Roommate in shared house left our front door open and his room was burgled - worried

sortika

Hello everyone,

I'm renting a room in a house with 2 other renters, all sharing a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms, with separate Yale locks on all of our bedroom doors.

One of the other renters is just awful, to put it lightly. I've come back to the house multiple times to find his keys just left in the front door lock and him gone out for the day, or the door ajar. Finally, while I was away in London for the weekend, someone saw fit to break in.

My room and the other roommate's were locked, but as he'd lost both keys to his room lock (his and the landlady's spare copy) they went into his room and stole his laptop and some cash. There are no valuables in the living room or kitchen, fortunately.

I'm just venting a bit because I'm worried, but can anyone give me any recommendations on what to do? He's avoiding me because I keep trying to ask him about what happened and why he thinks we got broken into (he likes to forget about leaving the house unsecured). I'm also worried about what happens if he does it again and the next burglar decides to break down the doors of the other bedrooms - the landlady keeps the house insured, but surely leaving the front door open means we can't claim?

Thanks for any help you can give me

Yorkie1

If you all have locks on your doors, do you have separate tenancies, or did you all sign one joint tenancy?

Do you know whether his single, or the joint, tenancy agreement is still in its fixed period or not?

Are you in England / Wales?

What I'm working towards is whether he can be given notice, or you can give notice, to leave. He is putting the fabric and contents of the property at risk, as well as the physical safety of the occupants if any was to come home and find someone indoors.

I would be very surprised if the LL's insurance paid out if there was damage to or theft from the communal parts of the property (if single tenancies). Or that your insurance would pay out if you have a contents policy.

ETA: There is also the risk that if the LL's insurance did not pay out, and you have a joint tenancy rather than single ones, your deposit will be at risk for any damage (or possibly theft) caused.

G_M

I'm guessing you each have seperate tenancy agreements - but as yorkie says, please confirm.

I would speak to the landlord. Express you concern from a personal safety point of view, but at the same time discretly point out that the LL's insurance (both buildings and contents) would be invalid if the front door was left open.

Sounds like the best solution is for the LL to get rid of this irrespsible/unreliable tenant. But that will depend on the tenancy type, AND the tenancy dates.

An alternative might be a stern talking to by the LL, pointing out that this tenant's deposit is at risk AND that if the deposit was not enough to cover any losses (the LL's OR other tenants) then legal action might follow.

Can a self-shutting spring be added to the front door? (though that won't help if the keys are left in the lock!).

When going out and shutting the front door, do you have to use a key to lock it, or does it self-lock?

sortika

We all have seperate tenancy agreements on 12-month renewals, and all of them are renewed in June each year.

We're in England, Kent to be specific.

I've spoken to the LL but she seems very laissez-faire about the whole thing and doesn't often respond to things like this in any depth. It's taken a lot of work to get her to fix simple things around the house like a broken security light out front that we're still waiting on.

How would I find out if a self-shutting spring could be added? The front door locks by itself, and can be locked again from the outside if needs be, though that only has the effect of meaning you have to turn the key more times to get back in. It's a plastic door, not a wooden one, but it's still pretty old.

Is there anything I can do to get the LL to take any action? Or anything I can do to help safeguard my own room?

edit: I'm not reeeally sure what a fixed period means :c

rochja

Each time this idiot leaves his keys around use them to unlock his room, toss the keys in and close the oor. It wont take many repeats before this problem sorts itself

ruggedtoast

Hell is other people.

Old_Git

I wonder if this was a set up . He just happened to leave his key in the door and someone just happened to be passing and burgled his room .

[Deleted User]

Yes, to be honest it occurred to me whilst reading that if you and the other tenant with locked doors only have yale locks on the doors, once a 'burglar' is inside they can take as long as they like to break the locks on the other doors.., and I'd expect them to do this (its not hard to break in with a yale lock). U could have just had a 'lucky' dishonest person who saw the keys in the front door and thought they'd give it a try.., but to be honest, I'd be surprised if that was so.

I'd explain this to your LL (i.e. this is a little suspicious and could be leading up to a claim on HER insurance for the missing goods) making it obvious its in her best interests to deal firmly with the tenant concerned.

Read your tenancy agreement carefully.., see if you have a way to get out of the property. If u r not sure or it doesn't make sense, go to the CAB and ask their advice. If you don't have a tenancy agreement, I doubt the LL could do anything if u did move out. Again, see the CAB.

G_M

sortika wrote: »

We all have seperate tenancy agreements on 12-month renewals, and all of them are renewed in June each year.

It sounds like you each have a 12 month fixed term tenancy agreement, starting from June X 2012, and ending on June X-1 2013.

If this is true, then
a) you cannot leave earlier than June (well, you can but you still have to pay rent!) and
b) the landlord cannot make the tenant leave either (except for rent arrears etc)

Theonly exception to this might be if your tenancy agreements have a 'break clause' in them. Sometimes a 12month contract has a 6 month break clause, allowing either the LL or tenant to end the tenancy after 6 months. Look at your tenancy agreement to check.

Putting a spring-loaded self-closing device on the door is really something the LL should do - you sould do it yourself (or pay a contractor to do it) but ONLY after getting WRITTEN permission/agreement from the landlord.

So I'm afraid you are pretty dependant on
a) persuading the LL to take action or
b) persuading the tenant involved to amend his ways.

Must admit I agree with others - the whole scenario seems unlikely. Is the tenant involved claiming on insurance? Seems very strange that only his room ws burgled......

sortika

He's not claiming on insurance, no. He says it's his own fault that he left both doors unlocked, and is a born-again Christian and believes that whoever took the laptop and cash has a need for it.

I don't share his altruism - if my computer got stolen I'd try and hunt down whoever took it myself, with extreme prejudice. But then I do work with computers, so.

I will ask the landlady to put a self-closing spring on the door, I think - or even change the front lock so that it is easier to tell whether it has closed fully.

As far as moving house goes, I really can't afford to do that at the moment - for starters, I'd have no real way to move my stuff, and this house is walking distance from my work /and/ affordable - none of the others in the area are rentable.

dodger1

sortika wrote: »

One of the other renters is just awful, to put it lightly. I've come back to the house multiple times to find his keys just left in the front door lock and him gone out for the day, or the door ajar.

Simple solution, next time throw his keys away and deny all knowledge of the incident.