Tenant locked out twice in days

[Birdsofafeather123]

NC for this as know that landlords are not always popular here.

I was asked to deal with any dire emergencies by a landlord friend who is away. (neither of us expected any).

Her flat is rented to a group of friends. One, at her request has a lock on her bedroom door.

She locked herself out on Saturday.

Standard advice is for tenant to employ a locksmith. Unfortunately it was edging into unsocial hours and likely to be more than the typical call out charge of £79 for picking the lock.

I had a builder doing odd jobs for me at a nearby property. ( I don’t live there). He said he would drill out lock and replace for £40 plus cost of lock. I found a spare lock, so £40 in total.

Passed information onto tenant and gave choice pointing out that it was an agreement between her and whoever she chose and not landlord responsibility to arrange or fund.

Builder sorted problem Saturday evening.

She phoned him this morning. She has locked herself out again.

It’s Boxing Day, he had plans, and is a 20 mile return journey away, but as he still had the spare key said he would go and let her in for £20.

She then sends loads of messages to me and him. She says she doesn’t have £20, wants to send a friend to him to collect spare key, or just pay for his fuel for him to take key ( fuel alone would probably be under £5).

He doesn’t want random strangers calling at his family home or to release the only spare key ( which he retained to pass on/ post to landlord) to a friend of someone who has locked herself out twice in a few days.

I don’t live nearby and if I was to go and collect the key and let her in it would be around 80 mile; also I have a particular reason for not wanting to be away from family this Christmas.

This has taken ages back and forth and now the £20 visit is also off the table, at least for today, as builder having food and drink.

But, she still can’t get in her room and I have run out of suggestions.

Tell her it is Boxing Day, she will have to sleep on the sofa and wait til tomorrow.

i suggest your builder turns off phone
and o suggest you do the same

locksmiths are working today
and this adult female needs to woman up

This. Is she basically losing the keys?

You've done your bit

unfair of your friend to ask you to deal with a property when you’re not remotely local to that property

She’ll have to pay for an emergency locksmith or wait until tomorrow.

Just tell her the option of the favour from your builder is now off the table and she will need to arrange a locksmith. It isn't an emergency - she is safe in her home - and she is responsible for costs and arranging. I say this as an ex letting agent - it's what we would do in this situation.

Is this a lock thats automatically locking behind her, or a typical bedroom door that she locks with a key when she comes out of it? If the latter how is she losing these keys but presumably not her house keys?
Regardless shes going to have to sort herself out, and its not like shes locked outside in the rain or something

She is a wally for not snapping up £20 on Boxing Day! As others have said, this is on her and she will need to sleep
on a sofa or on the floor of a flatmate’s room or in a travelodge.

I would frankly be removing the lock as she can't be responsible using it.

As far as I know it’s a Yale type lock that locks automatically on shutting the door. As far as I know the keys are inside her room. I assume one of her fellow tenants let her in the flat.
There is a fairly large sofa in the lounge, so I suppose she’ll have to sleep on that.

She will have to wait!

landlord needs to reiterate that the tenants are responsible for any external and internal locks that do not operate because tenants have mislaid keys.

It's not your problem. It's up to her to sort it out.

This is ridiculous. You were there for emergencies. A tenant locking herself out of her bedroom isn't an emergency - she could either have slept on the sofa, or sorted out a locksmith. You were very sweet to jump into action, but now she's done it twice, you need to call a halt. It's not your business.

Your friend who is the LL wants to be careful about setting precedents here. Generally, it's the tenant who is responsible if they have locked themselves out/lost keys (unless it's because a lock malfunctioned).

I think she is trying to get the key from the builder so he doesn't have a spare. She's lying

No that's really inappropriate tenant needs to have the spare key. The landlord can't have a key to her bedroom.

He shouldn't have a spare bedroom key!

Didn’t you see where the spare will be passed to the landlord?

The landlord needs to have the spare key!

I'd not do anything. It's an interior lock so her problem. Kind of you to sort it once really.

Tbh its v difficult to remember to bring the key with you every time you pop to the loo or put onthe kettle, I dont think realistically shes going to be able to have this type of lock on her door - though having to sort and pay for this to be sorted and sleeping on the couch may focus her mind to put it in the 'open' position when shes in the house

She should ask her landlord (after christmas/ny) to change the lock so it's one that you twist with your hand from the inside and use a key to lock/unlock from the outside. One that locks automatically isn't really suitable for a bedroom door.

This.

This isn't an emergency. It's an inconvenience. Let her sort it. You're just there for emergencies.

Every bedroom I had asa student had a Yale lock. You put it in the latch while you are in and on,y lock it when you are in the room/leaving the house.