Key control on inspection day: one ring, one log, no mysteries

Scattered-site inspections are lost at the key box as often as at the unit. A sampled address nobody can open burns the route, the schedule, and the inspector's patience in one stop. The boring system that prevents it: one inspection-day key ring built the day before from the sample-eligible list, every key tested in its lock during the pre-walk week — not assumed, tested — and a one-page log of who holds the ring and what to do when a lock has been changed by a resident or a vendor. Key audits feel like overhead until the first time a $0 key problem costs a re-inspection. How do you audit keys before a scattered-site inspection? — Otto Mergl, Admin