Dropped my apartment keys in the lift shaft!

Kamran

Hi all, hope you're doing well,

Quick question - yesterday I mistakenly fumbled my apartment keys whilst in the lift (8 storey block of flats) and sod's law is that the keys fell right into the gap and tumbled all the way down the lift shaft. Fortunately the wife was home to let me in (and give me a telling off).

I called the lift maintenance company (thanks to contact details left on the lift wall) and they said that the flat Management Company needs to authorise this otherwise I would be left footing the bill. I then emailed the Management Company who said "you will be liable to pay for the call out charge to collect the keys from the lift shaft."

Just wanted to clarify that what the Management Company have said is true? Appreciate that I would need to scower the fine print of the Management Agency's Agreement to be absolutely certain, but generally speaking would an incident like this be within the remit of the Management Company, or are they right to throw it back at me as it was my mistake?

Reason for asking is that their charges are quite high compared to other buildings (which I am sure most comapanies' are) - and I want them to earn their money for once!

Maybe I'm just bitter....... :mad:

lewishardwick

Yes, it's your responsibility to pay.

Ask for a quote. It might be cheaper to change the locks!

shaun_from_Africa

Even if the locks are changed and the old keys no longer needed, there may well still be a call out charge payable to the lift maintenance company.
It's unlikely but possible that they keys have landed somewhere where they could possibly cause damage by jamming part of the lift mechanism and I'm surprised that the maintenance company haven't already checked this out.

dggar

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Even if the locks are changed and the old keys no longer needed, there may well still be a call out charge payable to the lift maintenance company.
It's unlikely but possible that they keys have landed somewhere where they could possibly cause damage by jamming part of the lift mechanism and I'm surprised that the maintenance company haven't already checked this out.

I'm not a lift engineer but, out of interest, what part of the mechanism would be at the bottom of the lift shaft?

Hedgehog99

If you can be sure no harm is being done to the lift in the mean time, can you wait until the lift is next due for a service and ask them to fetch your keys while the lift is in downtime and they've been called out anyway?

shaun_from_Africa

dggar wrote: »

I'm not a lift engineer but, out of interest, what part of the mechanism would be at the bottom of the lift shaft?

If the building concerned isn't particularly high and fairly new then it's possible that there is a hydraulic lift fitted. This is basically a hydraulic piston at the bottom of the shaft that raises and lowers the cab.

If it's a "normal" type of lift then there will be hydraulic buffers at the bottom in case the cab comes down a bit too fast and there may well be some form of limit switch mechanism for safety.

Whatever is down there, I wouldn't have thought it a good idea to have a bunch of keys in the area that could possible jam something.

casper_g

As a child I dropped a room key down a hotel lift shaft. The assistant manager sent a receptionist to hold the lift doors open on the top floor, opened the doors to the lift shaft and hopped down to retrieve the keys there and then. Hard to imagine now - how times have changed since the 80s!

Phil_L_2

The lift will not be hydralic if it is eight stories. If the keys haven't caused any damage by now they are not going to, they are laying on the botton of the lift well with all the other rubbish which finds its way down there. If you can catch the lift technician the next time he is servicing he will probably recover the keys for you.

Geoff1963

If changing the locks is cheaper than retrieving the keys, then you could go with that. The lift company will know if it could be a problem, and you've done your duty by reporting it.

If it is, why would they have such a design ? What if you'd bought some nails / bolts etc from a hardware store and the packet burst, or you might have dropped one down the gap but weren't sure ?

getmore4less

if the gap was big enough to get them to drop through they can be retrieved through the gap.

if you can see them and accessible through the gap

at a quiet time hold the lift doors open and drop a magnet on a bit of string/thin rod and hope there is something magnetic on the bunch.

Possom

Can your wife bring her key to a high street locksmith and have a copy made there and then?