Device helps renters keep strangers away!
The Key-P-Out fits over most door locks and makes it almost impossible for anyone to enter your apartment.
Joe Lubrant and Ron Kent were tired of other people having access to their apartments.
Be it maintenance men, landlords or pest control, Lubrant and Kent didn't feel safe knowing that they weren't the only ones able to get into their place.
"I would work long days and I'd come home and the maintenance guys would walk in my door," Lubrant said. "I started thinking that when I go to bed at night, I might not be so safe with someone else having a key, or that there's a master key floating around with ex-tenants and so forth."
Putting their concerns for safety into action, the 40-year-olds decided to create a way to stop unwanted intruders. They call it the "Key-P-Out."
The Key-P-Out is a product that fits over 90 percent of all door locks and deadbolts, and makes it virtually impossible for anyone to enter the unit without the Key-P-Out being removed.
"It can only be used while you're at home," Lubrant said.
Though many apartment complex owners and maintenance crews have the right to enter a unit for specified reasons, Kent said the Key-P-Out allows the tenant to control who comes in while they are home.
"These teams that come in to maintain rented spaces have the right to come in and do their job," he said. "Because of the conditions they are under, they rarely give notice and rarely knock. They just come in. This is a device that forces them to give you control if they are going to come into your space."
Lubrant and Kent, both residents of the greater-Jacksonville area, have been working on the Key-P-Out for about five years and said they have had nearly 10 different prototypes along the way.
Currently on the Key-P-Out Web site, www.Key-P-Out.com, the product is selling for $14.95. The business venture cost Kent and Lubrant nearly $50,000, including patent and creation.
The first shipment of the Key-P-Out arrived in June to the Jacksonville warehouse and Lubrant said current sales of the product are close to 5,000 units. Though the device has been sold primarily from the Web site, Lubrant said he's working on a national campaign to market the Key-P-Out .
The two discussed the possibility of having the Key-P-Out as part of a teaming agreement, or a package deal that would include several home-security items similar to the Key-P-Out.
According to the American Housing Survey of 2003, there are approximately 33.6 million Americans renting housing units. Although those numbers equal potential customers, Kent said he is looking past the idea of focusing primarily on apartment renters.
"When you combine that [survey figures] with the condominiums, the dormitories and the retirement homes, it just keeps going," Kent said. "It's a pretty large number that we are going to hit."
Though the Key-P-Out seems like it would be a welcomed product by most renters, the idea that landlords and housing owners would take well to the product is something Lubrant and Kent have wrestled with.
"Their 10-second response is, 'No way. We don't want that on our tenant's door.'" Kent said. "The two minute response, after they think it through, is they would love to protect their tenants from unruly maintenance members or key holders."
Considering many landlords and apartment complex owners are typically aware of liability insurance, Lubrant and Kent said the Key-P-Out will offer more safety to the renter and could potentially lower liability.
"What we are trying to prevent is unwanted entry," Lubrant said. "I was in the shower many times and I'd hear somebody walking through the door and I'd jump out and there was the maintenance guy. This little personal security device can turn into an overnight security device as well.
"You've got to think, when you go to bed, somebody still has a key when you lock that door."