Quick question for any Student Landlords

gorgeouslatinrose

Hi there, Just a quick question for any student landlords out there,
I am currently in a student house , and have just renewed my tenancy for my third year, we have had no problems and the landlady has been brilliant. During my university year, I was hospitilized for a few weeks and some of my housemates friends have entered mine and other student rooms in the property. On return , a small valuable item was missing, and though it cannot be proven and no accusations have been made, I believe it was likely to be one of the freinds. ,Because of this, I would like to request to the landlord if i would be allowed to install a lock on the door , of course providing her a copy of the key. It is a grade 1 listed house, which already has a lock, but for some reason the lock will not work. Do you think this is a reasonable request , or would it be likely to be turned down. I would of course try and return it to the original condition if possible.
Many thanks for any advice in advance

B19jon_2

Hi,

From my own student experience (not a landlord), just be careful as I was told it 'officially' means you have to have your own TV licence etc by having individually locked rooms. I seem to recall something about joint/individual tennancy becoming an issue.

Of course, that is only assuming you choose to play completely by the book. I know of plenty of people who did have individually lockable rooms.

Jon

Fire_Fox

If the house is Grade 1 listed your landlord may probably require listed building consent for the smallest alteration; assuming you are going to attach the lock in a secure manner it is simply not possible to return the door to its original condition. Either write and ask the landlady to consider repairing the existing lock (might breach fire regs), purchase your own secure box or mini safe, or leave your irreplaceable items at the family home.

Have you tried claiming on your contents insurance BTW? Someone on the Phones board reported leaving their handset and accessories at a friend's house, who somehow had his keys stolen and was then burgled that night, i.e. no forced entry. I was amazed to learn they could claim on their own contents insurance.

PasturesNew

There is a door lock you can get hold of which fits onto your room handle and is fully removable and requires no "fitting". I'll now go and google it, but it was invented by some bloke at Bristol University, who clearly had too much time on his hands.

Edit: Right, it's Bournemouth and is for door handles ... so it might be OK for yours/might not. http://www.festival.bournemouth.ac.uk/pdf/unilock.pdf

Edit2: They've set up a company called Secure Your Room Limited to sell it. Contact details here: http://bu.bournemouth.ac.uk/business-services/local-shared-assets/downloads/cpl-pdfs/uni-lock.pdf

gorgeouslatinrose

Thankyou for all your advice. I didnt claim it on insurance, it was a gift from someone who was in the Middle East, and as their was no reciept and to me an irreplaceble item, I decided to leave it. I will write to the landlord and see if she could fix the door lock on the door already - strangely two of the other rooms upstairs are locakable, but the other four are not.

There is a door lock you can get hold of which fits onto your room handle and is fully removable and requires no "fitting". I'll now go and google it, but it was invented by some bloke at Bristol University, who clearly had too much time on his hands.

Edit: Right, it's Bournemouth and is for door handles ... so it might be OK for yours/might not. http://www.festival.bournemouth.ac.uk/pdf/unilock.pdf

Edit2: They've set up a company called Secure Your Room Limited to sell it. Contact details here: http://bu.bournemouth.ac.uk/business...s/uni-lock.pdf

Thankyou , I will look this up straight away. Definatly seems a good idea!

Fire_Fox

You do not always need a receipt for claiming from insurance, plenty of people are given gifts. The important thing is anything valuable is named on the policy - as you say the item may not be replaceable but money can still help clear student debts. There is little point in paying for insurance if you do not use it IMO.