Cleaner has cost me £1600

[Bootsybugs22]

I was out of the country for two days and my regular ckeaner (for 5 months) went in to clean whilst I was away. She letnherself in via a back door key left in a safe place. Our decking is really slippy so I said if she needed to go in and out she coulds use the front door once she was in. I text her to say the front door keys were square yale , labelled and in a key pot in the hall.

We have a front modern door to the porch and an older wooden self locking door from porch to house.

She called me whilst away to say she was locked in the porch because the keys i left didn't fit the door. She had picked up some other keys out the fruit bowl in the kitchen.

I called a locksmith. In the meantime she called back and said that stressful situations increase her risk of a seizure (she's epileptic) and I needed to get her out now. So I called my neighbour and asked them to force the rear back paito door. This is because the cleaner had passed the keys she had through the letterbox and one of them was for the rear patio door but not the main opener. So the neighbour tried to force the secondary door open as it could be unlocked. Anyway door got broken in the process.

Locksmith arrived. Drilled the lock, got her out, fitted a new lock. But before he'd arrived the door had been damaged by the neighbour (I gave them permission to force the door)

Today I paid the locksmith £85. Had a man round to quote on repair of the door (£1500 for new set of doors.... not repairable).

I messaged the cleaner and asked if she had insurance. She's now blocked me on WhatsApp but messaged me separately on normal text messaging to say she cancelled her insurance last year when she got her epilepsy diagnosis (why?!).

I'm at a total loss. AIBU that I want SOME recompense even if uts £85?

You are right in your last sentence. A friend of mine had one epileptic fit last year and the DVLA revoked her license for a year, to be reinstated if a year went by without a repeat episode. If the cleaner is driving she either didn't disclose her condition to the DVLA or she is driving without a license, illegal either way.

As for the incident being discussed, I'm not sure what to think. It could be a combination of carelessness by the cleaner and inadequate measures by the homeowner to minimise the risk of an accidental lock-in. I remember years back living in houses that had front doors that locked when you closed them, and hard luck if you went out without your key. Most domestic doors I use these days you have to lift the handle up and lock with the key. This one likely will have to be put down to experience.

Or she hasn't had an epileptic fit for a year and has been allowed her licence back...

And the stress of being locked out could make her have one, which makes her more stressed because a fit would stop her being able to work...

okay.. quite irrelevant then really, and it is perfectly safe, you just have to carry your keys on you, which if you are coming or going or letting someone in then you would have your keys on you anyway. if you go through any self locking door the onus is on you to be able to get back in, it doesn't make it unsafe, just different to what a lot of people are used to, the cleaner should have made sure she had the right keys before sealing herself inside. She had her phone with her so at no point was she 'not safe'.

Besides that OP didn't request that the cleaner come and clean while she wasn't there, in fact she didn't want her to, it was the cleaner that asked if she could still go in while she wasn't there.

The cleaner made a lot of decisions that day, she decided to clean in the empty house, she decided to not follow instructions regarding the location of the keys (easily done) and she decided not to check the keys were the correct ones before shutting herself into the porch.. none of those decisions were OPs 'forcing someone to accept anything'

And the stress of being locked out could make her have one, which makes her more stressed because a fit would stop her being able to work...

You know nothing about epilepsy obviously, but to be honest this statement is utter bollocks.. if 'stress' is a something that will trigger a seizure, it means her epilepsy isn't controlled by medication, so what happens when someone cuts her up on the motorway? Is that a risk you would want someone to be taking alongside you at 70mph?

It all depends on what type of epilepsy she has, and if she loses consciousness/control while having a seizure to be fair, it is possible to stay in control during certain types of seizures, so if that is her type then she may have told OP that to get a swifter response, and it wouldn't have been the more dangerous risk that a lot of people have assumed it would have been.

Either type of epilepsy will not, in itself, 'stop her being able to work'.

The cleaner has epilepsy and said it could cause a seizure

Other posters who have epilepsy have said stress can be a trigger

The NHS website says stress can be a trigger

She will know her own body and stress levels better than YOU. She will know what stresses her out. Not everyone reaches the same levels of stress from the same triggers

And if she relies on her car for work then, yes, losing her licence would stop her work. Obviously.

No, not irrelevant actually.

It's a bad design that has the potential for anyone, for whatever reason, to lock themselves in. People make mistakes, forget things for all sorts of reasons. You should never be in the situation you can't get out in a fire for example.

I have epilepsy, I know that stress can be a trigger for seizures.

