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.

That's a fair update and a good plan.

Hi @Catcherintherice it does seem like your tenant is sub letting. I’d have to ask the neighbours to keep an eye on the flat. Another thing you could do is go open up let the ‘friend’ take their belongings and make sure he doesn’t take key. ‘Friend’ will probably try breaking in again and harassing you with cas if they can’t. You can keep hold of the spare keys.

If the Tenant has definitely breached his Tenancy agreement I suggest you move to evict (legally)
Evictions are taking uo to a year at the moment but it IS a Landlords market so you should be able to get another Tenant who is less hassle

Have you looked on air BnB and spare room to see if you tenant is subletting the room when he’s away ?

What cheeky buggers they are! I'm glad the neighbour thinks your property is still secure and I would definitely be there to speak to the actual tenant when they return home. Definitely not on!

Yes I have now following suggestions on here.

There’s no sign of it.

You are lucky to have such good neighbours!

I am a landlord and have had this happen before.

The friend is not a permitted occupier of the flat, and therefore has no contract with you. How can you prove how legitimate the contact is?

I would not be providing a key. It is not your responsibility. The tenant needs to make arrangements to come home and grant the access or they need to go to relative until tenant comes home….

I’d be cautious about letting in a rando to get ‘his things’. OP shouldn’t have to incur any risk.

Is it a 2 bedroom flat ? Do you know how long the tenant is abroad for?

It’s 2 bedrooms plus a smaller room which is possible only a study/ nursery.

The tenant said he was visiting family. He is not originally from U.K. I don’t think he said how long he’d be away, but I got the impression it was a reasonably short time.

I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to visit the property and change my plans , it’s still the Xmas period. The friend who isn’t locked out , will have to make their own arrangements and stay somewhere else. The friend and your tenant have created this problem.
If your tenant calls you again, ask them what exactly they expect you to do about it and whist your at it ask them why they have someone else staying there who’s been locked out.

Your tenant might be genuine and have a friend staying for a few day but they lacked common sense by ringing you late at night on Boxing day for something that doesn’t warrant an emergency?

Is your tenant from abroad out of interest? Perhaps they didn’t understand that it was Boxing Day and when you say they went abroad was it their home country ? Maybe their culture is different to ours?

Your tenant is breaking the terms of his lease. It’s his problem, frankly.

And you need to say something to your tenant. Weigh up whether he’s worth keeping on.

I'm usually the first to speak up for tenants having well and truly been done over by unscrupulous landlords myself, but this is cheeky beyond all recognition! Your offer for them to pick up a key was very generous! If the tenant was allowing someone else to stay there while they were away, it is 💯 their responsibility. If they are charging that person/subletting then they are breaking the contract and you could boot them out.

If you're worried about security you could organise the lock change and charge them for it.

Hopefully your tenant will be back from his Christmas holiday soon and sort it all out. It could be that he just let a friend stay there while he was away. As the landlord myself, I think you’ve behaved impeccably. But being in the middle of an eviction myself, I wouldn’t start one if you’re tenant has up until this blip been a good tenant.

I mean it does happen there is a house close to me that was let out to a small family.
I don’t know the landlord but my ex neighbour was friends with them and she had told me that the landlord only lets to families and didn’t want it as a flat share.

this year there have been at least three other adults living there. Still quiet and no problems but i noticed them in and out or parking up etc
I got chatting to one guy. he seems nice enough and in the course of conversation we were asking questions, what do you do etc. he asked me if I’m married. Small talk type chat.
I said so you’re living with family, it must be nice to stay with people close to you while you establish yourself in a new country and he replied oh no I only rent a room here. He was open about it and seemed happy he had a nice room on a quiet street to rent so I don’t think as far as he knows that the landlord wouldn’t have had this setup.

so the family who have moved in have seemingly let out the extra two rooms.

i don’t know how to contact the landlord even if I wanted to inform them as the other neighbour has moved away now.

none of this is relevant really but it’s to show that people do do this if they have the room to even when they don’t have permission.

for you though.
now you know obviously you can’t ignore it but it sounds like you know how you want to handle it. But you will have to wait until the tenant comes back from his visit.

Once you start subletting , it becomes an HMO so have implications for the landlord licensing wise

It would probably be cheaper for the tenant to next day courier his keys to another local friend of his and have the sub letter pick them up and cut a spare set, than pay £400 for a locksmith, although if they book a locksmith in advance, it wouldn't be £400, more like £50.

Obviously this will be sorted when the tenant returns and OP has a conversation with him to find out whether the friend was just staying or is living there. If he's subletting then it was unfortunate they've let it be known!

maybe your Tenant got himself a lodger, or maybe "friend" is really tenants live in romantic partner? who knows.

I never said let him in.

as property owner I would want to check out what is actually happening in her property, returning any left wallets etc & hopefully avoid more men trying to break down her door?

From the ‘information’ you’ve been given, the tenant has offered to lend flat to a mate while away and has forgotten to given them the keys. This is obviously nothing to do with you and friend should find alternative arrangements. Though yes would go and check state of the property/windows etc!

All sounds very shifty, I’d be very firm with tennent on return at least if not terminating contract

This. I am a LL and there is no way I would make a key available. You are nullifying your insurance right there!

My next move would be to find a new tenant. The tenancy agreement clearly means bugger all to them.