URGENT advice required in rented property - someone treatening to break in!

BitterAndTwisted

timberflake wrote: »

how can you possibly say that when i've just explained that the police have already told me that he has no legal right to gain access to the apartment???

Just because this moron THINKS he has the right to forcibly enter and remove those spare parts does not mean that he is correct!

Honestly, why are you still f@rt@rsing around on the internet and not down at B&Q? I think you could quite easily justify deducting that expense from your rent. I know I would.

Tuscan

he has no legal right to enter your home without your permision, if he use's a locksmith it will become breaking and entering.

i dout very much he will do it, and i dout even more a locksmith will break in unless they both fancy a spell in the nick.

you must get hold of your LL NOW and ask them what they intend to do about it, if your really worried ask a few friends to come over for the evening, also lock the doors and leave the keys in the locks as that will make it much harder to pick.


at the end of the day he has the hump and sounds like he has good reason too, but im sure he wont want to get a criminal record for the sake of a few hundred quid...

ILoveStarTrek

He's probably all mouth and no trousers but this must be so worrying for you nonetheless. What has your landlady said about it all?

I agree with the others: call the police if he turns up and starts messing with your door. Do not open the door to him. Perhaps leave a note to him on the outside of your door telling him to contact the landlady.

g_attrill

silvercar wrote: »

Often in tradesmans T&C there is a clause saying that all parts belong to them until fully paid for.

I think that's a clause to aid recovery after a court judgement, also to prove ownership after bankruptcy/liquidation etc. It doesn't enable a person to enter and remove parts (not that you implied this).

To timberflake - was all this logged by the police, with his name etc? I do think that it's worth pursuing with them further.

ALSO - do you have details of their Gas Safe or Corgi registration number? Give them a call to report this. Corgi would be most interested if he's a member, I think the Gas Safe people only care that they are qualified and registered.

Either way, call him and say you spoke to all those people and they said he has no right of access, and that the police said they will attend as soon as you phone them to say he's there.

g_attrill

Tuscan wrote: »

at the end of the day he has the hump and sounds like he has good reason too, but im sure he wont want to get a criminal record for the sake of a few hundred quid...

He should have a criminal record for charging £675 for 90 mins work

BitterAndTwisted

Hehe, but not if the cost of the parts was £500 plus VAT maybe but luckily this is a problem for the landlord and not the tenant

Tuscan

g_attrill wrote: »

He should have a criminal record for charging £675 for 90 mins work

:eek: i missed the 90min bit, does depend on cost of parts though but sounds like a cowboy..

timberflake

Tuscan wrote: »

:eek: i missed the 90min bit, does depend on cost of parts though but sounds like a cowboy..

The cost of parts was £325, but when my landlady rand the supplier they quoted her £89+ VAT.

BitterAndTwisted

Definitely a cowboy and I bet his locksmith mate's name is Tonto. A 300% mark-up on parts is, ahem, opportunism of the first order. I think your landlady was quite right to decline to pay that but the tradesman must be mental to risk a criminal record by carrying out his threat

Tuscan

yeah sounds like he was out to rip her off big time, however did they agree the price before he started work..

you will often find with most things its cheaper to source parts yourself, ive found this to be very much the case with car parts. some garages charge way more for a part than what they can be bought for off the shelf or mail order, in this day and age a supplier will sell at trade price to anyone. problem is they tend to not fit parts they havent supplied..

im a tradesman myself (wall and floor tiler) and my day rate is £200 plus materials that i charge at cost price this is in London and the South East, although i nearly always work on a price per job rather than day work..