Landlord taking the .....?!

joAnn

We asked our landlord for 2 additional keys - daughter mislaid one and new au pair needed one. Happy to pay the money banham charged for new keys plus cover cost of secure postage. Landlord sent me receipts for keys and postage amounting to £42.65 but then asked me to round up to £45 to cover cost of time and transportation to nearest banham Office. I'm a bit shocked! I don't mind the £2odd but I do feel slightly as if we are being squeezed for every penny and not sure how to respond?!
Any suggestions?

theartfullodger

As a landlord if a key is mislaid I'd replace the lock, more expensive.

£5 says YOUR insurance won't pay out if stuff is stolen without forced entry & key mislaid.

Oh the stress of the new au-pair:. Poor you.

This isn't a wind up is it?

Cheeky_Monkey

I suggest you respond by sending them the £45.

Afterall, they have taken the time and trouble to get two new keys cut for you following your negligence (or rather, your daughter's) and the addition to your householder.

Katapolt

joAnn wrote: »

We asked our landlord for 2 additional keys - daughter mislaid one and new au pair needed one. Happy to pay the money banham charged for new keys plus cover cost of secure postage. Landlord sent me receipts for keys and postage amounting to £42.65 but then asked me to round up to £45 to cover cost of time and transportation to nearest banham Office. I'm a bit shocked! I don't mind the £2odd but I do feel slightly as if we are being squeezed for every penny and not sure how to respond?!
Any suggestions?

In future id just go down to Timpsons and pay a tenner for 2 new keys...

You are lucky they didnt change the locks tbh, you can never be to careful these days.

LEJC

Respond by settling the bill as given.

You should be paying reasonable cost for the issuing of new keys,that does vary from one LA/LL to the next.
The LL has documented and provided receipts so it's clear that the charge has not been overinflated....they could have charged a taxi to transport it to the office and again provided a receipt...the bill would probably have been higher...but at least I guess you may have seen that as a justifiable expense because the LL was not profiting?

My son is currently in rented accommodation and the duplicate key cost is £50 per key and £25 for each additional...you've got quite a good deal in my opinion.

JoJo1978

Every lost key and additional key is a security risk for the LL. High charge encourages tenants to be more careful, security conscious and avoid invalidating his insurance and yours again.

joAnn

I have no problem paying for new keys for my own convenience. The key my daughter mislaid is in the house, just needle In a haystack. I was just a bit surprised someone would think to add the cost of transport etc, as it's not something I would even think of myself. For over two years the Heating system in the house was sluggish and required serious attention and forced our energy costs through the roof as we tried to keep the house warm. We also overpaid them once £2.50 and they asked for my bank details to repay it but I let it go!
As for comments about our au pair - what is the relevance to my original post? Nobody knows what our circumstances are and how we organise this!

LKRDN_Morgan

Pay up and lesson learned. Don’t ask the LL to do something you could have done at a fraction of the price.

Nobbie1967

joAnn wrote: »

I have no problem paying for new keys for my own convenience. The key my daughter mislaid is in the house, just needle In a haystack. I was just a bit surprised someone would think to add the cost of transport etc, as it's not something I would even think of myself. For over two years the Heating system in the house was sluggish and required serious attention and forced our energy costs through the roof as we tried to keep the house warm. We also overpaid them once £2.50 and they asked for my bank details to repay it but I let it go!
As for comments about our au pair - what is the relevance to my original post? Nobody knows what our circumstances are and how we organise this!

I think the LL has been remarkably restrained in only charging you £45. They are running a business and this must have taken a non trivial amount of time to sort out, particularly if they had to travel to a Banham store to get the keys. I think £25 on top to cover the LL's time would still have been reasonable.

Cheeky_Monkey

joAnn wrote: »

I have no problem paying for new keys for my own convenience. The key my daughter mislaid is in the house, just needle In a haystack. I was just a bit surprised someone would think to add the cost of transport etc, as it's not something I would even think of myself. For over two years the Heating system in the house was sluggish and required serious attention and forced our energy costs through the roof as we tried to keep the house warm. We also overpaid them once £2.50 and they asked for my bank details to repay it but I let it go!
As for comments about our au pair - what is the relevance to my original post? Nobody knows what our circumstances are and how we organise this!

Your LL is running a business - you are not. Transport costs are a legitimate business expense and thus chargeable to the client. I think you've got off lightly as they could quite easily have added an admin charge as well.

The heating issue is totally irrelevant to your OP.

The fact that they were happy to refund your £2.50 suggests to me that they are not trying to squeeze every last penny out of you as you suggest.

davidmcn

joAnn wrote: »

I was just a bit surprised someone would think to add the cost of transport etc, as it's not something I would even think of myself.

If you were running a business then surely you would consider the time and overheads involved in carrying out a task, not merely pass on the costs of your suppliers? There are amateur eBay sellers who would "round up" by more than that for the time they spend packing and queuing at the post office.