Shared front door

[Fabpinky]

Who is BU?

I’ve been in a silent battle for nearly 3 years now and I’m wondering who everyone thinks is being unreasonable.

Person A - Rents an office/shop that has a flat above it

Person B - Rents the flat about A’s office/shop

The silent war is over the shared front door. It goes as follows: shared front door which then leads to a tiny square with door to the office on the left, door to the flat in front.

Person A wants the shared front door locked at all times when they are not in the office e.g evenings and weekends.

Person B doesn’t want the shared front door locked at all because they say it’s a fire hazard, for example if there is a fire in the night and Person B tries to escape they won’t have their keys and would be stuck.

When discussed Person B suggested a key be permanently in the lock. Person A doesn’t want this as the door is glass panes and someone might smash to get the key.

Person B has also said that in the past if someone runs out of the flat without their keys and the front door is locked, they have been trapped in the tiny hallway until someone has been able to come and let them out.

Same landlord for both properties. He says no comment and to sort it between us.

So for the past 3 years Person A has been locking up when they leave, and Person B has been leaving it unlocked. This makes for an awkward relationship, but is probably what will continue to happen. Just curious to who is BU

I'd say A IBU because you actually live there all the time. It is the access to your home. We have a yale lock on our rented home and a dead lock but only use the dead lock if we're going away overnight. Otherwise, the yale lock suffices.

A is especially BU if you cannot leave your home quickly if there was a fire. It's alright for them, it's unlocked while they're there and then they get to go home and do whatever they like to have an escape route in case of a fire.

How many people have double locks on their own doors? It seems way over the top to have the key lock and the Yale.

I think person B is right. Both doors should be locked.

I live in a flat with this situation. We have Yale lock, and the second lock is thumbturn so you can't get in without two keys, but you can get out with none. It's a wood panelled door. The locksmith who replaced the previous Chubb refused to fit another on fire safety grounds.

The office person is in the wrong - they are not there overnight & the security of their property does not override the safety of the person living there
We have a key lock & a Yale - the key lock is never locked overnight. In the event of a fire it could be the difference between getting out & not getting out.

I would go spare at being locked in. Not on at all. If the shop owner wants more security he needs to put more on his door not a communal one.

If he continued to lock me in and the landlord won't do anything about it I would take the whole bloody lock off. If feeling kind I might replace it with a thumbturn lock (key on outside to get in, know on inside). If the shop owner is being an arse I would leave it with no lock at all. I would then remove any lock put on there every time I was locked in.

we have a key on a hook on the inside, away from eyes

just have that - but if the door is to be locked all the time, then its locked all the time, not just when its convenient for the other people

Superglue in the non-Yale lock. Oh dear, what a pity, will have to get it replaced with one that has a lever inside (or not bother since the Yale is perfectly sufficient by itself)/

A key on a hook is all very well in a normal situation but if you’re woken up by a fire alarm to a building full of smoke the time taken to find the key on the hook can be too long

Ask the landlord to see the buildings Fire Risk Assessment. He must have one and that will give you some clue as to the current requiremnets for the final exit door. Does the downstairs property have any mambers of the public visiting during opening hours?

wandrewarren- yes it does

Its a fire hazard, so since the landlord isn't interested, person B can contact the Fire Brigade and get them to step in.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-of-your-building-advice-for-tenants-and-residents

OP said the door has glass panes. So a Yale lock on its own is almost entirely pointless, tbf.

It's your home and your say. Imho

If the door has glass panes a Yale & thumb turn lock are just as easy to open but any burglar would still have to get through the internal door which can have as many locks as the office person wants

I would start locking the front door at every opportunity so his clinets and visitors can't get in without him going into the hall to let them in.

Might focus his mind on how inconvenient the overnight situation is for you.

I’m with person A. If the door is only locked with the Yale lock on a glass panelled door, what’s the point? Someone could just break the glass and open the door, even if it’s not big enough to climb through, I’m assuming an arm could fit through. So the other lock should be used as well. Person B needs to remember their keys when they go out or have the 2nd lock fixed/replaced so it doesn’t take 15 minutes to get out.

A lot of people in houses lock their doors at night and would need a key to open it in the event of a a fire to get out. I don’t see how this is any different.

From personal experience if you are out and have not put all locks on you are not insured. Also your insurance is invalid if you leave a key in the door. A very harsh learning experience for me.

I'd destroy the lock on the shared door. There's no need for it unless you BOTH agree it should be locked.

I'm surprised that people have house doors which require keys to lock inside/where people can be locked in. I can see this being a fire safety issue. Our newbuilt house has a lock thing which can always be opened on the inside but locks for the outside. The flats I've lived in have had that too.
Having said that my parents house does have a locked door but it is a very old house in a massive estate and the windows are massive and unlocked (old) so that would be the escape route.

I'd get the fire brigade to come for an assessment.

You really should have made the locking arrangements clear in the OP. Person A is being unreasonable

Our two doors are locked and require a key, surely person needs a key for their door so would have the outside door on the same ring?

This would freak me out. We've had a house fire that may have had life threatening consequences if the door had been locked with a key. I won't have the house door locked with a key when we're inside its not safe.