Here is a question about insurance to the blog clinic from Angela (not her real name) who is a tenant
I am a tenant and I rent a high value property where the rent is nearly £4,500 pcm.
On attempting to renew my policy, I have just been informed by my insurance company (one of the biggies) that the postcode and actual property has a stipulation that if locks are not fitted to the ground floor access windows then we are uninsurable against theft for our contents and personal insurance (Fire, Accidental damage still ok).
My question is: who is responsible for fitting these locks? If I (or any future tenant for that matter) cannot insure the property then how can it be legal to rent it out?
I just know the Landlord will say it is our responsibility, but how on earth can it be? The landlord is a very difficult and unpleasant individual who spends the absolute minimum on this house and our relationship with her is “strained” to say the very least. We try and avoid any contact with her, so knowing our rights prior to yet another show down is a priority as she normally just tries to bully us with “grey area” “not my responsibility” etc etc…
Answer
I sympathise with your problem, but I am afraid my answer is that it is not specifically the landlords responsibility.
Landlords are all bound by the statutory repairing covenants which requires them to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property. However this just covers repair. It will not stretch to locks to enable you to obtain insurance.
Neither is the landlord obliged to rent a property which will be insurable. Indeed many tenants do not take out insurance (although ideally they should).
There is also the point that although your insurers may have this requirement, other insurers may not. So you may want to shop around and see if there is another insurance company who will not have this stipulation.
Otherwise I think it will be down to you to have the locks fitted. I would also add that you will need to get your landlords permission to do this, although I think it would be unlikley to be refused.
I have to say that for a high end property such as this, I would have expected window locks on the ground floor to be a part of the service, but my expectation is not law!
What do other readers think?
Why are you setting yourself up for a ‘showdown’ over a fifty quid job?
Fifty quid? I assume a £4500 a month property has quite a few ground floor windows and will require quality locks fitting. More like £50 a window if London and lucky!!
My concern would be whether such locks can even be fitted to the existing windows? Other than the ugly very visibly chunky ones.
Security comes under the “housing health and safety rating system”, it says “Links level of physical security features at dwelling to local overall crime rate. Fear of crime as well as risk of actual burglary should be taken into account.”
But I rather expect that the local housing standards officer has better things do with their time!
(Given the number of windows keys that get lost and that most tenants leave them in the windows anyway, I don’t blame any landlord that chose not to have window locks.)
Something which doesn’t address the concerns but can be an added useful security tool, is to consider installing software on your PC that can take pics/vids of any movement within a defined area.
I saw something called ‘Yawcam’ reviewed on BBC Click a while back. It is free, and you can use either on board or external cams. You can set it to motion detect a specific area and it can send anything to a website and alert you.
It may not prevent any crime, but it will get you some excellent evidence for any investigation….also useful to see if anyone else enters your home while you are not there ;)
Having a good relationship with you landlord is important, if you do not due to your landlord either not wanting to spend anything she does have to is fair enoug, but if it’s because they are a cheapskate then I would approach it another way.
Most landlords do not want the bother of having to deal with any issues, so arranging for at least two quotes yourself and putting them forward as a gesture if goodwill, and possibly agreeing to split the cost may go down better than just forcing the issue.
I just had a chat with our EHOs here. “Entry by intruders” is category 12 on the HHSRS list and is under the grouping of psychological hazards but locks arent stipulated. The general consensus was that as long as a window can close and cant be easily opened from the outside then that would be sufficient.
So it would appear to be simply an an insurance based issue.
I’m surprised that a landlord of a premium property would skimp on such measures though