Survey and vendor changing locks/keys

JohnBravo

Hi All,

    I have booked a L3 survey to the property. The mortgage offers are on their ways.

It turned out that in the meantime the vendor has changed the locks/keys and the surveyor was unable to get to the property, the keys he got from the agency didn't work.

This is going to cost me an extra £200 but more importantly I lose 2 weeks because the surveyor's availability is mid next week.

The vendor is a housing association which could do this without notifying anyone but for what?

Did you come across something like that?

user1977

Surveyor charging £200 for not doing a survey is taking the pee somewhat.

dimbo61

Maybe someone has entered the property who used to be a housing association tenant and has keys.
Worried about squatters ? 
Evicted tenant wants to " ENTRY " and cause damage and still has keys 
Why not speak to the Housing Association direct and ask them Why have you changed the locks as this has caused delays and cost me money 

theartfullodger

Property owner (housing association) is entitled to do anything (that's not illegal) with their property.  Quite likely concern over who, over the years, has ended up with keys and they've chosen to change locks, cheap quick job, to protect their asset.

Just be glad you didn't end up with squatters or a wrecked property 

Life is hard, deal with it.  You just might have a claim against agent, but you are not their client.  £200 in a property deal is neither here nor there, if your finances are that sensitive perhaps it's an unwise move anyway.

JohnBravo

I don't mind covering this £200 but this 2 weeks delay is a bit of a letdown. Any surveyor I check it will be at least 2 weeks if not more to the next available slot but I stick to the existing surveyor as I already paid him the 1st sum.

Why didn't they change those locks before the process has started?
It is suspicious and you may be right about someone unauthorized accessing it.

Maybe the squatter changed the locks? :-)

Or the agency gave the surveyor the wrong keys?

Slinky

user1977 said:

Surveyor charging £200 for not doing a survey is taking the pee somewhat.

If it's half a day, or a day's work, depending on the size of the property, why should the surveyor lose out what s/he would have earned? It's not like s/he could rock up somewhere else and survey another property without an appointment.

user1977

Slinky said:

user1977 said:

Surveyor charging £200 for not doing a survey is taking the pee somewhat.

If it's half a day, or a day's work, depending on the size of the property, why should the surveyor lose out what s/he would have earned? It's not like s/he could rock up somewhere else and survey another property without an appointment.

Perhaps not, but they could still find some other use of their time. If I have an appointment cancelled at the last minute, I wouldn't be sending my clients a bill (unless perhaps I had already travelled to the middle of nowhere).

theartfullodger

There's almost always a hiccough or 3 in any buying or selling of property.  It happens.

JohnBravo

Slinky said:

user1977 said:

Surveyor charging £200 for not doing a survey is taking the pee somewhat.

If it's half a day, or a day's work, depending on the size of the property, why should the surveyor lose out what s/he would have earned? It's not like s/he could rock up somewhere else and survey another property without an appointment.

The surveyor is not local so it's a bit of travel. It's totally understandable to charge extra if keys don't work.

Please keep it in mind for anyone who is planning any survey done (not only L3) at a council property where they change locks and don't communicate this.

I don't know how this could be avoided thought.

The agency thinks it has the right keys, it's kind of hard to double check if the keys are correct if the vendor is a housing association with hundreds of keys.

The agency has just came back that the vendor uses a master key across all their properties and eventually changed to independent keys.
But does this mean when I was viewing the property in February the agent had a master key?
There was no vendor with the agent to retrieve the master key after the viewings unless the association is fine to leave their master key with the agent.

The keys they have given to the surveyor must have been the master key that no longer works.

TheJP

JohnBravo said:

I don't mind covering this £200 but this 2 weeks delay is a bit of a letdown. Any surveyor I check it will be at least 2 weeks if not more to the next available slot but I stick to the existing surveyor as I already paid him the 1st sum.

Why didn't they change those locks before the process has started?
It is suspicious and you may be right about someone unauthorized accessing it.

Maybe the squatter changed the locks? :-)

Or the agency gave the surveyor the wrong keys?

I don't think its suspicious at all, sounds like a council tenant moved out and they have changed the locks from the master system they use for all their owned properties to an individualised system not even the council can access after they sell to you. I see that as proactive in protecting your future asset.

Did the housing association know you were having a survey or did the EA just handle it, its unfortunate but don't see the HA at fault. I would want to know if the EA informed the HA about any site visits after the offer was agreed, if not then the EA was sloppy.

JohnBravo

TheJP said:

JohnBravo said:

I don't mind covering this £200 but this 2 weeks delay is a bit of a letdown. Any surveyor I check it will be at least 2 weeks if not more to the next available slot but I stick to the existing surveyor as I already paid him the 1st sum.

Why didn't they change those locks before the process has started?
It is suspicious and you may be right about someone unauthorized accessing it.

Maybe the squatter changed the locks? :-)

Or the agency gave the surveyor the wrong keys?

I don't think its suspicious at all, sounds like a council tenant moved out and they have changed the locks from the master system they use for all their owned properties to an individualised system not even the council can access after they sell to you. I see that as proactive in protecting your future asset.

Did the housing association know you were having a survey or did the EA just handle it, its unfortunate but don't see the HA at fault. I would want to know if the EA informed the HA about any site visits after the offer was agreed, if not then the EA was sloppy.

I know but the council tenant moved out long before the viewings so this was the right time to change the locks not after viewings. Their property was vulnerable to squatting until recently provided the master key is compromised - I reckon to the end of February, the tenant moved out end of last year)
If I was a HA I would want the master key back not to compromise other of my properties but they haven't asked EA for it.