Estate agent locked me out!

[E853]

Advice please! My estate agent has a key to my front door for access for viewings. On Saturday I returned home to find the sales person had locked my back door and left the key in the lock(on the inside). This is my usual entry ....I NEVER use my front door. The branch closed at 4pm so noone available ...I left messages and sent emails, plus eventually put out a plea on social media.

I had no choice other than to find a local hotel and also a rush shop to Asda for essentials I.e. underwear, toothbrush etc.

The next morning someone shared the manager's profile link to FB and I messaged her with my phone number.

She phoned me at 9.30am and was passive aggressive.. saying it wasn't her staff member, it was my fault, etc etc She eventually offered to get my key to my workplace...I waited until 2pm and the viewing agent arrived again denying it was her fault!! She eventually apologised when I challenged her with the facts.

Meanwhile I was told the manager promised to call me on Monday to discuss....it is now 6pm with no contact.

Am I being unreasonable to expect a phone call plus full reimbursement of my expenses? I found the cheapest hotel - not easy on a Saturday night with event visitors filling most hotels.... £90 plus £30 of essentials.

Sorry but I think you are being unreasonable. Even if you had explained this beforehand, you can't really expect the viewings assistant to remember. Unless you wrote it on the keys or something. And wouldn't it have been cheaper to call a locksmith to get you in?

I don't understand - you had the key to your back door on you, but they'd left the key in the lock so you couldn't get in? You didn't have your front door key with you? Did they have both sets of keys?

Sorry I also think you’re a little unreasonable, unless you specifically asked them not to leave the key there? Most households keep the back door key in the lock and use the front door.

They maybe owe u an apology but yabvu to expect reimbursement

When you say you never use your front door, is that your choice or out of necessity?

Did the EA know?

Check if your contract with the estate agent allows you to walk away and then find another one. Costs them far more than paying you for the hotel etc costs.

What a nightmare unless you given instructions it not unreasonable to assume u use the front door

i don’t know what you are expecting the EA manager to do if I was them I wouldn’t be reimbursing you

Why can't you use the front door?

What was the issue with going in the front door?

Estate Agents should keep notes on their key system for extremely unusual access arrangements like this. If you informed them in writing when signing up, YANBU. If you didn't, YABU.

Did you tell the agent you don't use your front door and don't carry a key to it? Otherwise it would perfectly reasonable of them to lock the back door and leave the key in it assuming you would use the front door like 99% of the population

I don’t understand why you didn’t have a front door key? I only really use our back door but still always have a front door key

This. It depends how clear you made it to them that they’d need to leave the back door accessible to you and that you wouldn’t have a front door key. Otherwise they’d presume you’d have a key to your own (front) door.

Are they showing the place for your benefit? Or a LL? It's rude to not respond, if you feel strongly about it, you could withdraw your permission for viewings going forward.

Agree that it would have been a good idea to take both front and back keys with you on viewing days though to avoid similar

Agree with the others, if you made it clear what the system was either verbally or in writing and they accepted that then they don't have a leg to stand on as it's their mistake and you are not responsible for their systems not working. However if you didn't then I don't think they were negligent as they couldn't have known about the unusual system.

I'm here to find out the reason OP didn't use her front door key. Most people have a spare.

It may be relevant that I live in Yorkshire, where it is fairly common for people to use the back door as standard (it gave me no end of a jump when we moved here and visitors would automatically come round through the garden!). But I do think the EA was daft to leave a key in the lock at the back when she'd been left a front door key. EAs are usually expected to leave everything exactly as it was - if the OP couldn't get in because the key was already in the lock, that's something to be mortified and apologetic about, not blase.

I do think you ought to carry a front door key, OP - and also, have you tried putting your key in the lock and shaking it to see if you can dislodge the one inside? Worth knowing if you can in case of this sort of thing.

How is that reasonable though? It is very poor form to leave keys in locks when a house is empty, regardless who put them there, as it's easy for a burglar to gain access or at the very least to leave more easily.

If the OP uses that door, there is no way that a key could have been in it when OP left the house (unless it's a UPVC / Composite style door & OP left a key half-in, half-out, so whoever did the viewing will have had to take the key from somewhere and then left it in the lock instead of putting it back where it came from.

The EA is an arse for not sending someone round to remove the key as soon as she found out what the problem was (I do not understand why a key had to be taken to the workplace). So EA is BU.

But I also have to say OP is BU for not having a full set of keys on her at all times, and for not having a spare set with someone she trusts, purely for emergencies, of which this was.

Missing the point - but wouldn't a locksmith be cheaper?

I don't think that's missing the point at all. I was thinking about breaking a window, if not the OP's back door then one at the estate agents, the latter on principle if nothing else.

^ I was thinking this.

“I NEVER use my front door.” - Why?!

Did you tell them that? YABU to expect them to know or remember this in my opinion.

But as I said in my post, the EA has no business leaving keys in doors. It's very bad they did this. They should have put the back door key away.

Did you try to force the key into the lock? Mine is a Yale lock and it's not easy but I can still unlock it if a key has been left in, it shifts the barrel so I have to fix that after but I can at least get in.

I keep all my keys on a key ring so I always have ALL of them them in case of emergencies. I also have people who keep a spare for the front door.

There is ALWAYS a chance you will lose your keys or get locked out so you need a backup plan (that doesn't involve spending over a hundred quid on a hotel room and Asda delivery).

It does sound bloody annoying though.

You should have used a locksmith and then charged the estate agent. It silly not to have a front door key, but anyone with an ounce of common sense knows not to leave keys in doors as a security precaution.