Tenants Who Think I’m Their Parent

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Tenants Who Think I’m Their Parent

26th May 2009

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In one of my units there are a trio of younger (22-ish) girls who generally are good tenants.

keys Recently, on a Sunday, I received a call at 8:30pm saying that they have a “real emergency” and to please call them back ASAP.

The “real emergency” turned out to be that they had locked their keys in their car and on that keyring was the key to the house.

They wanted me to drive 45 minutes round-trip to let them into their house.

Ummmm. NO? They should have called a locksmith to get their keys out of the locked car. Oh, but that would have cost them money whereas if I drive to their unit and let them into the house, they don’t have to pay the $50 to the locksmith.

Whatever. They should be aware of a product called Hide-A-Key. Sorry but I’m not driving 45 minutes round-trip because they didn’t have the forethought to get one like this or this or this.

Sorry ladies.

There are currently 4 responses to “Tenants Who Think I’m Their Parent”

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1 On May 27th, 2009, Clifford said:
Many moons ago, when I was a renter, the landlord put in the lease that if I locked myself out that there would be a $45 charge for him to unlock the door. Fortunately I found a loose window and was 10 pounds lighter.
2 On May 27th, 2009, Philly_LL said:
I write in a lockout clause into my leases.

“18. LOCKOUT. If Tenant(s) becomes locked out of the Premises, Tenant(s) will be charged $25.00.

While my time is worth more than $25.00 per hour my rentals are close to both my mother and mother in law so if I ever need to go there I can make it a family visit.
3 On May 31st, 2009, Jessica Hickok said:
Neither would I have gone to unlock the door for them. You are right, you are not their dad. It irritates me to no end when I have tenants that do that to me and claim that it’s a huge emergency. However, when I do refuse to get up and unlock the door for them, I find that they end up breaking into the house causing more damage. So sometimes the tenant’s stupidity is a no-win situation for us landlords. Come on guys (tenants), use your head! Would your mortgage company come unlock your door for you if you owned the house and locked yourself out?? Or would they fix the damage caused by you breaking into the house?? Heck no, they wouldn’t! Time to grow up kids and pay the big bad locksmith for your stupid mistake.
4 On August 17th, 2009, Yezenia said:
I had a strange lockout experience as a renter in college. My roommate and I didn’t lock ourselves out, we had the key. It seemed our apartment locked US out. The not-so-handyman had “fixed” our lock earlier that day. When my roomie and I tried to get into the apt that night, the key wouldn’t budge. It was freezing out and the owner of the building lived an hour away. We called her to inform her that we’d called a locksmith, and she got mad at us! She was refusing to allow him to get us into the apt., but could not gaurantee us getting back into the apt that night (and this was during finals week). The locksmith kept trying to explain the situation to her but she wouldn’t listen. She finally relented and allowed him to open our door but then refused to reimburse me for the expense.