Recently moved into an apartment. About 3 weeks ago my fianc茅 and I were locked out of the apt because the locking device malfunctioned. So, it was through no fault of our own. We called the landlord, it was 11:45 at night on a Sunday, told him the problem and he was packing up for Mexico so he couldn%26#039;t help us. We told him we were going to call the locksmith. The locksmith said that a lot of the new cheap locks have been having the same problem. By now it%26#039;s 12:30am and we%26#039;re standing in the rain and the locksmith can%26#039;t open the door without having to drill. So we tell him to drill it open and change the locks because my landlord was going on vacation; so it%26#039;s not like he can come the next morning and change the lock for us. So the locksmith does and we pay $272 after the late night charge $75, the new lock $89, to drill the lock $65 and some other misc. charges. The whole time we are under the impression that this should be reimbursed because we were provided a faulty lock!
So, this past Wednesday Apr 28th, my fianc茅 beats me home from work and she sees the landlord. She brings up the lock situation and he says that he%26#039;s WILLING to pay half. She was shocked that he said only half, so she says to talk to me about it. So I get home and he tells me he%26#039;ll call me later about the whole lock situation. Haven%26#039;t talked to him yet.
So my question is, shouldn%26#039;t he have to pay for the whole thing? We were not provided with adequate locks. The contract states %26quot;Tenant shall not make any alterations in or about the Premises without Landlord%26#039;s prior written consent, including: painting, wallpapering, adding or changing locks, etc...
If Tenant rekeys existing locks or opening devices, Tenant shall immediately deliver copies of all keys to Landlord. Tenant shall pay all costs and charges related to loss of any keys or opening devices. Tenant may not remove locks, even if installed by Tenant.%26quot;
To me it seems like we did breech our part of the contract but, aren%26#039;t there extenuating circumstances? If we were giving a properly working lock, this whole thing would never have happened.
Please respond if you have legitimate legal advice. Thanks in advance|||From a legal perspective, you have a good argument for the landlord to pay for the whole thing.
From a practical perspective, its not worth the fight over $140 or so. Do you really want to spend the remainder of your lease with a ticked off landlord that%26#039;s just looking for an excuse to evict you?
