Key broke, who pays?

Thrugelmir

Teamocil wrote: »

Maintenance is the landlord's responsibility anyway.

Tenants should report issues though. LL's cannot maintain if they are not aware. Some situations require a degree of common sense. Rather than a default position of automatically blaming someone else.

G_M

Wanderingpomm wrote: »

A million pieces??

I am guessing the OP is female

or autistic and counted them?

System

It's almost certainly the LLs responsibility.

I would have called/text them etc and given them time to reply (say an hour) with a proposal to fix it then proceeded on my own.

Mutton_Geoff

A million pieces?

One part in the lock, one part in your hand, where did the other 999,998 pieces go?

Perhaps the OP, like many, are not mechanically sympathetic and leant on the door whilst turning the key thus loading up the lock and putting the key under stress at it’s weakest point, the narrowest bit just outside the lock barrel. Maybe the lock was stiff for a long time requiring extra force on the key each and every time but gone unnoticed by the user until the key broke? Maybe the pins were sticky and the key always needed a wiggle and extra twist to unlock?

Either way, repair/replacement is part and parcel of renting or owning a home. Make sure the replacement is decent quality. There are plenty of cheap locks around.

DaftyDuck

I never know the legalities of situations, that's why I have friendly legal advice. But, I can see an imbalance here. Not an easily solved one... but...

The OP had a choice, two or three possibly. One was to be late for work, even miss a day, call a non-working friend to help... or one of the many neighbours who, no doubt, are regulars at tea and cake parties to help oil the mechanism in such an eventuality...

Another was to call a cheaper locksmith, find a friend to fix it, or risk leaving the door unlocked... not attractive, but not impossible.

The landlord provided a working lock and key and, as far as can be seen, has no responsibility for it breaking. Yet, here the tenant is presenting a fait accompli, and presenting the bill. The landlord is not offered a choice here. Had the OP waited longer, the LL might have had a solution. Was the LL's time less valuable than the OP's? Should they respond instantly?

I doubt the landlord is actually ultimately liable, unless key or lock are demonstrably unfit for purpose and, given there was no gentle approach, I doubt they will feel much like paying.

I do agree, however, that if the provided key was weak or of poor quality, or the lock itself was damaged, it would be the LL's responsibility.

Luckily, we have a 24 hour helpline, and it works. It is very rarely used!

LandyAndy

Wanderingpomm wrote: »

A million pieces??

More than two. :cool:

TBagpuss

Did the locksmith give you any indication as to why they thought the key broke?
If they were of the view that it was due to something such as the age / poor condition of the lock, then I would expect that to be an argument in favour of the landlord paying.f their view was that it was down to rough handling then it would seem to be something which the tenant should pay for.

iammumtoone

People seem to be missing the point here that the OP did not call the locksmith off their own back they were TOLD to by the agent.


The agent works for the LL so anything they say incorrect is down to the LL to sort out with them not he OP. If the LL wants to claim the money back from the agent for giving out the wrong advise that is for them to resolve between them.

Comms69

iammumtoone wrote: »

People seem to be missing the point here that the OP did not call the locksmith off their own back they were TOLD to by the agent. - And?


The agent works for the LL so anything they say incorrect is down to the LL to sort out with them not he OP. If the LL wants to claim the money back from the agent for giving out the wrong advise that is for them to resolve between them.

The agent doesn't manage the property.

iammumtoone

Comms69 wrote: »

The agent doesn't manage the property.

So they should not act like they do and tell tenants what course of action to take! Its not the OP fault they did that.



It easy for those on here to say the agent doesn't manage, as this is something they know. For your average person/tenant all they know is they went through the agent to rent the house, they possibly pay the rent to the agent, if they are told to do something by them which sounds reasonable in that situation, why would they question it?