UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi everyone, I had thought I'd be visiting the forum to find out more about being a landlord; I hadn't quite envisaged I would be posting a question quite so soon!  Any guidance would be gratefully received as I am new to the trials and tribulations of being a landlord.
We completed at the end of last week.  The lettings agency the previous owner had used (and that we were not going to use going forward) said we could collect the keys from their office or they would send them special delivery to our home address for security reasons.  I asked if they could take them to the estate agency that had sold the property which was just up the road from them and they said yes.   I went to the estate agency today to collect the keys  and they said they hadn't received any keys.  It transpired that someone from the agency said they were running late and the offices were closed when they got there so they posted them through the letter box with a note saying for the attention of sales and the street name.  The building has a number of businesses in it and so the letter would have just have dropped on a communal doormat.  To cut a long story short the keys are missing.  The street is a short one, so someone could try all the different doors until they find the building in which our flat is in.  As it is now a security issue we think the front door lock needs to be changed and new keys issued to the 7 flats in the building.  Am I right in thinking the lettings agency is at fault and therefore liable for this cost?  And what is the best course of action to follow?
Thanks

Hi Learnerlandlord,

I think you'll find it tough to get any money out of the agency, and probably won't be worth your time. The problem is, they could argue that *anyone* could have a copy of the key(s) anyways- who knows who the previous owners gave the keys to? Although, that's not a really defense for the carelessness that's occurred.

However, it's generally good practice to change all the locks when you buy a new property anyways, for the obvious security reasons. You would have had to pay for that regardless.

Many thanks for your advice.  It would be quite costly changing them for all the flats in the building methinks.

Again probably not worth pursuing, but do you think the estate agent (different from lettings agent) has any liability as we didn't receive the full set of keys which we should have done on completion.  The keys were lost before we completed.

Oh, didn't realise it was keys for multiple properties/flats.

Yeah, I actually do think you have a case. It's actually madness that they haven't supplied you with the keys. It's like buying a car and the car dealer failing to hand over the keys!

Are the agents refusing to accept liability? How are they proposing to resolve the problem?

Complain to the agent and ask them to either pay for new locks or get the keys. If they don't resolve it, I would complain to the governing body they are registered with e.g. The Property Ombudsman. They should be registered with at least one!

Good luck and keep us informed of progress!

A couple of days ago I got the estate agent who sold us the flat to email the lettings agency saying that their behaviour was irresponsible and that someone should have signed for the keys.  I then sent a letter myself asking them to get a new lock fitted and new keys cut for all residents in the building.  To their credit they have come back this afternoon and said they will do this asap. 

Thanks