Please could somebody give me a legal point of view on the following?
We have let our flat out to tenants for a 12 month tenancy, the garden forms part of the tenancy but it is shared with one other flat (upstairs).
When the tenants moved in, we left a key in the flat for the padlock on the garden gate..but it was unmarked and very small. A anyway, the tenants borrowed the key from the neighbours so that they could put their BBQ in the garden when they moved in. That was 5 months ago.
To be fair, they have been asking for a key for a month or so, I asked their neighbour to replace the lock and gave her a new padlock with 2 keys. But nobody can open the padlock, it seems to have jammed/rusted.
This morning I went to the flat to check the lock for myself, I couldn't open it either. So I spoke to the tenants and explained, I offered to get bolt croppers to cut the old lock off but the guy said if I was happy for them to remove it then they would.
I went away happy that it had reached a good conclusion, but the agents emailed me later to say that the tenants were threatening to take me to the small claims court for compensation for not being able to use the garden for 5 months..... I was astonished. Can they do that? Surely I should have been given more of a chance to do something? The first time I heard anything about a possible claim against me was today.
Points in my favour (maybe)
1 I left a key to the garden padlock at the flat
2 the neighbours had a key ( which the tenants previously borrowed) so they could have asked for it any time
3 I didn't know the lock was broken
4 my husband fitted the gate, had we known they were *so* desperated to get into the garden we could have removed the gate or anything really.
Please tell me whether they are/are not entitled to any compensation.
Thanks for your time
We have let our flat out to tenants for a 12 month tenancy, the garden forms part of the tenancy but it is shared with one other flat (upstairs).
When the tenants moved in, we left a key in the flat for the padlock on the garden gate..but it was unmarked and very small. A anyway, the tenants borrowed the key from the neighbours so that they could put their BBQ in the garden when they moved in. That was 5 months ago.
To be fair, they have been asking for a key for a month or so, I asked their neighbour to replace the lock and gave her a new padlock with 2 keys. But nobody can open the padlock, it seems to have jammed/rusted.
This morning I went to the flat to check the lock for myself, I couldn't open it either. So I spoke to the tenants and explained, I offered to get bolt croppers to cut the old lock off but the guy said if I was happy for them to remove it then they would.
I went away happy that it had reached a good conclusion, but the agents emailed me later to say that the tenants were threatening to take me to the small claims court for compensation for not being able to use the garden for 5 months..... I was astonished. Can they do that? Surely I should have been given more of a chance to do something? The first time I heard anything about a possible claim against me was today.
Points in my favour (maybe)
1 I left a key to the garden padlock at the flat
2 the neighbours had a key ( which the tenants previously borrowed) so they could have asked for it any time
3 I didn't know the lock was broken
4 my husband fitted the gate, had we known they were *so* desperated to get into the garden we could have removed the gate or anything really.
Please tell me whether they are/are not entitled to any compensation.
Thanks for your time
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