Tenant changed lock – is the landlord obliged to pay?

Tenant changed lock – is the landlord obliged to pay?

8:46 AM, 13th October 2021, About 3 years ago 35

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Hi, We moved into a property on a Friday afternoon, when we came in we noticed that the main lock on the door was not secured (the bottom lock we didn’t get keys for). We tried calling the emergency out of hours number for the management (as it was Fri afternoon) but no answer, so we called down an emergency locksmith who changed the lock and advised that the bottom lock is not fire safe and also needs changing, and they changed both.

I approached the landlord, and he said that although I shouldn’t have changed the locks as he would have sent the worker (but I deemed it as an emergency) he is willing to compensate but only reasonable charges.

So the company that I used charged a total of £775.25 to change 2 locks, the top was a number lock they changed to reg yale/latch and the bottom one they changed to thumbturn deadlock.

However, on the invoice, they write that the material was each lock £250 and the rest for the callout and labour.

So the landlords claims the following,
1) he could have sent his own guy
2) if the top lock wasn’t secured, it doesn’t mean we were allowed to change both locks
3) a landlord is only responsible on such scenarios if it’s a sensible fee, but to charge for a lock £250 when online it costs only £60 he should not be responsible.

Can anyone advise what the LAW is here?

Thank you very much

Jaje


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Mike

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13:16 PM, 16th October 2021, About 3 years ago

In my above post, I do not wish to imply that the new tenant had any devious motive, or he actually tried to fob his landlord, he may be very naive and innocent, but should have thought harder what would have been the best course of action, get a few quotes from several different locksmiths, or even asked a friend who is a DIY to come and help fix the lock, if the key was there why would it not secure, what prevented it from being secured, was it a sabotage by the old tenant who may have retained a spare key and came back and left the property insecured and superglued the locking mechanism? So this is why I call for a full investigation and through inspection of the old lock and why it would not get secured?

Jessie Jones

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22:23 PM, 16th October 2021, About 3 years ago

In response to your question regarding the actual 'law'.
Really, this would be covered by contract law. You made 2 contracts, one with the landlord, and one with the locksmith. The landlord has made no contract with the locksmith and is under no obligation to pay for any of this work.
You could try and sue the locksmith for 'unreasonable' contract, but good luck with that; the court costs would probably outweigh any award made by a court, if any. Did you agree a price beforehand? Did you obtain other quotes? As pointed out by others, Trading Standards might be your best bet, but I doubt that they would consider a prosecution unless there are many victims.
In respect of your contract with the Landlord, you will need to have a look at your tenancy agreement and see what it says abut locks or repairs but I doubt that there would be sufficient detail to cover this circumstance.
Under the Housing Act, landlords have a duty to keep their property secure, but you have a duty to inform them of any insecurity and give them the opportunity to rectify the insecurity at their own expense.
You have spent this money without any authority from the Landlord. They may have had a spare replacement lock for that door, as I swap door locks at every change of tenancy. Usually costs me 10 minutes work and £50 for a quality lock.
As others have said, it matters not what you consider to be an emergency. Would the Police, ambulance or fire brigade rush to this with their lights flashing? No? Then it's not an emergency; it's urgent and no more than that. You can't go spending someone else's money for them!
If the Landlord offers you anything at all then count yourself lucky and chalk the loss off against experience. The landlord will already be wondering whether they have let the property to the right tenant.

Paul Shears

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22:31 PM, 16th October 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 16/10/2021 - 22:23Well said. 🙂

Neil Robb

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6:40 AM, 18th October 2021, About 3 years ago

No you did it you could easily have made do one lock was working.

Let's put it this way . If you knew you would be paying this would you have done the same.

treeman

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12:06 PM, 19th October 2021, About 3 years ago

The Tenant has no concept of money when someone else is paying it is a common fault, as a lot of other comments the "locksmith" clearly mugged the tenant with such outrageous charge and some locks and barrel which at the most would have cost him some £50.00 the fire safe lock i.e. thumb turn is only required in HMO's and if the that did not have a key was therefor a non-emergency full stop they where lucky to be offered £150.00 the tenant needs to report the "locksmith"

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