Here is a question to the blog clinic from John whose daughter is a tenant.
My daughter is renting a property in Oxford with 3 friends. The landlord has rented the property out with no latching lock on the front door, so unless the door is locked with a key either after entry off exit, the door remains unlocked.
The letting agent says that the landlord has refused to do anything about it, so I commissioned a locksmith to install a latching front door lock.
Am I likely to lose my deposit?
Answer
There is no law, so far as I am aware, regarding this and so it will be up to what the parties agree to.
I know many years ago when I was living on my own I changed the lock on my door from a latching one to a mortice lock which had to be turned on entry or exit, as I was so terrified of locking myself out of my flat by mistake!
However with a student let with several students this is less likely to happen and having a door with a Yale or similar lock which you can pull to and lock may be better as it will prevent the property being left open by mistake.
It would have been better to ask the landlords permission before changing the lock though. As it is, if he wants the lock changed back he can charge you for the cost of this, and deduct it from the deposit. However this is unlikely to use up the whole of the deposit!
If the landlord does do this, make sure you ask for a receipt for the work done to make sure he is actually changing the lock and not just charging for something which is never done.
Doors that can’t be opened from the inside without keys also don’t provide a way out if there is a fire. Visitors or even residents may not have keys, may not be able to get to them, or may in a panic not be able to use them in time. I’m astonished that health and safety allows some of the door designs I’ve seen in this country, including the one in my own house.
There are mortice locks which can be turned from the inside without a key, which are probably best from a fire safety point of view.
Although I have heard people object to them on the basis that they would allow burglars an easy exit!
If you still have the original lock and can put it back and there is no damage or alteration to the door it should not affect the deposit.
You may as an alternative suggest that an improvement has been made to the propert that is to their benefit and they accept it.
For my own home, I like to have a mortise lock that cannot be opened from the inside without a key, along with a lock that can. I then use both locks when “locking up”, e.g. going out when no one is left in the properly.
The first thing most burglars do, is to work out how they could get out quickly if needed, also they don’t wish to have anyone see them climbing out of a window with a TV!
With 3 people in a property and a mortise lock that can only be operated from the inside with a key, I would be very likely just to fix a key on a bit of string near the door. Or have hooks by the door that the keys are put on when you enter the property. (With a “normal” HMO, I would not consider such a setup to be safe, but 3 people should be able to agree a system between themselves and stick to it.)
Provided the new latching front door lock has been installed well and the old lock as not been removed and you have given both the landlord and the agent a set of keys to it, I can’t see any way the landlord can claim that you have reduced the value of the property, therefore I rather expect that you will not lose any of your deposit. A few photos to show the quality of workmanship would I expect lead to you winning the dispute if it went that far.
To add to the great advice given already, be aware that locks in rental properties are subject to the Fire Safety Order of 2005. Previously as a letting agent, there was quite a bit of education to be done about locks in rentals. It is not much discussed but is obviously very important. I wrote a short blog about it here http://wp.me/p4ZeDJ-s7