--- title: "The Street Door of a 1960s Block That No Longer Latches" description: "The street door of the block swings open, or the entryphone buzzes and nothing happens. Why older Alcoi blocks get this, who decides, and who pays." url: "https://locksmithalcoi.es/blog/street-door-of-a-sixties-block-will-not-latch/" business: "Locksmith Alcoi" --- # The street door of a 1960s block that no longer latches The street door of the building swings open, or the entryphone buzzes and nothing happens. Why it happens in older blocks, who decides and who pays, and what a locksmith can and cannot fix. 5 October 2026 · 4 minutes to read More than half of Alcoi lives in two barris, Zona Nord and Santa Rosa, and most of their homes are in blocks of flats built between the late 1950s and the 1970s. In Zona Nord alone the big estates have hundreds of homes each: Sant Maure, built in 1957 with 300 dwellings; Joan XXIII, 1964, with 540; Caramanxel, 1976, with 672. Every one of those blocks has a street door, opened dozens of times a day for fifty or sixty years. Sooner or later it stops closing properly. ## What usually goes wrong **The door does not latch.** It swings shut and bounces back, or stops a few centimetres short. Usually the door closer at the top has lost its strength or its adjustment, the door has dropped on its hinges, or the latch no longer meets the keep. **The entryphone buzzes but the door stays shut.** The electric strike in the frame, the part that releases the latch when someone presses the button upstairs, has failed, or the latch is pressing on it so hard it cannot release. **The key is hard to turn.** The cylinder is worn after years of use, or the door has moved so the bolt rubs. **The door can be pushed open while locked.** A worn latch or a damaged keep. This is the one to deal with first. ## Who decides, and who pays The street door, its lock, its closer and the entryphone are common elements of the building. They belong to the community of owners (the *comunidad de propietarios*), not to any single flat. In practice: - report it to the **president** of the community, or to the **administrador** if there is one; - the community decides on the repair, and pays for it from its funds; - a single owner or tenant should not change the lock on their own: every household needs to be able to get in. Tenants should tell their landlord, who will pass it to the community. ## What a locksmith fixes, and what someone else does A locksmith deals with the mechanical side: the latch, the keep, the cylinder, the lock body, and the mechanical part of the electric strike. Adjusting a door closer is usually part of the same visit. If the entryphone itself has no sound, no picture or no power, that is a job for an entryphone technician or an electrician. If the community decides to change the cylinder of the street door, every household will need new keys, and the community has to organise how they are handed out before the old cylinder comes out. ## Your own door, while you are at it A street door that has been swinging open is a good reason to look at your own flat door. If you share the flat, the [guide to bedroom locks in shared flats](https://locksmithalcoi.es/blog/bedroom-locks-in-a-shared-student-flat/) covers who holds which keys. And if your flat has a balcony on the first floor, read the [guide written after Cabalgata night](https://locksmithalcoi.es/blog/cabalgata-night-and-the-balcony-door/). Cylinders changed, multipoint locks repaired and doors that need a shove made to lock again, booked for a day that suits you. [Lock change in Alcoi, booked for a day that suits you](https://locksmithalcoi.es/lock-change-alcoi/) Read next - [Bedroom locks in a shared student flat](https://locksmithalcoi.es/blog/bedroom-locks-in-a-shared-student-flat/) · 4 min - [Cabalgata night and the balcony door](https://locksmithalcoi.es/blog/cabalgata-night-and-the-balcony-door/) · 4 min - [All the guides for Alcoi and El Comtat](https://locksmithalcoi.es/blog/) ## Easier to talk it through? Ring, or send a photo of the lock and where you are on WhatsApp. Open 24 hours · 7 days [+34 678 583 290](tel:+34678583290) [WhatsApp](https://wa.me/34678583290?text=Hi%2C%20I%20need%20a%20locksmith%20in%20Alcoi.%20Where%20I%20am%20(barri%20or%20town%2C%20street%2C%20which%20bridge%20it%20is%20near)%20and%20what%20has%20happened%3A)