Tenant locked herself out; must landlord help?

[rainbowcuddles]

Hi,

Had a tenant ring me up on a Saturday night at 9:00pm said shes been locked out of her house and could I travel up with the keys? The property is over an hour away and I was out with friends...
I told her to call a locksmith, but she refused to pay him? In th end she borrowed a ladder and a random guy and asked him to climb through her window... She got in half hour later and luckily no damage had been caused.

Whats the normal practise with this? Theres nothing in your contract as to "if you get locked out do this........."

Would I have been made to travel for an hour to let her in the property?

Interesting to hear your thoughts and even legal side to this...

[RichieP]

Put it this way, what do you do if you get locked out? Why should a tenant be any different?

[MrShed]

To maintain good relations, if it is CONVENIENT, then it would be advisable for the landlord to let them in. But they certainly have no obligation, and in the circumstances you describe I would not have gone either! I would also advise the tenant that should the "random guy" have caused any damage, intentional or otherwise, it would have been the tenant's responsibility, so maybe next time she should just get the locksmith!!

[LMT]

Try www.keysafe.co.uk
I live a hour's drive from my properties, and have had to go over to let tenants in in the past, and have also had one tenant break a window to get in.
I now use the 'Big Box' keysafe in my garage near the properties to keep a set of keys for all my properties for my use, and I have a little box outside each property, located somewhere unobtrusive like by a meter box, behind a drainpipe etc. I let the tenant choose their own code for their own safe, and I set the code. Bingo! Never had a call since.
As a landlord the key is to learn from what goes wrong so you don't let the same problem occur twice.

[Surrey]

...Would I have been made to travel for an hour to let her in the property? ...

If you'd been out on the razz and couldn't drive, you wouldn't be ABLE to go without incurring a hefty taxi fare - would she have been prepared to pay for that, just to avoid paying a locksmith's fees? I doubt it!