For locksmiths
Working for a National Locksmith Network: What to Check
National locksmith networks offer steady work to self-employed locksmiths in exchange for a share of each job, which one locksmith puts at 30% to 40%. Before you subcontract, find out who sets the customer's price, whose name goes on the invoice, how and when you are paid, and whether you can still serve your own customers.
How do national locksmith networks work?
A network advertises nationally, answers calls centrally and passes each job to a self-employed locksmith nearby. Several recruit openly: LockRite advertises daily work in most parts of the UK with weekly payment, Keytek recruits into a national engineer network and runs a training academy, and LockFit says it has enlisted over 150 subcontractors in five years through warrant and national contracts.
Not every network works the same way. Some carry insurer, police warrant and facilities work, which is hard for an independent to win alone. Others rely mainly on paid search for emergency lockouts. The questions below apply to both.
What share of each job does a network take?
Networks do not publish it. One locksmith puts the cut at 30% to 40% of the job (Lockerfella, August 2026), a single practitioner's claim. Keytek's own academy says subcontractors receive 'only a proportion' of the job price.
Ask for the split in writing before you start, and ask:
- Is the share taken from the job price before or after parts and VAT? - Who pays for parts, and at what price? - Are there fees for uniforms, branding, software or the card machine? - When are you paid, and what happens if the customer disputes the bill?
Who sets the price the customer pays?
Find out exactly, because it is your name the customer sees at the door. The overcharging cases reported by BBC London in February 2026 and by Trading Standards follow the same pattern: a low price quoted by a call centre and a much larger bill on the doorstep, often after the lock is drilled.
Ask the network:
- What price does the call centre quote, and does it include labour, parts and VAT? - Can you see that quote before you set off? - Who decides if a lock must be drilled, and who tells the customer the new price? - Is there any target or bonus tied to the size of the bill?
If the answers are vague, the reputational risk is yours.
Whose name is on the invoice, and who is liable?
Check whose business the customer is contracting with. If the invoice carries the network's name, complaints and chargebacks may go to the network, but the customer remembers you. If it carries yours, you carry the consumer law duties, including the doorstep cancellation rules for work done at a customer's home.
Also ask:
- Insurance: does the network's policy cover you, or must you hold your own public liability cover? - Status: being called self-employed does not settle employment status for tax. GOV.UK's Check Employment Status for Tax tool gives HMRC's view. - Data: who owns the customer's details after the job?
Can you keep your own customers while subcontracting?
Read the contract for restrictions before you sign. Some agreements limit working for competitors, approaching the network's customers, or using your own branding while on their jobs. Others leave you free outside their jobs.
Keeping your own Google Business Profile, your own number and your own listings running alongside network work gives you a way out if the terms change. On locksmiths.trade an independent locksmith is listed under their own name and base, with their own number, and calls go straight to them. A network is listed under its own trading name and labelled as a network. Subcontracting for one does not change how your own business is listed.
Common questions
Is it worth subcontracting for a locksmith network?
It can be when you are starting out or need volume, especially for insurer and warrant work. Weigh the share taken, which one locksmith puts at 30% to 40%, against what the same hours would earn from your own customers.
Do locksmith networks pay weekly?
Some do. LockRite, for example, advertises weekly payment for subcontractors. Terms vary, so get the payment schedule and the dispute process in writing before you take the first job.
Will working for a network affect my reputation?
It can. The customer sees you at the door, whatever the call centre quoted. Ask who sets the price and whether you see the quote before you set off.