it is changed, every owner needs new keys, so it is worth counting how many each household wants before ordering.
The pool gate closer slams and the latch does not catch.
The closer needs adjusting or replacing, and the latch and keep are realigned. A pool gate that does not latch by itself is a safety problem for children, so it is worth sorting before the summer.
Do you work for administradores who manage several residenciales?
Yes. One contact, one way of confirming jobs and invoices addressed to each community. Ring or email to set it up.
Next along the line
Related work for buildings
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Locks for a business
Shutter padlocks, glass shopfront doors, back doors and offices, with the work fitted around the hours you trade.
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A cylinder that resists snapping
New euro cylinders, snap-resistant and anti-bump upgrades, tired multipoint gearboxes: planned work on a day that suits you.
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Making a forced door safe
A forced door made to lock again on the first visit, and a stronger cylinder, guard plate or armoured lock once the police report is filed.
Guides that deal with this
A shared door that has stopped closing?
Ring, or email the community’s details and a photo of the door for a written quote.