This is a situation my daughter and her husband are in, so would like some advice on legalities if possible please. I will try to keep it a reasonsable length and factual, and will only give more detail if I deem it necessary for the point. Please bear in mind that this happened at 5.30pm on Easter Sunday.
Here goes.....
My daughter and her husband, dc 4.5 and 4 mths, are privately renting a flat that they have been in now for 6 months. There have been a few issues with the front door to the flat and things have now become difficult.
a. Daughter was having issues with opening their flat door - the key would not turn but a bit of WD40 helped at first. Daughter let the landlord know about this back in February 22. He was going to come around to take a look and booked a day/time with her but "forgot to come". He asked my daughter to keep him updated about the situation. The door behaved itself for a while so my daughter pretty much forgot about it.
b. My daughter went out with her children on Easter Sunday and took everything she needed for a short visit plus a few extras. Baby has been under GP for problems with feeding - is now on special baby powder milk (this is important info) and it is only given with a prescription. Daughter took 1 extra bottle's worth of milk as spare as she wasn't going to be long.
c. When my daughter returned home she could, again, not get into the flat. The key had stopped turning altogether and nothing we did could fix it. She called her landlord's mobile number and it went to voicemail, she left a message. We waited an hour outside with children becoming hungry. Baby had the bottle that was there and DS had a polo mint. Still no response from landlord so daughter then texts him saying it is urgent.
d. I googled a locksmith and got a call out about 40 mins later. The locksmith tried his hardest to open the door with keys and also with a contraption and mirror to get to the latch inside... he could not get in. At this point we are told that the only way in is to drill out the lock. We knew it was a security lock and was quite expensive, but by this time we didn't even know if the landlord was in the country.
e. Lock is drilled, price shoots up to £300 and daughter pays it out of her rent money. She sends a text to the landlord with a copy of the receipt - he then gets back to her immediately saying that he had never authorised the lock to be drilled, why didn't she ask, why didn't she walk down the road to where he lives (about 1/2 a mile and she doesn't know the house number), why didn't she come around my house and wait. etc etc etc. and that he IS NOT going to reimburse her. Daughter texts back that the reason all the above did not happen is that she didn't get a response from him, she had his address information INSIDE the flat, going to my house still did not sort the milk issue for her baby, and she had to get in.
f. Landlord sends a text asking why she did not call one of his locksmiths.... erm he never told her about HIS locksmiths and she had no contact details.
g. Dad now returns and gets involved, Daughter very very upset as she feels stupid. Landlord still refusing to do anything and will speak to them in 2 days time (this was a Sunday) as he was too annoyed to discuss it.
h. Landlord asks why they didn't call the agent - the agent is not managing the property, the landlord is. AND it is Easter Sunday evening.
i. Downstairs communal door lock isn't working so my daughter is now living in a flat without proper security.
j. Landlord comes on the Tuesday with HIS locksmith, who says it probably cannot be mended and may need to be replaced, but took the lock away anyway to see if it can be fixed. Left with a hole in the door where the lock was - only way to secure the door is with a second lock at the bottom.
k. Lock still has not been fixed - door is being kept shut by the bottom lock - the door bangs loudly at night as it is not properly locked - daughter finds out that the door isn't actually a fire door and even if it was, they wouldn't be able to open it quickly in the event of a fire as it is locked at the bottom.
SO.... where does my daughter stand with getting the money back from the Landlord for paying £300 to enter her flat when the lock, that he knew was faulty, was not fixed when originally reported. AND he did not reply to the call or text because he was "cooking dinner".
I believe he should pay it, he says not. To cap it off, he owns a property management company! He now says he needs to replace the WHOLE DOOR and it is on order. There is no way of knowing when they will have a secure door for their flat.
Please help. Sorry its so long. Thank you