How to resolve a dispute?

[Ericthelobster]

They claim the door 'stuck' one evening and they had to get someone out and change the lock aftre gaining entrance.

Presumably you have a cylinder lock whereby you can just slam the door shut and it locks (ie without use of keys?). Something I learned very early on in my landlording career (having been phoned by a drunk tenant at about 3 am) is that you only fit rentals with deadlocks; ie impossible to lock themsleves out (unless the lose the key of course! )

[Ericthelobster]

You seem to know an awful lot about this sort of sharp practice, Eric!

You might well think that; I couldn't possibly comment...

[mind the gap]

only fit rentals with deadlocks; ie impossible to lock themsleves out (unless they lose the key of course!

Which they invariably do. And the spare is equally invariably kept inside the property rather than at a neighbour's.

[Ericthelobster]

Which they invariably do.

Sure - at least I haven't experienced that yet (but then again, as I like a quiet life I don't let to students!)

I drove my (student) daughter plus belongings back to Uni this week. Had to time our arrival for a specific time, when a housemates would definitely be in.

Why?

Because my daughter had lost her key.

[Moriarty]

I would guess that's what happened is that some cowboy* erected a Sky satellite dish and rather than running a fresh cable from the dish to the TV point, he's chopped off the existing one he found running up the side of the house to the aerial, and pirated that; after which he would have fitted a Sky-type plug to the old aerial cable. Then when the tenants quit, they unbolted their dish leaving the cable dangling. If that's the case, the rewire job would certainly be necessary!

*Cowboy because (a) he shouldn't have disabled the roof aerial because Sky users will want the use of that anyway as a reserve, in case the satellite goes down and (b) there's a pretty good chance that the old 'standard' aerial wouldn't have been appropriate quality anyway for satellite TV!

That's basically what the electrician bloke said to me, except I was unable to put it into words

[Moriarty]

Presumably you have a cylinder lock whereby you can just slam the door shut and it locks (ie without use of keys?). Something I learned very early on in my landlording career (having been phoned by a drunk tenant at about 3 am) is that you only fit rentals with deadlocks; ie impossible to lock themsleves out (unless the lose the key of course!

Yes, the problem with that though would be that if they were to naff off out without locking up, there's a lot of my stuff in the flat, white goods/TV etc which could get nicked!
The agent has a spare key. Which in this case wouldn't have worked in an emergency since they had changed the locks

[mind the gap]

Sure - at least I haven't experienced that yet (but then again, as I like a quiet life I don't let to students!)

I drove my (student) daughter plus belongings back to Uni this week. Had to time our arrival for a specific time, when a housemates would definitely be in.

Why?

Because my daughter had lost her key.

Well at least she didn't try to climb up the drainpipe (in full view of a main road and half the population of Newcastle) to access her first floor bedroom window, as our least favourite student tenant used to on a regular basis (until we sent Trevor round to have a word, that is). Said tenant lost his key within a week of the start of the first term and never got round to getting another one cut - just hoped one of the others would be in, and failing that, broke in. A real pillock of the community!

[Moriarty]

Pillock of the Community

[westminster]

What I am asking is, given the apparent ineptness of the agent at sorting this, what is my next port of call? Lawyer? Go direct to the Deposit scheme and start my own dispute?

And I answered this question in post #7.

Contact the deposit scheme in question and ask how to raise a dispute; do it now because there are time limits.

See also this link for an idea of how adjudicators decide disputes and the sort of evidence they look for:
http://www.propertyhawk.co.uk/index....agazine&id=411

If the T refuses to use the deposit scheme adjudication service, then you're a bit stuck unless you hire a solicitor to act for you, as a layperson can't represent you in court.

It is obviously cheaper (i.e. free) and easier to use the scheme's ADR service than to pay a lawyer. If you were UK resident then the county court would be a viable option, as you could conduct the claim yourself (most people do); it's not cost effective to use a lawyer as legal costs are [almost] never awarded in the small claims track - so you might win £1,200 but have a legal bill for £2,000.