vendor has lost keys since exchange

[sunshine0]

We have exchanged contracts on our house purchase and since then numerous keys to the property appear to have gone astray. The property is vacant and has recently been cleared out by a removal firm hired by the vendor.

The vendor told us that she left a bag of keys with various manuals on the boiler. We went to see the house today via the estate agents and neither the keys or instruction manuals were on the boiler as described. As a result we telephoned the vendor who said that the men who cleared the house out must have also taken the keys and got rid of them with everything.

Whilst i know she has duplicate keys for the front door, I am not at all comfortable with the possibility that keys for the house may have fallen into the wrong hands. Even if I get the telephone number for the company who did the clear out, I cant be sure that I could trust them to be truthful if they say they were all disposed of properly.

We are due to complete this thursday. I dont feel safe living in this house with my young children whilst some stranger may be in possession of keys to our house.

Question is what do I do now, Im thinking of telling the vendor that she will have to bear the cost of the locks being changed but am unsure as to the strength of my posistion as we've exchanged. Help!

Not sure about the legal position, or whether you can ask the vendor to pay in these circs, but I would always change all the locks on moving to a new house. It is expensive, but there's no other way to know who has keys.

I would change the locks as a matter of course. It's like conveyancing - expensive, but just part of moving house.

we changed the locks on our house anyway

how many external doors are there?

If you are, or have a friend who is relatively handy it is not that hard to change the locks yourself. You can buy a good quality lock and keys for about £8. You would needto be able to get into the property to do it though.

thanks for your good advice everyone. We ought to change all the locks in any event which we will do.

If they are ordinary Yale type locks, it's really easy and cheap to change them yourself. Other types may be a bit trickier and need a locksmith / builder, But it's always worth changing them when you move in - people have so often left an odd key with a friend or relative so you can never be sure you've got them all.

Not too difficult to change locks, my DH is not handy at all and recently managed to fit a proper deadlock to the door - you need some DIY tools though.

If you don't manage to do that immediately then I would at least fit a couple of key operated bolts top and bottom of each door (very easy) which you can at least lock whilst you're in the house.

Let this be a warning to anyone to change the locks when they move house.

i probably still have the key to my parents old house kicking around somewhere. I'm pretty sure the people who bought the house off them didn't change the locks (I knew her), I wonder if the new owner changed the locks? Maybe I could pop around in the middle of the night with my swag bag and see and find out.

We didn't get given all the keys when we moved in so had the yale changed but kept the chubb. Cost about £80 including a new lock etc. Other external doors also have internal security locks fitted. It turned out the remaining keys had been left with a neighbour (who by then had Alzeimers) and got passed back to us when his daughter cleared the house after his death.

Somewhere I still have the keys to my XH's parents house. You should change the locks as a matter of course.