Tenant’s ’friend’ locked out

[Catcherintherice]

I am a landlord and around an hour ago took a phone call from my tenant. He is visiting family and accidentally locked out his friend who lives with him. Friend has no key and apparently no money as his cards are in the flat.
The friend is not a tenant and has never been a permitted occupier. Today is the first time the tenant has told me he is actually living there.
The flat is over 30 miles from me. I have visitors and have been drinking. I am probably not over the legal limit but I never drive after any alcohol.
I am not really happy about giving access to someone who isn’t a tenant, but as the tenant says he is there, I have offered that he can get someone to collect a key from my home.
I can’t think of anything else. I have posted in AIBU as I don’t think I’m being unreasonable in not offering anything else, and can’t think of what more I can do.
He has contacted a locksmith who has quoted over £400, and wants payment before he comes out.

Grief!!!

So I assume per the tenancy agreement pets are also not allowed?

It’s funny how people here have more concern for the pets than humans!

😂

Or the tenant may simply not be clued up on UK tenenacy agreements, they may not even have realized they'd done anything wrong.

Cock up is much more often the answer than conspiracy ime

The Tenant should really have read the contract before signing it
Unfortunately it is very very difficult to evict even people who break their Tenancy agreements and takes a long time and can cost £

You don’t need to be “clued up” on UK tenancy agreements (which can vary).

You just need to read your own.

If the tenant chose to sign a lease agreement without reading it then I reiterate they are breathtakingly stupid.

Hold the front page, some people are stupid, that's just life, have you ever met anyone who did everything right? I haven't, doesn't necessarily make them a bad person out to con the landlord

That’s why I said illegal sublet OR breathtakingly stupid.

Thank you to everyone who has commented.

I am an experienced landlord, and no longer use letting agents as they rarely saved me any difficulty. In this situation they would still have had to contact me, but would also have charged me for the privilege.

I am quite laid back. There is no point in any sort of knee jerk reaction to someone else being in the property. Even if I knew conclusively that the tenant was subletting the whole property ( which I really don’t think is the case) I would still have to go through due court process to evict, which could take months.

I think in this case the tenant has made things worse by not speaking to me. If his friend/ cousin wants to live there and has the right to reside in the UK I would be happy to facilitate this. He has been a good and conscientious tenant otherwise.

I also have no objection to some caged pets, but again I need to be made aware of them and would need to check that there were no issues with overloaded electrics, odour or anything else detrimental to the property.

I issue a specimen Tenancy Agreement via email several days before the meeting to sign the paper agreement so that it can be read and understood, but it’s clearly not happened here.

I have arranged to go and see the tenant on his return. I am pretty confident that all concerns can be resolved. All of this drama could have been avoided if he had just spoken to me beforehand, and I will be stressing that he communicates more effectively in future.

If it can’t all be resolved, or there is more to the situation than is already apparent, I will have to consider if other action is necessary.

It was also not an emergency requiring numerous drunk calls at near midnight.

You do sound laid back and a good landlord - realistically, renting can be a read shit sandwich with a bad landlord and it just doesn't need to be. Easier in all cases, for all involved, to take an attitude like you have.

All of it would have been solved if he'd got a taxi to you at the first offer and just been honest - I can see why he would be nervous to do so but it is what it is.

I hope he's grateful for you.

You sound an excellent landlord OP.

Your neighbour said there are 2 men living there. Your tenant says his cousin is only living there to pet sit which is fine as less than 14 days. Which is it? I assume he didn't mention pets during first phonecall because he knew they aren't permitted. Remind tenant that he can't sublet and needs to discuss pets. I'd personally be wary of what other rules he might be breaking.

You sound a fair landlord and that's sensible. Agree the issue here is you weren't told of what was happening and found out. Good idea to go around to investigate yourself and speak to the tenant on returning. If this is a genuine situation it can be resolved or if not you have the legal route.

And if it's due to food being left out rather than say a hole in the wall then it is very much the tenant's responsibility

Depends how they got in.

Food left out
Door left open
Mice in = tenant responsibility

Structural defects
Mice in = landlord responsibility