What's Fair?
Trying to figure out what’s fair before I respond to my tenant (garden level of our brownstone) – We moved into this house in December and the front door and tenant door both have Multi-Locks (the kind of key that you need a code in order to make a copy). – The previous owners did…
Trying to figure out what’s fair before I respond to my tenant (garden level of our brownstone)
– We moved into this house in December and the front door and tenant door both have Multi-Locks (the kind of key that you need a code in order to make a copy).
– The previous owners did not have the code, so we do not have the code and therefore cannot makes spares
– My tenant lost her key last night and wants a new one
– I can give her a key, but there will be no more spares
If any keys are lost in the future, this will mean we’ll have to get two doors rekeyed because no more can be made.
My question is:
Is it fair to give her the key and have her sign an agreement (addendum to the lease) that if this key is lost, she needs to pay for the locks to be rekeyed? Is there another fee that’s fair? Or can someone tell me how to get copies without the code?!?
(No we don’t have anything in the lease right now that discusses lost keys.)
Thanks all…opened my eyes a bit. I really hadn’t even thought about changing the locks for any reason at all and saw it as another expense that someone else caused me.
Anyway….
Used 5th Ave Key Shop to install a new lock. Seems like most people have good experiences with them, as I did this time. Would use them again too.
I don’t know if this has been asked, but WHAT IF the tenant loses the restricted key. Perhaps their bag is stolen with the keys, id, etc. The locks must now be changed. Who pays for that?
Echoing what everyone else has already said.
And, I will add, since you seem new to landlording–do your best not to get caught up in little annoying crap. You have, and will continue to, enter into a business relationship with all sorts of people. They will make bad decisions, lose their keys, be inconsiderate, or just do things differently than you would do it. Don’t be a pest, and save your frustration and fees for when you need them (like when your tenant doesn’t pay the rent, for example).
People are people–try to go with flow as much as possible.
Your inability to get new keys is not the previous owners’ fault…you own the house now.
Another thing, everybody loses keys.
If you don’t think you should be responsible for the things you are responsible for, you shouldn’t be a landlord.
I have been, at different times, landlord, tenant, homeowner, condo board president, condo board treasurer. The fact that you can’t cut keys is your problem, not the tenant’s. It is your responsibility to make the building secure and to provide keys to the perimeter doors to those that need them. I would have changed the lock at closing as well, and would do so now. Last time I was a tenant the landlord had a laser cut key for the front door, would only provide two keys per apartment, if you lost one you had to provide a notarized affidavit saying you lost it and pay $25 for a replacement. The upside was that no one was burgled while I lived there, and the super told me that the persistent burglary problem disappeared after the lock had been installed.
What all the others say. This is a cost of being a landlord. Best to do it now than after the key is lost again and you need a “rush” job.
I just realized something else. That tenant is now aware that you did not change the locks on that building when you bought it; you have publicly announced it on this site. If something happens, say someone gains entry to your building and leaves no visible means of forced entry, and that tenant gets assaulted, I would guess (I am not a lawyer, I am a woodworker) that someone can make a case that you did not provide proper security for your tenants; in other words you, as a landlord, could be held responsible; it is not a risk I would take.
Steve