Letting Agent - trouble with locks

[gemmyk]

I rent an apartment with my boyfriend and we have been having with the communal door (2apartments share this). We only have one key that works and we have had 3 cut at 3 different locksmiths all of which haven't worked. All the locksmiths have noticed that there is something wrong with the key. The other tenant has the same problems with his key. We work different shifts for work and very often one of us has been locked in or out of the apartment.

I went in 3 1/2 weeks ago to sort out this problem. The person they sent out told us to go to another locksmiths - I feel this is unreasonable and have been in to the letting agents again. Is there anything we could do about this, maybe a governing body to report to or have the locks changed and then bill the letting agents.

[Caburn5]

If it is a new block of flats then you might find that they use these new coded keys.

I have never found a locksmith yet who can cut them as the have special dimples in them for which locksmiths have no blanks.

The answer usually rests with the developer as you or the agent might need to quote them the serial number on the key in order for spares to be issued. be aware if this is the case the keys usually cost £25.00+

If it is an old block then I guess you could ask for a locksmith to have a look at the actual lock, as I am sure if the agent is managing the property they would not like to be called out of hours when the lock finally fails, as the landlord could potentially be hit with an emergency locksmith invoice, again not cheap.

I am afraid that it really is down to the agent to get off his backside, as I see no reason why you should have to pay for it to be done yourself.

[Worldlife]

We have these security keys.

The whole concept is that they cannot be copied without permission and this gives security to both the tenant and landlord.

If for any reason a key were to be lost then in order to maintain the same security level we would have to arrange for the locksmith to issue new keys and change the codings on the barrels.

For that reason we tell our tenants to treat the keys in the same way they would treat an expensive car locking system.

If an extra key should be required then we would expect that to be returned at the end of the tenancy and if not reserve the right to charge the costs of changing all keys and barrel codings.

Seems that in this case the tenant has been thwarted in attempts to cut unauthorised keys. The objective of the security system has been met!!