If stress would trigger a seizure in her then that also means that her epilepsy isn't controlled by medication, and she could have a seizure during any type of stressful event, epilepsy can be triggered by stress, tiredness and excitement, fear.. it is pretty unpredictable that way to be honest, if it's not controlled by medication then it's not controlled end of, you can try and mitigate the risk factors, but you can't choose when a seizure will happen.

If her medication isn't controlling her epilepsy and her epilepsy leads to any sort of loss of consciousness she should not be driving, she is gambling with peoples lives.

Sounds like people panicked !
😱
That is not a good set up where someone could find themselves stuck in the porch area !
We used to live in an older property where the inner door locked when you pulled it to unless you sorted the snib so door didn’t lock .
So we changed the front door as soon as possible to a new one with a different lock , it wasn’t possible to find yourself locked in the porch although you could potentially lock yourself out of the main house .
Annoying but not unsafe .

Haven’t read all the responses.
I have cleaned for 12 years.
If I had been doing this clean, there is no way I would have locked myself in the porch without checking I have the correct keys to I let myself out. So I think there’s a large amount of responsibility on the cleaner here.

she pressured you to get someone in so I don’t think you had a choice but to have someone break in.

I would question the link between epilepsy and cancelling her insurance. Was she refused the insurance due to lone working? Should she be working alone if she is epileptic? She drove to your house though?

A good Public liability insurance doesn’t just cover breakages within the home. It covers locks and keys.

I’m usually in the side of the cleaner but this kind of thing gives us a bad name. I’d be miffed if I thought I’d hired someone reputable who told me they were insured but then quietly cancelled it.
i doubt you can get anything back but I would get some advice re a small claim against her. Do you have anything - an email/quote/ screenshot of her FB/website where she claims she is insured?

She doesn't sound the brightest ...

Sorry OP, what an expensive mistake she has been

"She" is a human being, not a mistake. Mistakes were made by both the OP and the cleaner. Neither of these people are "mistakes".

Next time you’re away, don’t have a cleaner round.

She sounds a bit thick! And it was wrong of her to let you think she was insured.
i do think that this is her fault however others are right you won’t get a penny from her. Agree to try home insurance.

I don't think that the cleaner insurance would pay for this. She hasn't damaged anything, the neighbours did, and you gave them permission to do so

Honestly, even if she did have insurance (which she should have done!) I don’t think this would be a claim on her insurance but a claim on yours. I don’t think this would be a fault on her part and if she had had a medical emergency, I think she could have had grounds to sue too, as she was stuck in your house.

Just something to keep in mind if you are going with another cleaner. You’re within your rights to ask to see their insurance certificate etc, and make sure you have a clear plan for them entering/exiting the property that eliminates the chance of them getting locked in.

Basically she couldn't follow your instructions. Bit ridiculous she was so stressed being locked in a porch too.

She sounds like a huge drama queen and attention seeker. 'Stressful situations increase my risk of seizure' oh god this is so blatantly manipulative and this is 100% not what causes seizures.

I would just accept the loss and clean your own house from now on.

The door set up is really poor. Many people experience claustrophobia.
Some of the language about this cleaner is awful.

Stress can bring on seizures, how is that manipulative? It is a known trigger as is lack of sleep, even temperature for some people.

Ok for a start I would most definetely get a second opinion on the doors.

Secondly, unless you absolutely communicated the situation with the cleaner - regarding possibly locking in - I think you are at fault. It is not normal to be able to lock yourself in like that. Even if she didn’t follow what she was meant to, it’s your house and is effectively her place of work. Did you explicitly inform her of the situation ? You should have provided that information to her and she should have taken account of it in her risk assessment, things could have been a lot worse, if you were away for a week and he had no means of phoning. I’d count yourself lucky.

i would also get a second / third carpenter round and see what they can do about the doors - that sounds crazy expensive for a door - internal solid doors start at 110 - 300 - as others have mentioned can you look at insurance.

why does she need to have insurance? surely the onus is on you to have insurance?? i don't see how any insurance she might have can cover your house's door? sorry to say, but I would have blocked you too. on top of the hassle caused to her amid her medical condition, she shouldn't also feel stress to worry about costs.

Because if in doing your job you damage someone else's property, either accidentally or through your own incompetence, the onus is on you to make good the damage caused.

It's snowflake behaviour. Everyone experiences stress. This is so stupid you can't just bend everyone to your will because if they don't obey it will 'cause you stress' that's not how being an adult in the world works.

This. It’s your problem. 🤷‍♀️

She lied to you about insurance and didn’t follow your simple instructions. Nor has she offered you anything to try and make up for her mistake. For that amount of money, and if you can prove you told her what she was supposed to do, I’d be looking into small claims court.