where do i stand please

evosy1978

hello

weve recently moved into a rented house with a garage. the thing is theres no key for the garage. It can only be opened from the inside. which means walking through the house. Weve told the estate agent and they said they will speak to the owner for us. They have not got back to me yet. Im 99% certain that there is no key. The garage door is old and on its last legs aswell.

Any way IF there is no key in existence, i would like to know where i stand with being supplied one or having a new garage door? Im in the construction trade and really need access to the garage when i get home from work. I dont want to be walking through the house in work cloths to open the garage from the inside.

Do i hve a right to have access to this door from the outside or not?

thanks for any help

Mips

Yes of course you have a rights to the garage door.. keep on at the agent.. perhaps you could replace it and bill the agent? How much are garage doors?

Let the agent know that if there is a problem getting the key, you are prepared to do this.

Hopefully the key will be somewhere

Willsnarf1983

surely it depends whether they told you of the situation and told you that it only opened from the inside...if they did then I would say No, if they didn't I'd still say its iffy coz you can actually gain access to the garage...albeit from the house

Will

Cissi

We were in an almost identical situation in that the garage of our rented house has an electric up-and-over door and the gizmo to open it was lost, so we had to go through the house to open it manually. DH has a classic car so the garage played an important part when we chose this house. It took us 2 years :eek: but the LL eventually got the door fixed/a new gizmo so the garage door finally worked properly.

I'd say just keep at your LL, putting things in writing as much as possible, and they'll hopefully sort it out sooner or later - but you may have to be patient...

Zelie

Write to them and tell them that as they have made the garage unavailable to you then you are going to have to park your car at the nearest NCP. The charges are x amount per week and you'll subtract it from the rent.

Watch how fast you get that lock changed.

princeofpounds

LL have a duty to keep property in a functional condition. That includes garage doors. Doesn't matter that you still have backdoor access - you wouldn't accept climbing a window to enter your house would you?!

Ask, in writing, for the key to be supplied or a new lock fitted. Wait some reasonable time (2 weeks?). If no progression, write another letter saying that if it is not repaired within a further week (or other reasonable period) you will seek to replace the lock yourself to restore function and deduct from a future rental payment.

This is the right of the tenant as set out in case law (Lee-Parker vs. Izzet 1971, quote it if you feel like it). You *must* follow the procedure correctly however - view the Shelter website to learn the procedure for private sector rental repairs by tenants. You need to document all step in writing.

Just because this is a first issue I suggest the 'nice' letter first (you might wish to copy the LL direct as the agent may be being lame) to keep a good relationship going.

Either way, you will get a functional garage door. Ridiculous they seem to think it's acceptable, but it's so often the case with LL.