Safes
Safe opening in Villajoyosa, with the safe usable afterwards
A room safe locked by a guest who has already flown home, a restaurant’s takings behind a keypad that has gone dark, a box in a parent’s wardrobe nobody knows the code to. Safes are opened through the maker’s own way in wherever there is one, and left in working order.
- Proof of ownership first
- Maker’s override before the drill
- New safes anchored
Three kinds of safe in La Vila
Holiday flats, restaurants and family homes
Room safes in tourist flats
The town had 1,782 registered tourist dwellings in June 2024. Where a holiday flat has a small room safe for guests, it is the one most often locked by accident: a code set on the first day of a holiday and forgotten on the last. Hosts will find the rest of the lock work for their flats on the page for holiday rental hosts.
Takings safes in bars and shops
Restaurants on the seafront and shops on Colón and Canalejas lock the day’s takings away at night. A keypad that fails before opening time is a business problem, handled with the rest of the locks of a shop or bar.
Safes in family homes
Bolted inside a wardrobe or bricked into a wall, sometimes by an owner who has since died or moved away. Bring the papers that show the house and its contents are yours to open.
Safes after a burglary
An attacked safe often holds but no longer opens even with the right code. The door of the house usually needs attention too: see repairs after a break-in.
Order of work
Opening a safe, from the override to the drill
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Photos first
The front with the keypad or dial, and any maker’s label, usually on the inside of the door frame or on the back.
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Proof and price
Papers that show it is yours to open, and the price agreed once the safe has been seen, before the work starts.
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The maker’s way in
Override code, emergency key or the electronics, tried before anything else.
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A single hole, if needed
Drilled at one point, then plugged, with a new lock fitted so the safe is usable again.
New safes
A new safe, anchored into the building
An unanchored safe is only a heavy box someone can carry out. In a tower in La Cala or a block in town, a new safe goes into a load-bearing wall or the floor slab; in an old house inside the walls, the thick masonry often makes a better anchor than a modern partition. It is often fitted on the same visit as a new cylinder for a home that has just changed hands. Ask through the contact page, saying roughly what it needs to hold. Safes are opened and fitted everywhere on the call-out area list, from La Cala to the villages up the valley.
Asked on the phone
Room safes, takings and proof
A guest locked the room safe in our holiday flat and left. What now?
Most small room safes have a manufacturer’s override, an emergency key or a master code. Send a photo of the front and of any label inside the door frame; many open without damage and are reset for the next guest.
The keypad lights up, takes the code, and the door still will not move.
Try a fresh set of batteries before anything else. A weak battery can still light a display but not drive the motor that pulls the bolt. If new batteries make no difference, the fault is in the lock or the bolt, and the safe has to be opened.
Whose word do you take that a safe can be opened?
Nobody’s word on its own. The deeds or rental contract of the property, the business’s papers, or for a holiday flat the owner’s written authorisation. No proof, no opening.
Can a safe be fixed into a flat in a tower block?
Usually, yes, anchored into a load-bearing wall or the floor slab. The fixing points are chosen once the wall has been seen, away from pipes and cables.
Next door on the chart
Other locks in the same flat or business
- Securing a forced door A forced door made to close and lock on the first visit. Then, when you are ready, a stronger cylinder, a guard plate or a high-security lock.
- A locksmith for holiday lets Guests shut out at midnight, lock changes between lets, and a locksmith a manager can send to a flat without being there.
- Commercial lock work Shutter locks, glass shop doors, back doors and office locks, with the work fitted around opening hours. Shops, bars and offices only: no industrial units.
A safe ignoring the code you know?
Send a photo of the front on WhatsApp, with the keypad or dial in view.