Garage lock broken, landlord was aware, now goods stolen out, who is liable for the loss??

[angelwings2015]

Hello,

I privately rent my house thought a letting agent and told them on their last inspection last month that the lock on our garage was broken and the goods in side were not secure, the garage is not attached to the house but about 30mts from the house. we moved everything we possible could from out there to the house but could not fit in all my sons expensive fishing gear as the rods were too long and a moped (for obvious reasons although it had a lock on )

About 5 month ago we had stuff stolen from our garden, about £1500 worth of profession fishing gear that was soaking wet and had been propped up against our patio doors to dry out, they were there for all of half an hour before being stolen , we have a 6 foot fence and also a gate that locks. so this was why I was anxious the landlord fixed the garage asap.

As to if the letting agent passed this on to our landlord I do not know.

Am I wrong in thinking that the landlord has a responsibility to repair and make secure the garage ???

I feel he should compensate for our loss from the garage this time......we claimed on insurance for the theft last time as I guess we were responsible for leaving out even though the garden was secure.

Any advice is appreciated.

I am thinking they will keep coming back so am in the process of looking for another house and I can't sleep well because of the worry and anxiety.

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

Who broke the lock? Broken while you were a Tennant? Or broken before tenancy started?

[mariner51]

IMO telling the LA of broken garage lock, pres not obvious, at routine inspection was insufficient, LA/LL should have been informed whenyou first realised it was broken.

Your personal contents insured, so claim on your Ins and let them sort it with LL Insurers. Debateable if LLhas liability for a burglary or for lock not part of fabric of property ie separate garage. Don't know if it is up & over metal garage door, but a new handle/lock barrel or hasp & padlock at own expense would appear to be a reasonable solution to protect your stored contents.

[angelwings2015]

the door lock was damaged in last burglary and they were informed of this at that time, but it did lock just was dodgy.

we don't use the garage a lot, only for storage so it wasn't until inspection we realised it was totally broken, hence not informing them sooner.

it is part of the property I rent from him ....I shall go and look tonight for a new handle/ barrel as its an up and over door as really worried now as they know its broken and will come back, the police did find some of the items and are testing them for prints etc....they suspect they are part of a drugs gang looking for stuff they can sell fast for money, sadly a group of such people I have found out live in the reasonable housing flats opposite, this was not mentioned to me at the time of our taking out the contract.....it was described as a premier house in an excellent location.

[BankFodder]

This isn't going to be what you want to hear but I expect that regardless of who has the primary responsibility, you would be held to have contributed to the problem by continuing to store your items in the garage knowing that the lock was broken – and especially knowing that it had been broken because of a prior theft. The fact that they had also been a theft from your garden doesn't help either. I would expect that if push came to shove, a court would say that you were clearly on notice that there was a security problem in your area.

 

It may be the landlords legal liability to maintain the lock – but in the event that you knew that you are especially vulnerable because of the goods you had in the garage, I would say that the court is likely to find that you had every opportunity to mitigate your loss. I think that a prudent tenant would have replaced a lot immediately in order to safeguard the contents of the garage and then look to the landlord for reimbursement.

 

I'm afraid I can scarcely imagine that any court of law would hold the landlord completely liable for all of your losses. Maybe a portion of your losses but I can imagine that it would be as little as 10 or 15% – for the reasons I have given above

[obiter dictum]

Also what does your tenancy agreement state as to reasonable repairs the tenant is responsible for. What normally happens is you replace the lock as it is a security issue and present the bill to the landlord as the landlord might not be local to you

[ericsbrother]

no force used so insureres wont pay up.