Emergency lock change (faulty lock) – Is the tenant liable?

John- AST should be written such that emergency call outs can be self-authorised up to say £240 incl vat if applicable. The landlord should insist on this clause being inserted. The agents can’t say no, as you could just go elsewhere qith your business.
That would avoid such total rip-offs. In some parts of UK, that bill well exceeds monthly income gross.

Reply to the comment left by Accommod8 at 01/04/2023 – 15:45
Yes a good idea. But how many tenants have the money to pay upfront.Its best if you can to arrange with tradesmen, not easy I know and supply the tenants with phone numbers.

Reply to the comment left by Crossed_Swords at 01/04/2023 – 14:49
These sites receive payments from the tradespeople who they advertise for. Can you trust the reviews?

Ok, I am ok skill wise and have changed a nightlatch several times, due to a tenant losing his keys and break in….
I would no more fly to the moon than pay a non agreed pie in the sky invoice, sounds like either they are very thick or it is a friends company and they are having the LL over.
Unpopular thought, it is not even an emergancy at that point, all rental properties have escape options,1 hour is simply not enough time esp on a Sunday, I remember reading it is something like 3 hours min unless it is a blue light matter.
Even with my kindest head on, the best they can hope for is I get 3 quotes and they can have the value of the average. The tenants have been mugged, doesn’t mean the LL should pick up the mugging, I still think that it might be a friend tbh, that figure for under £50 part is a joke, the other side is of course he will have earned the anger of the tenants if is it honest, the LL can simply process the invoice via tax.

I had something similar – Sunday night emergency a couple of months back and the whole bill was just short of £250 for a new lock, drilling old one out etc. I live in London zone 3. Was the lock you installed made of gold ?? I guess the difference is I was spending my own money and didn’t have anyone to pass my bills to and the locksmiths knew that. This locksmith has clearly taken you for a ride!
I would suggest splitting the bill amongst the flatmates and landlord. The landlord can easily get a few competitive quotes from other sources and prove his point.
If you claim this as emergency and try legal options, you will find it difficult as in a ‘real’ emergency one is only allowed to get a locksmith to ‘unlock’ the door, not install a new lock.
If your landlord is reading this, I will be more than happy to share my quotes with him. They are no where in the region you have quoted.

I had similar issue, my tenant did not contact me or the agent, they had a back door they could use but chose not to. They want me to pay £460. I said no, but would pay £250 towards as I felt this was reasonable and had they followed the process and called agent it would have been this sort of price.

Tenant has deducted the full amount from the following months rent, no other issues paying. I will decide when they move out if I should deduct from the bond.

Tell them if they don’t pay up in full before the next rent payment that you reserve the right to mention the debt in any reference they need?
I don’t know if that is legal?

What has happened to the original lock? The landlord should have one of their representatives examine the lock for the so called fault. If it is indeed faulty then the landlord should take some of the responsibility. If the lock is not available to be inspected, then there is no proof that the tenants simply hadn’t broken the key in the lock or even just lost their keys. The engineer writing on an invoice is not sufficient as they could have been out to make a quick buck.
if the lock is proved faulty and the tenants didn’t follow set procedure then the tenant should bear some of the cost. 1 hour is not a long time to wait, my daughter had to wait 12 hours when she locked herself out and had to sleep at her friends, to avoid an expensive call out. lots to think about.
the landlord may even have had insurance to cover a lock problem either as an emergency call out policy or on their landlord insurance, but in both cases a certain procedure must be follwoed

As an agent I am available 24 hours a day, assuming the tenants bother to ring. Last time I had this problem the tenants took the lock off from the inside. Problem solved (and it seems £500 saved!) until I could call round. Here the tenants appear to be able to claim have had no choice as they did not think about taking the lock off. However, they were very careless by not getting some cost details agreed up front.

Reply to the comment left by Accommod8 at 01/04/2023 – 15:45
Problem is the tenant will tell the tradesperson that he is authorised to approve up to that amount and you can be sure that is what wil be charged.. even if a quick repair.