Locksmith quoted £50 and charged £351.60

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I got locked out of my new flat today. My autistic son opened the door and made a run for it, I ran out after him and the door shut behind me.

My landlady couldn't find her copy of the key (she has dozens of keys due to her actual job - but she has some pretty serious health problems, so I felt terrible bothering her with it in the first place)

I looked online and found a locksmith company that will come and pick the lock and let you in for £50. Happy days. No pressure on my landlady. She was happy for me to proceed and said ofc the £50 would come off my rent.

Locksmith came and had a 2 second fiddle with the lock and said he couldn't pick that type of lock (standard yale) so he'd have to drill through and replace the lock otherwise I wasn't getting in the flat. I had my 3 kids with me.

He wanted payment there and then and said I'd have to recoup the £ from my Landlady. I asked for the total £351.60

I had no choice but to pay it.

I feel a bit conned. Is this the norm? To advertise a service at a reasonable price and then turn up and quadruple it?

My bank account is pretty much empty now and whilst I'm sure my Landlady will get the money to me somehow, she has said as much and she's a really nice person so wouldn't not help me, it all feels pretty shit.

Having read the last page I see OP has realised she was scammed but that was what I came here to say - absolutely no way is replacing a Yale lock going to cost £350!

OP, we also have an autistic son who makes frequent runs for it. So I feel your pain! Recently we had new locks put on the front door because now he can reach the chain etc and it doesn't even slow him down. So alongside the yale-type lock (that he can open with the handle from inside in an instant - it slams shut behind you on the outside, like yours) we had a large Chubb-type lock (the sort with a chunky key) and the locksmith apologised for the fact that they're much more expensive. He also supplied two new keys for another door to replace ones we'd lost, and fitted four window locks (we supplied those) he was there about 2 hours with his nifty little locksmith van (with a key cutters in the back!).

It cost us £158 including VAT. That is for a much more expensive lock type than your Yale. Scamming bastard.

I'm absolutely devastated. He has taken almost the entirety of my budget for the month. That's food and bills. I don't know how people like him can sleep at night, and he was being so OTT friendly aswell. Pure evil.

In my case, my key actually snapped in my Yale lock as I turned it. Locksmith came out and had to drill the lock out, replace and fit new one.

IIRC, it cost £221 in 2020. Standard cost for this kind of problem. No, I wasn't scammed. Landlord reimbursed me too.

Locksmith also said the landlord didn't have front doors that was compliant with legislation. Of the three flats, the one I was in and another were illegal.

I was out of there six months later.

Yes I've experienced this before - quotation for work but reluctance to give a written quotation when they advised that more or different work is needed. As I said before, was an expensive lesson for us.

Now I refuse to authorise work without a written quotation. I think it is a way that scammers operate, like a form of upselling without proper informed consent.

That was before I saw the later post about OP stating the locksmith trumped the cost by telling them to claim key was broken in lock.

The cost for a key broken in lock is about that much. The OP will require evidence the key wasn't broken in lock and that the locksmith was playing the system.

Ordinarily, it is the landlord's responsibility to reimburse a tenant the costs of a key broken in lock.

Hope you get your money back OP, tradesmen like that are scum.

Any idea how I can prove the key wasn't broken in the lock to begin with? I'm not sure how I can if that's the lie he's going to go with to justify the cost which is clearly what the company does every time.

I have the correspondence with my landlady explaining what had happened, why im locked out plus the fact I met her at her place of work to collect her spare key (the key turned out to be the wrong key) - which I wouldn't have bothered doing if the key really had snapped in the lock.

I'm so glad i found all of those reviews i can show to the disputes team at my bank because the bastard may have gotten away with it otherwise.

Seriously wondering where the hell everyone on this thread lives. It cost me £60 to call out a locksmith 4 years ago for a lock change and he fixed my letterbox too! South Wales Valleys, I recommend you all move here 😀 Also find it funny that usually Mnetters are all up in arms about landlords being scum and not caring about tenants, now they're not responsible for holding a spare key and should not be charged ... can't win! You've been scammed Op. That is a standard barrel.

This is a standard cost OP. It’s £50+ VAT call out (that’s actually cheap). If they can open it ok, but if not they have to replace the whole lock and front door locks are really expensive. If they replace your lock with a cheap one that’s easily pickable and you get burgled - that’s no benefit to you.

The agency won't necessarily come round to let you in if you lock yourself out, they will send a locksmith who will bill you.

Eg Banham front door locks (which are the most secure) are well over £300.

If the bank does not refund your money, escalate the complaint- and again if necessary.
If they still don't , take the bank to the ombudsman.
If that doesn't work, try the consumer affairs sections of the national newspapers. But I suspect the bank will refund it.

I really hope so. I've never had to raise anything like this with the bank before so have no idea what my chances are.

If my tenant did this, I'd probably drive over with my spare key. 45 mins away. I wouldn't charge for it, but they'd have to wait till I'd finished teaching and I'd hope they'd offer me a tea!

Won't your ring door bell have recorded it?

I don't have a ring doorbell. I'm not well to do, I'm a single parent with a disabled child. If I could afford a ring doorbell I probably wouldn't be so upset about being scammed for £350 😂

Hi, so your landlady should have a spare key. If she doesn’t then maybe that is why she is willing to pay for the locksmith. Let her pay this time. In return keep the flat in a lovely condition and pay your rent on time.
Lesson here is 1. Be kind to yourself. 2. Make copies of the new key. Make sure the landlady has one as well - with a labelled key ring so she knows which flat it belongs to. Keep your copy with a trustworthy friend or if you have a DP at work keep it there.
Breath.

Oh sorry I thought I saw you say on a precious post that you had a picture of him on your ring door bell, my mistake

That's OK, it made me laugh and I needed one of those!

Somebody else asked if I had a ring doorbell that caught a pic of him and I replied with a pic I'd taken on my phone.

I'm not a locksmith but do pick locks as a hobby and I'd be confident to pick that, standard Yale locks are very easy, if they're at all worn they are prone to being bumped or raked

He took the old key and snapped it in half in the lock

What old key??? You ran outside WITHOUT the key, so what key did he shove in the lock and snap off??? This makes no sense.

Hello
there are a series of locksmiths online who are a known scam. They have very professional websites. They say it's sixty quid. Then when they come they say they can't do the job for that and remove the entire lock. The price can go over a thousand.
i found out about the scam as I called one once as my lock locksmith was off work. The guy came and told me it would cost 300 to have the lock removed. I have ADHD and I'm always loosing my keys so i knew they wasn't true. I said no but had to pay him sixty quid to go away. Then my normal locksmith came round and opened the door in under three minutes without taking apart anything. 80 quid.
the fake locksmiths are called things like 24hr emergency locksmith. They are all run by the same bloke - I can't remember what I found out but he's Roumanian and he's been investigated by consumer affairs programmes. It's a known con. Can't remember more.

Is it one of those doors that doesn't have a handle..... If so, done the same many times when I lived in Germany. Guy came with a credit card type thing to slide the lock open in 15 seconds. In our block of flats (all military and was a common occurance, especially when going to do the laundry in the cellar) we had a bit of plastic hung in the communal hall.

He should have forced the yale lock and just fitted a new and better mortice lock elsewhere on the door. Yale locks are useless. Locksmiths are skilled tradespeople but the price the OP is ridiculous. I wouldn't have paid it, and if he'd told me how much it was going to be beforehand, I'd have stood my ground and said I'd call another locksmith.

Yup, that’s why I have Banham, but they’re over £300.