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.

It's wrong to allow somebody else to live there and not your problem. It's Boxing day and they should sort this themselves. Something doesn't add up about him going away not knowing his friend was there and the friend didn't have a key or know his friend was leaving. Glad you didn't give a key to somebody else with the tenant away as they could be anybody. The friend shouldn't be there anyway and they've landed themselves in it. I'd go around asap to find out what's going on and who's living there, talk to the tenant and then consider legal action.

I agree but with a proviso. Unless there’s an emergency, eg the property has been broken into and left unsecured, op has not right to gain access.

You need to check there's no damage to the door as two of them were trying to break in while the tenant's away.

OP if there's uninsured damage when you've agreed to a stranger letting themself into your property it's on your head.
That's irresponsible and ridiculous.

The OP hasn't agreed and didn't even know about this friend there until they contacted her asking for the spare key. OP hasn't given the spare key out and the two men trying to break in have left. Hopefully things will be quiet tonight and the friend has either stayed with the other man or found somewhere else.

Do you permit your tenants to copy keys? If so not your problem unless letting in locked out tenants is part of the service they are paying for. It’s still kind to allow them to come grab a spare because not everyone has people to turn to when they get stuck.

If you don’t allow tenants to copy keys then personally I think you are obligated to provide access if someone gets locked out (with fees set as per your lease in advance). If you can’t drive then you need to get someone to drive you. This should all be set out in your lease.

The kind thing to do is to provide access as you have. Worry about the subletting issue after - find out if it’s a friend house sitting or visiting for a few weeks vs moving in long term. Frankly I think landlords should have less say in how tenants use their homes.

I’d be doing a search for an Airbnb listing matching your property to be honest OP. Convenient that this happens as your tenant heads away and is uncontactable.

YANBU. You’ve agreed to let someone collect a spare key from you on the tenant’s behalf.

If they didn’t leave a spare key with a local friend or neighbour, in case they lock each other out, it’s their problem. I assume the friend has someone to stay with and can arrange with their bank to get money without their card if they don’t want to collect the key from you. The tenant is entitled to have visitors to stay. But if they’re charging the friend rent, they are subletting and have obviously signed the tenancy agreement with you, so have to abide by its terms.

Also agree it’s important to be alert to scams, to avoid inadvertently helping someone burgle your tenant while they’re abroad. Best to wait until you can get hold of the tenant.

How did they know your details?

No, this is not right at all. The OP is not providing a service. She is renting a property to an individual based on a set of contractual obligations that go both ways. She has hopefully performed all the right identification checks on renting the property. Having had that done, she needs to be ABSOLUTELY clear on who is requesting access tonight. I'm not saying it's the case here, but imagine if this was an upset person with bad intentions wanting to get in!?

Either way OP. You made all the right decisions tonight. You may need to speak to your tenant in the new year.

It's a bloody cheek to eclectic you to take a key to an illegal tenant.

I’m thinking of legitimate scenarios where a tenant has authorized someone to enter the flat while they are abroad and the key has been lost. Maybe something like they hired a pet sitter and the pet sitter lost the key. The cat or dog inside still needs tending. I might reach out to the landlord in that scenario to see if they could help. I would expect some hefty fees for changing the locks when the whole situation is over though.

or maybe I was in a car accident and my keys were lost in the process. I’m being released from the hospital, but my spare keys are of course locked safely inside the home.

calling up and saying you have an unauthorized housemate is just sheer stupidity.

The person trying to gain access isn’t a tenant and the fact anyone is locked out whether named on the tenancy agreement or not is not her responsibility. Op shouldn’t be allowing access to the property to an adult not listed on the tenancy agreement as they are not approved to live there.

As you are not a landlord, you have no idea of our legal obligations to tenants. What may seem strange or controlling to you is protecting both our interest and for the protection of our tenants.

This random guy hasn’t been declared by the tenant as living there, which is highly suspect as you’d normally expect someone to know the whereabouts of a friend when leaving to go abroad for some days. This sounds very suspicious and quite possibly a case of illegal subletting.

Two keys for one tenant is more than enough. A landlord has an obligation to give keys to every tenant listed on the agreement so the tenant has double the required amount. Keys are the legal property of the landlord and should not be surrendered to a third party not listed on the tenancy so additional key cutting is an irrelevance.

"You have no idea of our legal obligations to tenants. What may seem strange or controlling to you is protecting both our interest and for the protection of our tenants'

My point exactly. Thank you.

Thanks. I think you made some good points yourself. 😊

I tried. 😄

I am not a legal expert and while if truly sublet you have grounds for eviction if the friend is living with the tenant you may not although could evict at end of tenancy. I know when I moved in with my then boyfriend to his rented flat the letting agents tried to increase the rent and enforce a similar clause. Luckily my friend is/was a letting agent and told us to tell them to do one (we were going to love out at then dof tenancy anyway) as it breached my boyfriends right to quiet enjoyment of the property and the ability to treat the property as his home.

What a cheeky tennant, I'd tell them that they will be paying for any repairs, and that no one else is to be there more than two weeks

I normally always side with the tenant, having had some utterly shitty landlords... but in this case the tenant is firmly in the wrong. I got locked out as a tenant and it didn't occur to me to bother the landlord - in fact I was really worried about letting them know after the fact, as I had to get a locksmith out. I didn't want them to think I was irresponsible.

If it were a houseshare I wouldn't be surprised the tenant didn't check the other occupier wasn't home - I've definitely lived in houseshares where I wouldn't have said anything when I was coming and going. But it does make it sound more like a sublet than a 'friend'.

Me too actually. You would also be able to see if the property is being sublet.

What I've not seen mentioned is a locksmith won't give access to a person unless they can show they legitimate live there e.g. a tenancy agreement with their name on and some ID.

OP this isn't your problem and I don't think you should get involved.

I suspect the tenant has subletted just for his holiday, or a friend has found themselves in a fix and the tenant wants to help them out while being away. The story honestly doesn't add up unless the friend is hopelessly disorganised.

I'd try and get to the bottom of it in the new year. I'd request an inspection then and go round for a chat so you can see the lie of the land e.g. if someone is living there.

Do you have him saying in writing in one of the messages that the friend lives with him?

Don’t think that’s true. I’ve called out a locksmith several times and I’ve never been asked for this. There’s a difference between what you would like them to do and what they do in reality…

I have personal experience of this, both as tenant and landlord. I thought this was universally the case! I stand corrected