We hired a cat-sitter for our holiday and gave her the spare key to the house.
She managed to lose this halfway through the holiday and borrowed my SIL's spare key, promising she'd leave it on the mat when she did her last day (SIL uses the key to do our cleaning, plus she's our emergency lock-out person).
We got back, I was suffering badly from a D&V thing so I went straight to the bathroom and stayed there for 48 hours - it was only when SIL rang me to get her key back that I realised we hadn't had the key returned.
I rang the catsitter, she was profusely apologetic, said she had now found our spare key and would drop them off - she then (rather peculiarly) asked if she could drop them off at SIL's work, as it was 'easier' (SIL works literally 5 mins walk from our house and there's no parking there), I said no, SIL was still off work for the school hols, could she bring them round to the house, if we weren't in could she post them through the letterbox. She said she would come round that evening.
Yep, you guessed it, she didn't. It is now nearly a month since we returned from holiday and we have no spare keys. I am leaving messages on her mobile and emailing her to no avail. Yesterday the phone was picked up, I said 'hello' and it was put down, I rang back it went to voicemail. Now, if she forgot to come, fair enough, but why doesn't she just say? I have asked if it's inconvenient for her to come round if I can go to hers and pick them up at a time to suit her - no response!
It's getting beyond a joke and SIL can't get in to do the cleaning so the house is even more of a mess than usual! Not to mention that someone out there has not one but two keys to our home... Security aspects aside, I am loath to get a new copy made while this woman still has the keys - will I have to change the locks??
So... is there anything that I can do? I don't have her address, she's just moved house (but the one time I did speak to her she swore blind that she had the keys safely), if she won't contact me do I have any kind of redress/is there any way I can make her give them back? Would the local trading standards people be of any use or would they not be interested - the police?? Am I overreacting? (probably, but the fact she won't call me back is beginning to seriously bother me)
Cheers