Landlords, would you want to be informed of this?

flutterbyuk25

Hi all

I am a tenant in a house which is managed by a letting agent as the LL lives elsewhere in UK. The LA have been good with sorting repairs quickly etc, but we have had a few worrying issues with keys which I've outlined below:

1. Only one set of keys were issued to us, despite two being stated on sign in documents (which we amended to show only the one).

2. We were only given the yale lock key for front door, not the deadbolt key too.

3. The LA gave their set of keys to a contract cleaner to attend post check in but before we moved in. 5 weeks later we were contacted by LA to return the set of keys, we pointed out that we did not have them, the spoke to cleaners who admitted that they had lost the set of keys. LA noted this on files, and the fact that they did not hold a set of keys anymore.

4. The LA arranged for a contractor to attend the property without contacting us to confirm the date/time. The LA had found the deadbolt key in office and given this to the contractor to get into the property. Obviously this did not work as they did not have Yale key too. The contractor locked the front door dead bolt, left a semi-abusive voicemail on my phone for wasting his time. This all occured when we were on holiday, so upon our return at 11pm on a Friday night we discovered we were locked out of the property.

5. We rung the out of hours emergency number for LA and the staff member said we could collect the deadbolt key from office 15miles away. He (the emergency man) could not bring it to us as he had been drinking and could not drive.

6. LA are now demanding a copy of the yale key from us. We do not overly object to them having a set but due to working patterns we are not able to drop a key to the office for a few weeks which they do not seem to be happy with.

As a landlord, would you be happy with the loss of a set of keys, and they keys being given out to contractors incorrectly?

We love the house, and want to stay in Feb upon renewal but would happily go via the LL only and cut out the LA. I am wondering whether to contact the LL directly and inform her of what has happened and see if she will take us on privately in future.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Innys1

This is one of the many reasons I employ agents on a let only basis. Then again, mind, I live no more than 20 miles from my properties.

If your LL took you on privately in future, how would they get something fixed if something went wrong?

With respect to your question, no I wouldn't be happy, but then I wouldn't be surprised either.

dj1471

You should insist on the locks being changed if keys have been lost (or potentially stolen). This is not unreasonable, I have done this before when an agent lost their set of keys.

theartfullodger

Change the locks (usually easy, cheap): Change them back when you leave:

G_M

How much f this is the LL's fault (missing keys, poor instructions to agent etc) and how muc the agent's fault is hard to say.

As a LL I'd not e happy with this level of service (whether from myself or my agent).

There's no real requiremnet to provide two sets of keys, though if that's what the contract said, that's what should have happened. Certainly 1 complete set should have been provided.

In your situation, I'd write to the LL, very politely, recapping the history, stressing the cost/inconvenience, and expressing your concern about uncertainty as to who now holds keys/copies.

Ask for the LL to instruct the agent to change the locks and provide you with two new complete sets.

If this fails to get the desired result, change at least one of the locks yourself ( a yale-type cylinder lock costs around £5 and takes 5 minutes to change).

Keep the old lock and replace it when your tenancy ends.