Locked a family out of their house on NYE

[Maisy313]

Fuckity fuck! BIL asked me to feed their car (after they had already left for holiday so didn't have much choice but fine!) returning today and I left the key they'd left me under a flowerpot on the kitchen table this morning. Turns out it's their only key as SIL has lost hers. Arghh feel like such an idiot, should I pay for energency lock smith? DH has gone round to try and break in!!

Plenty of Yale picking videos on YouTube....

Oh if it’s a yale it will be easy open. Not the best security wise.

Sil lost het key, they pay for locksmith.

I don't think you should pay, no.

If anything, it's SILs fault for losing her key!

I don't suppose it's one of the old skool 90's style locks - as in you can feed a stick through the letterbox and knock it open from below?

No, don;t think you should pay, they should have made VERY CLEAR arrangements for how you returned the key to them, and if they did not, then leaving it in the house would be a reasonable thing to assume (rather than unsafe, under a plantpot)

When I locked myself out of my Yale locked house the £95 locksmith used what to me was nothing more than a plastic wallet that the paper part of your driving license is kept in. He literally just slid it down the gap between frame and lock and like magic it was opened and I was skint.

I’d pay for the locksmith to avoid doing irreparable damage. It may not be as expensive as you think & is very easy to do. I’ve done the same before but never told the people as they would never have let me forget it.
And definitely their fault - only having one set of keys is ridiculous and when you didn’t reply to their text then they should have tried harder to get in touch with you.

That's totally the kind of thing a normal person would do, unless you had agreed you would keep the key. Hope your DH can break in soon. My DP once had to break into someone's house but he went through a lock-picking phase and had the kit. (don't ask)

@meredintofpandiculation The flower pot was outdoors. That's how the OP was able to get it after they had already left for their holiday. They then left it behind on the kitchen table.

Hmm; this needs doing AFTER you have been to a DIY store and bought a new barrel for the lock.

Drill straight into the centre of the lock, all the ‘tumblers’ fall down. If needs be open lock with screwdriver.

Then just replace the central barrel.

Not your fault, SIL’s fault for losing her keys.

How do they cope with only one key? Must be really impractical working out who is coming and going. They could have saved themselves an awful lot of bother by having one cut for a few quid.

Getting a couple of spare keys made should be their New Years resolution.

Another saying skewer like device- look on YouTube to show you how to do it. It is simple and just pops. (And also then works as normal so no damage done)

Is it a lock with a handle on the inside that can be opened by pushing a bendy hook through the letterbox and pulling the handle down?

Might it be cheaper for them to break a window to get in, and then get the existing key, rather than a locksmith?

When I was a teenager my boyfriend was very, very slim and had incredibly skinny arms. Any time he forgot his key he’d just stick his arm through the letter box and open the Yale lock from the inside.

I will ALWAYS have a deadlock on my door after witnessing that!

DH has broken a small pain of glass in back door and managed to get their back door keys out (which were in lock). BIL is buying a cat flap and my DH has offered to fit it, I think he feels guilty by association. No instructions were left about keys so I guess fault lies on both sides - can't help but secretly feel innocent though.

Fault is definitely on their side Op, not yours. They should have a spare key or at least let you know you had the only one.

Fault lies in them only, they left no instructions and didn’t even ask whether it was ok for you to feed the cat.

They sound like totally disorganised idiots. They ring to arrange pet care AFTER they've gone away and only have one key that they keep where anyone could find it. They need to buck their ideas up!

Not your fault. We always instruct people to lock our door then drop key through letterbox if it’s last day. Glad they are back in but don’t feel like you did anything unusual.

I don't suppose it's one of the old skool 90's style locks - as in you can feed a stick through the letterbox and knock it open from below?

HA! That's how I get into my parent's house. My dad has tried to make it harder to do by covering the glass so you can't see what you're doing, but it's still super-simple if you can get your arms + stick through the letter box...

If they've left their keys in the back door they're just asking to be burgled.

It's also bloody stupid of them to ask you to feed cat AFTER they've left for holiday. Keys notwithstanding, it shows how much some people think of their animals.