Changing locks on a rented house

axomoxia

cwcw wrote: »

:rotfl:

Ah yes, the good old "patient emergency services" scenario. Picture the scene and assess the likelihood.... house sets on fire while tenants happen to be away, neighbours call 999 and the fire crew turn up. "Is anyone in?" they wonder. "No, we must break the door down", they decide. "But wait", they say, "this is a rented house, we must check if the landlord has a key". So the fire crew do their best to dig out a contact number for the landlord, ring him or her up, and sit outside waiting for him to turn up with the key.

Having been woken up by the fire brigade, I was cheerfully informed that "If you hadn't opened the door in thirty seconds, we'd have broken yer door down with an axe".

chucknorris

anselld wrote: »

You can state whatever you like in your AST, it doesnt mean it is legally enforceable.

That is quite correct I stated in a AST that my tenant had to make me Sunday dinner every week and also wash my car. She only made me dinner about once a month and only ever washed my car the once!

martyn05

cwcw wrote: »

Why send a spare key to the agent? I'm not sure many insurance companies are too keen on unregulated, unqualified and random members of the public having keys to a house they're insuring.

I believe the LA would be more accommodating to tenants changing the locks if they held a spare key for emergencies.

I am a self employed trader and I do a lot of work for a LA that manages 6000 or so properties, they have spare keys for all of them. I do not think I have heard anything mentioned that suggests insurance companies would be upset because LA hold spare keys.

lovinituk

cwcw wrote: »

:rotfl:

Ah yes, the good old "patient emergency services" scenario. Picture the scene and assess the likelihood.... house sets on fire while tenants happen to be away, neighbours call 999 and the fire crew turn up. "Is anyone in?" they wonder. "No, we must break the door down", they decide. "But wait", they say, "this is a rented house, we must check if the landlord has a key". So the fire crew do their best to dig out a contact number for the landlord, ring him or her up, and sit outside waiting for him to turn up with the key.

Nice example! How about this one...?

Tenant is away for holidays and a pipe bursts. Neighbour sees water pouring out of front door and calls landlord. Landlord arrives with emergency plumber, tries to put key in door and finds out for first time that tenant has changed locks!! Now what?

Jus' sayin'

anselld

lovinituk wrote: »

Nice example! How about this one...?

Tenant is away for holidays and a pipe bursts. Neighbour sees water pouring out of front door and calls landlord. Landlord arrives with emergency plumber, tries to put key in door and finds out for first time that tenant has changed locks!! Now what?

Jus' sayin'

Force entry. Cost trivial compared to water damage. Liability depends on what caused the leak.

lovinituk

anselld wrote: »

Force entry. Cost trivial compared to water damage. Liability depends on what caused the leak.

Which probably leads to an extremely peed off Landlord and an S21 at the end of tenancy anyway.

It does appear that the LL isn't doing themselves any favours in this case by not responding to the tenant, however I think the previous suggestion of writing to the LL again and stating that the locks will be changed if nothing is heard within x weeks is the lesser of the 2 evils.

I'm struggling to understand why the tenant would want to stay passed the current tenancy anyway if the LL won't respond to something so trivial. What happens if something more serious happens and the LL doesn't respond?! So the threat of a S21 at the end doesn't really seem much of an issue.

martindow

chucknorris wrote: »

That is quite correct I stated in a AST that my tenant had to make me Sunday dinner every week and also wash my car. She only made me dinner about once a month and only ever washed my car the once!

Hope you've issued an S21.

Zorz_2

lovinituk wrote: »

Nice example! How about this one...?

Tenant is away for holidays and a pipe bursts. Neighbour sees water pouring out of front door and calls landlord. Landlord arrives with emergency plumber, tries to put key in door and finds out for first time that tenant has changed locks!! Now what?

Jus' sayin'

Tenant has left a spare key with their "emergency contact" person. Landlord contacts that person to come and open the door.

lovinituk

Zorz wrote: »

Tenant has left a spare key with their "emergency contact" person. Landlord contacts that person to come and open the door.

The point was that the Landlord finds out the hard way that the lock has been changed (then see post 37)

Bradfield

Biggles wrote: »

Looks as though the OP has lost interest....

I should imagine they are out there somewhere laughing themselves silly.

A few years ago I lived in a flat with only yale locks. First thing I did was ask the LL could I change the locks. He told me the local council had a LL registration scheme and he was only allowed to put locks on that would permit the tenant to escape from the house by simply turning the lock from the inside, without needing a key. Reason being, of course, that keys might be difficult, or impossible to locate, when in a fire situation.

Never stopped me getting house contents insurance.

As for the police who checked the locks. Reminds me of two friends who went on holiday to Spain a few years ago. They were stopped by a police officer on the motorway who asked them to show any currency that they were carrying. They showed him about five hundred quid. The officer took the money from them in order to "carry out checks" as apparently there was a lot of dodgy currency dealing about. Of course they never saw their money again.

I do hope the o/p checked the credentials of the visiting police officer.