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.

Also here to find out what is wrong with the front door and why you don't carry that key with you?
I doubt the EA will reimburse you and will ask the same-why don't YOU carry keys to all your own doors? 🤔

I had an estate agent who lost the key to my house - they paid for another one to be made. I was selling my house empty at the time so I wasn't living in it.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable on the basis that it’s bad practice to leave a key in the lock, regardless of whether they’d expect you to use your front door of not.

Surely you have a front door and a key to open it @E853.
If so, then you are being unreasonable.

Keys shouldn't have been left in locks! I'd expect a full reimbursement.
Why couldn't she just lock the door and put the key away like a normal person?

Presumably shocked the back door from the inside and left the key in it then left the property by the front door and locked that behind her.

That's what we do every day. Completely normal.

We leave the key in the back door permanently. It's locked from the inside then if we leave the house we leave by the front door and lock that behind us.

That may be your normal, and may be part of your family's risk assessment, as indeed it may be for millions of families. I accept this totally.

However, it is considered (that is, by those who dispense security advise) to be very unwise, as a thief who breaks in by, say a window, has an immediate and easy way to exit the house. Similarly, if the door has a glass panel & easy reach to the key if broken, it makes an ideal way to get into the house.

Assuming no key was in the lock when the OP left the house, the fact that the EA (AKA a professional in all things to do with houses) left a key in the lock is appalling on several levels. The key should have been put back where it came from as a matter of course...goodness knows the EAs who have shown me round houses in the recent past have all gone to great lengths to make sure internal doors have been left exactly as they were upon arrival, and that nothing else is out of place. To leave a key in the door without the home owners consent is utterly appalling.

It might not be best practice. It's hardly "utterly appalling". If you use that much hyperbole about a door that was securely locked and just had the key left in it what would you have left to describe the situation if it had actually been left unlocked? Or with the key on the outside?

I leave the key in the door so I can unlock it and exit if the house is on fire.

Most new homes have a turny lock thing on the inside for this exact purpose. Its a quirk of British houses that it can be possible to be locked inside which is a fire hazard.

I'd be just as annoyed. The scenarios you mention are no different from what happened, in terms of the lack of attention to detail.

I accept the security risk from a key in the door and a door unlocked is much greater than one left in the door from the inside, of course it is, but the lack of attention to detail from an organisation whose job is all things houses I find appalling.

Like everything in life, nothing is ever a problem until it's a problem. They left a key in the door and the OP couldn't get in. Thus, it became a problem.

I leave a key in my locked front door at night, and easy access to keys at all times when I am home. When I go out, all keys are removed & hidden out of sight. I had a neighbour who was burgled and was told by the police she may not have had so much taken had she not made it so easy to leave the house due to keys in the locks (the thieves broke in through a window).

I work as a domestic cleaner and I'm in & out of houses all time...while Yale locks on wooden doors are very much a thing, on UPVC & composite doors it's very rare for me to see one of those turny-things you mention (though I have seen them, so I know what you are talking about).

Of those doors with a Yale, almost all have a mortice too, which many of my clients use when out.

Yes, I have a spare front door key...I also have a shed key, a garage key and numerous other keys but I dont carry them all with me! In 28 years I have never taken my front door key with me because I NEVER use my front door. I keep the key next to the front door so I can open it for the very odd delivery.

The key back door was locked when I left to go to work...I left the spare key in an obvious place for the EA to use to show the viewer the utility room and garden...the EA admitted making a mistake...I accept that. However, that mistake caused me to have to go to a hotel at 10.30pm as I had no other option.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on this. I hope the EA's customer service improves but I'm not hopeful.

I don't park near my front door...I park in a driveway around the side of the property...the back door is my obvious entry.

In 28 years I have never taken my front door key with me because I NEVER use my front door.

But in 28 years how many times have you entrusted a stranger to lock up? You can do what you like with doors and keys when it's only you (or people you've raised) but once you factor in other people you need to be more prepared. And you don't need to take shed keys since they are locked away inside your house - so you only need to ensure full access to the house. Full access = both front and back door keys. But saying that, more people are likely to have a front door but not back door key rather than how you do it.

If you had told them this, then end the relationship and get a new estate agent.

We had an agent who left our balcony open after a viewing when it was raining and the bedroom got soaked. We stuck with them and then the front door look broke during/after a viewing (we had to call a locksmith to get into our home and replace the lock). I wish we'd found a new agent after the first duck up.

@E853 Thank you for the update. One thing I cannot understand (and therefore would be grateful if you could explain), why was it that the key had to be taken to your workplace? If I was the EA and knew at 9:30am what had happened, I would have wanted to get round to your house ASAP to remove the key, so you could come back home and use your back door key as you expected to do so originally.

Why did they want to bring you your front door key? And on another point, if it was the EA or their representative who left the key in the door, why was the EA being an arse about it?

All very well but you haven't answered the question - did you give the EA clear instructions about how to enter and leave the property and what to do with the keys? Did the EA ONLY have a key to the back door?

You are not a paid professional entrusted with other people's keys. You can do what you like, the estate agent can't.
Not only is is it a security risk it's a massive presumption that the homeowner won't want to access the back door from the outside - as happened in this case.
The EA is not the home owner and doesn't have the power to make such decisions. They should leave everything exactly as they found it.

The issue here isn't the mistake (you're comparing to leaving door unlocked etc. it's irrelevant two wrongs don't make a right). It's the lack of correction. EA should have apologised and taken steps to correct immediately

I have done the exact same but it was an electrician locked me out. I often went out without front door key. Since this incident I now always take front door key. Electrician had been working on the house fir a few days and chose one day to leave the key in the back door. I was annoyed with him and with myself. He returned to the house and helped me get back in through an open window. Two sets of ladders were involved. It was quite a drama.

EA had a key to front door - it says this in the first post.

EA did not have a key for the back door, as per OP's post at 20:50 this evening. The key was left for the EA to use, and the EA should have removed key from lock & put key back where they found it. For me, the fact that the OP didn't tell the EA that she uses the back door for access from outside is totally irrelevant - the EA should never have left that key in the door after they'd locked it.

I agree with most, YABU and very optimistic here.

If selling your house, the normal thing to do would be to give the EA a key to your front door and use that on those days. I speak as someone who had a house where parking was at the back and we only ever used the back door, but not when selling.

However, if I did find myself locked out of my house, at the end of the working day, knowing I could get in the next morning, I'd have gone and kipped at a friend's house for the night.

They shouldn't be leaving a key in the door anyway. It could be poked out of the lock and accessed by a burglar.

If demand reimbursement op. Plus compo.

The EA nonchalant blasé response tells you everything. You would've been lucky to get a locksmith at 10.30 at night, but that should've been your first port of call. Actually cost wise, the locksmith at night would've been more expensive, so a hotel was probably cheaper. Take all keys with you from now on.