Managing agent changed locks without permission. WWYD

[loyganroyal]

Hi!
Long story short-ish.
Our tenant has left the flat, and since she left, the agent informed me there is a new leak in a corner. The flat is being sold (with the same agent) and the flat upstairs, where the leak was coming from, assured me it's fixed. The buyer wants to go and check for herself, which is all fine with me.
But I wanted to go to the flat first myself to check. I went and the lock has changed. I called the old tenant. She said she locked herself out at the start of the tenancy and the agent told her they don't have a spare set of keys. They sent someone round to change the locks and charged her £410 overall.
The agent DID have a spare set of keys - and NEVER told me about any of this!
What would you do? I would like to try and get the money back for the tenant.

I would go absolutely ballistic if the agent changed the locks so that I didn’t have a set of keys to my own property.

I would see getting the money back as secondary and send a very curt, clear email to the manager of the office.

I would also be significantly considering whether I wanted to continue selling with the agent as they have shown that they are dishonest and venal.

I would have the locks changed again and bill the letting agency telling them you needed to access your property and had no option. Given their duplicity I would not trust them to have keys to my property and I would give them no further business.