If you've locked yourself out of your house, of course you have the right to try to get back into the home by yourself, either by forcing a window open or trying to pick the lock yourself. However, just because you have the right to break into your own home doesn't mean it's necessarily the best thing to do! There are many times when it's better to call a locksmith versus trying to manage a lockout on your own. Note a few of those occasions so you can know when it's best to make that call the next time you find yourself locked out.

Your keys are not inside your house

If your keys are not in the house, meaning you've lost them or left them someplace else, you want to call a locksmith. This is because you want to have the locks changed or rekeyed once you're back in your home. If your keys are out of your possession even for a small amount of time, you don't want to risk having someone use those keys to break in. Remember that someone can quickly copy your keys and, even if they don't break in the night you lost your keys, they might enter your home the next day or a week later. Rather than risk this, have the locks changed immediately when you know your keys are not safely in your home.

Your home is old

The reason that you want to avoid trying to break into your own home when it's older is that the wood frame around the door or windows may be soft and more prone to breakage or splitting, due to its age. If you tried to pry open the door, you may splinter the entire doorframe and not just pull the lock out of its socket. The same could happen with a window; you may assume you can easily push it past its small lock, but even a slight resistance by the lock can cause the frame to crack. In turn, you may cause some very costly damage to your home. The cost of a locksmith, who can easily pick the lock and let you in without causing damage, is usually much lower than the cost of replacing a window or doorframe.

You have a complicated alarm system

A locksmith usually knows how to disarm an alarm system that is likely to sound if you break into your own home. Rather than trying to disarm it yourself and manage a visit from the police or getting a charge from an alarm company for responding to that alert, you can have a locksmith disarm the system while letting you into your home safely and easily.