door lock/rent payments

[Bearington]

Evening all,

 

We took possession of a new property nearly 3 months ago and now have a problem.

 

Within 2 /3 days of moving, the main Yale lock broke- the latch came away in my hand. Took a photo, texted landlord, he shows up 4 hours after his ETA and just shrugs - saying he'll get it fixed.

 

It's still broken, and his defence is we have a double porch door in front of it.

 

I've should him a gentle tug swings both doors open, so its not secure - and now I want to pay for a locksmith to sort the Yale lock.

 

Can I deduct this from the rent? As he obviously has no intention of sorting this nearly 12 weeks later

[ashmk]

Make him aware of your intention to use a locksmith at his expense, put it in writing and send recorded. It might give him the nudge he needs.

 

As for answering your actual question, I don't know. Someone who does will answer .

[Bearington]

Good idea, will also await more information.

 

Cheers!

[Conniff]

It's never a good idea to deduct or stop any monies from a regular scheduled payment beit rent, HP or whatever, you would be breaking your contract and leaving yourself wide open.

You should, however, write asking him again to come fix it and say that now the evenings are getting darker earlier, if it isn't done by the end of the month, you will employ a locksmith and send the bill to him.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Conniff

[monetary]

I also dealt with similar situation with two of my previous landlords. I contacted them by email and told that if they dont change my locks then i will deduct it from my next months payment.As Conniff said its not an good idea but a simple email like that worked for me. Unless you have a bad landlord then you will have to seek more expert advise. My personal view -Worst case scenario- get house insurance, keep payments u to date,stay on the good side of law and, look for a new flat and give notice and move out and avoid bad people. But before worst case scenario someone will be able to give more expert advise to sort the issue.

[Bearington]

Sorry for the bump.

 

Both of you, thank you.

 

We have tried to smooth things over, make a compromise and so on. Work is still not done by LL/Agent- money set aside so he knows it's there.

 

I'm now getting spammed with calls, texts, visits all after 21:30 (i'm usually a night worker but took time off this week- neighbours have said he's turned up just standing outside as well). Agent even went so far as to tell us her would report us to social services unless we backed down - for our daughter being out in the rain/and he's video'd her ?(coming back from shopping with me, dressed appropriately - British weather eh?).

 

Shelter have advised me to contact our TRO and to strongly tell the landlord to cease these behaviours and not to answer anymore texts,calls, visits etc until the TRO gets involved.. I have now advised writing is the only way I'll respond now. I've also logged all the harassment (Shelters word), and they've advised due to the amount we've had in the past week - it'd give me grounds to break our AST contract and move out before it ends. (Does this sound right?)

 

I'm think its fair to say he's crossed a major line here and writing only would be appropriate from now? Another month on and STILL no repair work.

 

Cheers as always

 

Bearington

 

- And yes, we've already packed about 50% of our stuff and looking about for a new place

[king12345]

IMHO I think you should have changed the Yale lock for security reasons as soon as it became evident that the LL didn't care.

You don't really need an expensive locksmith to change a lock.

Any local handyman will do that in a few minutes and for a reasonable price.

A new Yale lock is £27 at toolstation.

Bare in mind that there are different sizes, so make sure you get the same size to the broken one if you decide not to wait for the LL anymore.