URGENT advice needed. Letting agent threatening to change locks on my door

QuantumSuccess

GDB2222 wrote: »

I can tell you now that a mortice lock on a fire exit door is not normally acceptable.

What change is any of this going to make to your argument with the LA? What outcome are you trying to achieve?

At this point I no longer want to live here. Purely because there is no way i would feel comfortable dealing with the LA in the future. So I will leave at the end of my lease period. While I am still here I want a secure lock on the door. This is a high-crime area and I live alone. Unless my lock is actually literally illegal I do not want to remove it.

InkZ

In the flat I just moved out of the front door was a fire door and it had a thumb yale lock thing, and also a chubb deadlock. The front door went in to the communal hallway. The door also had a closer on it.

I would have thought your locksmith would also be aware of what he can or can't fit to a firedoor.

The above may be meaningless as I have no idea on regulations etc but I can't believe for a second that you can't lock your door securely due to fire regs, it makes no sense. A fire door is only to stop fire penetrating the door and spreading to other parts of the building.

Saying that, you should have sought permission to fit the lock and if they want you to return the door to how it was when you leave then they are entitled to do so.

GDB2222

QuantumSuccess wrote: »

What sort of lock did you add? Maybe this would work for me

Why don't you just let the LAs replace the lock with one that they are happy with? It can't cost that much more than replacing it yourself.

KiKi

GDB2222 wrote: »

I just knew that you were going to say that you don't lock it when you are inside! It doesn't make the lock compliant, though.

Presumably all these front doors in this building were already compliant with fire regs. So it would be a case of the OP making the door non-compliant by adding another lock.

I can't think why adding another lock to a private flat that no-one else needs to access would make the door non-compliant to fire regs; if the person is in the flat, they can get out. No-one needs to get in there in a fire. They wouldn't be able to get in easily anyway with the current lock, so this just adds to security, I presume?

KiKi

puddy

the person escaping from the OPs flat is the OP and they have stated they can open the door from the inside without a key, so what exactly is the problem. we cannot open our front door without a key from the inside if it is locked. however we're in a house with a back door (also locked from the inside with a key) in fact thinking about it our own exits are doors that lock with a key, we have no big opening windows apart form upstairs

RAS

QS

Ask the local fire service to come round and look at it. See if they regard it as a problem and work out what is needed to rectify it.

KiKi

QuantumSuccess wrote: »

What sort of lock did you add? Maybe this would work for me

I added a chubb lock (I think?) - I literally only had a latch that you opened with a think flat key (sorry, I don't know names of locks and keys!). I wanted a deadlock, too, so added one that you lock with a fat round key.

Your front door is not a fire door, but has to comply with fire regs, meaning it should be self-closing and prevent fire from spreading for something like 30 minutes. Presumably this was already the case when you moved in.

I can't see any reason why you can't add a lock for your own security as long as you return it to the way it was on vacating the property; you only compromise fire regs if you make the door less secure or non-closing, as far as I understand it.

RAS's suggestion is a good one.

KiKi

QuantumSuccess

RAS wrote: »

QS

Ask the local fire service to come round and look at it. See if they regard it as a problem and work out what is needed to rectify it.

Sounds good. They don't mind doing this kind of thing?

QuantumSuccess

I suspect this is more a case of the LA wanting to throw his weight around more than anything else. I have also done a quick check to see whether the Letting Agent is a member of any of the regulatory bodies for letting agencies/estate agencies. It seems not.

d.ross_2

I didn't read the whole thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned before:

It sounds like the letting agent discovered the extra lock whilst trying to gain access to your property. But they couldn't gain access because of the extra lock. I personally would like to know why they were trying to access your property. I thought this was illegal without the tennants permission.