Who should pay for entry/intercom system registration?

AlexMac

What Artful said!
Alex, Responsible Landlord, fixing stuff instantly since 1996 (sorry Artie- couldn't resist trumping you!)

Flugelhorn

flat I own has similar - the number has to be reprogrammed / unprogrammed  at cost of £35 ish, didn't realise at first until ranty woman who lived there some years ago complained she was still getting calls, wouldn't pay the money herself to get it "unprogrammed" - was tempted just to leave it but in the end I paid up 

Murphybear

user1977 said:

subjecttocontract said:

What would happen if you didn't have a mobile phone ?

Then you get a mobile phone? Realistically though, what proportion of private renters don't have a phone?

According to official statistics 1 billion people on the planet don’t have a mobile phone.  2% of households in the U.K. don’t have one which is roughly 580,000 households.  Does that help 

user1977

Murphybear said:

user1977 said:

subjecttocontract said:

What would happen if you didn't have a mobile phone ?

Then you get a mobile phone? Realistically though, what proportion of private renters don't have a phone?

According to official statistics 1 billion people on the planet don’t have a mobile phone.  2% of households in the U.K. don’t have one which is roughly 580,000 households.  Does that help 

Not particularly, as I'd hazard a guess the non-phone-owners are heavily skewed towards the elderly (and not private renting). And you can pick up a phone for buttons these days anyway.

In any event, does this doorbell actually need a phone, or can it work via other devices?

subjecttocontract

Umm ......well playing devil's advocate.....if you wanted to use, for example, cable tv and it was already installed to the property you would need to contact the cable service provider and pay their fees to use it. You could argue it's the same with the entry phone. It's installed and if you want to use it you pays the fees.

sheramber

What do the other flat owners do or does each flt have its own system?

rorydelap

subjecttocontract said:

Umm ......well playing devil's advocate.....if you wanted to use, for example, cable tv and it was already installed to the property you would need to contact the cable service provider and pay their fees to use it. You could argue it's the same with the entry phone. It's installed and if you want to use it you pays the fees.

It's a fair point, my argument would be that if it were just a case of switching the number, and the associated fee, then fair enough. But while it's physically installed, the 'maintenance contract [not being] in place' is really part of the installation in my mind, even though it isn't a physical thing, so that part should IMO be the landlord's responsibility.

Your point re. cable TV would still stand even with that I suppose, but to me the entry system is completely essential and really something that's expected, whereas something like cable TV not so much.

sheramber said:

What do the other flat owners do or does each flt have its own system?

They're all run by the same company but the contracts are all separate, the flats in the building are owned by different landlords.

eddddy

It sounds like the real issue is that the landlord / agent forgot to mention in the listing and/or at the viewing... "If you want to use the entry system, you'll need a smartphone and you'll need to pay a £35 registration fee".


And on the basis that it wasn't mentioned, you think the landlord should pay the £35 - but the landlord thinks you should pay it.

So I guess it's really just a case of how much of an argument do you want to make of it?

DullGreyGuy

subjecttocontract said:

What annoys me is that an increasing number of aspects of modern life require not just a mobile phone but a smart phone. We aren't born with a mobile and nobody provides us with one and I usually object to having to provide one.
Having a mobile is a personal choice not a compulsory requirement as far as I'm concerned.

If it's like the system we had, it doesn't require a mobile it just requires any type of UK phone number. Basically it's not an intercom but a phone with the buttons pre-programmed to phone a set number depending on the flat number entered. 

They select your flat number it dials you be that a mobile, landline, smartphone, voip or anything else. If they put your neighbours flat number it dials them. There is then normally a code that the recipient of the call presses which triggers the doors/gates to open/release.

Private renters probably more commonly have a mobile as you can take it with you and no fixed contracts to worry having to break half way through. 


With ours there wasn't a registration fee that I remember but it took a while after we moved out for it to be changed from our phone and as we were number 1 we got a lot of calls from leafleters etc

rorydelap

eddddy said:

It sounds like the real issue is that the landlord / agent forgot to mention in the listing and/or at the viewing... "If you want to use the entry system, you'll need a smartphone and you'll need to pay a £35 registration fee".


And on the basis that it wasn't mentioned, you think the landlord should pay the £35 - but the landlord thinks you should pay it.

So I guess it's really just a case of how much of an argument do you want to make of it?

That's definitely part of it. And really, that fee isn't a huge deal for us. But, I do like to know what the standard is for things like this. Since I couldn't find any similar information or threads anywhere, it feels like the information isn't really available. If it is a landlord's responsibility, then it would be handy for people to have that information.

As a matter of principle, I also don't like the idea that a letting agency is saying "we're not obliged to tell you that in advance", it all seems in bad spirit, so if there is a way of challenging it then I'd like to.