Missing garage keys (rented property).

cmj1977

Hiya all.

We moved into a rented property around two months ago. At check-in the letting agent couldn't find the keys to the garage, but said they may have them at the office.

A few weeks later (having had bigger issues to hassle them about, such as lack of hot water - to be fair they did fix that at least) I called in at the office - they had some keys that they had back from the previous tenant. However none of these keys worked.

After some more prodding they have sent out someone to look at it. It appears the someone has taken part of the lock off (it's an old yale-type lock) and left it. It's been about 2 weeks since then, although last week was a short week with 2 bank holidays.

The garage is on the inventory, and we were not given any indication that it's "not for tenants use". I have just emailed the letting agency yet again, but given past form I'm not holding my breath.

I can understand that it's not an urgent thing, but after two months of waiting I've rather had enough. We're paying for it after all!

Anyone any suggestions? We could do with access to the garage to put things in (bbq, mountain bikes etc) and it was one of the reasons we took the house.

HB58

Stop messing around with the agency and contact your LL direct, in writing, at the address given for the serving of notices.

princeofpounds

This is a simple case of a broken lock. The garage is already demised to you in the tenancy, so there is no question about the right of access.

Therefore, you do have an option to get the lock replaced and deduct the amount from future rent under the procedure outlined in Lee Parker vs Izzet 1971 (google it).

A basic description of the process is here:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/disrepair_in_rented_accommodation/repairs_in_private_lets/tenants_doing_repairs

Bear in mind that if you do this you might suffer a retaliatory eviction when your fixed term is up, if the landlord is unreasonable.

But the first stage in the process is to write to your landlord, outlining the problem, mentioning the possibility of you pursuing the repair and setting a reasonable deadline. CCing the agents might put a boot up their behinds to get moving. You should have done this weeks ago of course. Hopefully this will get a response. If not, you can decide whether to proceed.

Wonder what's in there... probably landlord just using it to store junk.

G_M

I'm reading your post as saying you now have access to the garage (?) but cannot lock it (?).

The advice above is sound (write - LETTER) to the LL and cc the agent and consider Shelter's self-repair process), but a yale lock is pretty cheap, and easy to screw on in place of the existing one.

So consider suggesting in your letter to LL that you do this. But whatever you do, get it recorded in wring and keep copies, to protect your deposit when you leave. Ensure your letter gives a summary of the many times you've phoned/emailed/complained with dates, so you ca demonstrate the efforts you've made and the lack of response you've had