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who should pay for locksmith fee?

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who should pay for locksmith fee?

Postby johnny » Sat Apr 06, 2002 5:55 am

Recently, the lock for my apartment door broke and me and my roommate had to hire a locksmith who drilled thru the lock. Basically that was the only lock for the apartment door and it broke due to old age and poor quality so it was no one's fault. The next morning, I hire a different locksmith to install a new lock.

My roommate and I paid for the locksmith fees already, but we feel the landlord should reimburse some or all of the fees, but we're not sure if he's required to pay all of it.

By NY State rent laws, is the LL responsible for the fees of the locksmith who installed the lock and the locksmith who drilled out the faulty lock? Or just the former?

I greatly appreciate the replies.

Johnny
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Re: who should pay for locksmith fee?

Postby Lilly » Sat Apr 06, 2002 11:27 pm

In order for the LL to be responsible for the cost of the locksmith, you would have had to notify him before it broke, and have him do nothing, and then have it break (?)but that being said LL must furnish at least one working lock for the door-ask him nicely to please install a second lock-you really should have 2 locks on your front door. So you pay for the lock you replaced and LL should pay for the second lock.
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Re: who should pay for locksmith fee?

Postby johnny » Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:53 am

Lilly,
Thanks for the reply.
From what you said, it sounds like the landlord should reimburse me for the lock I replaced on the door, however he does not have to reimburse me for the lock-out service the locksmith performed, UNLESS I had told him it was faulty and needed a replacement and he does nothing about it. Is that right?

Can I legally deduct the cost of the locksmith fee from my monthly rent or should I just ask him to reimburse me?
johnny
 
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Re: who should pay for locksmith fee?

Postby <astor> » Mon Apr 08, 2002 3:10 pm

Could you have called the landlord or super and have them come over maybe they have a master key which would have opened the lock or a spare lock....
<astor>
 

Re: who should pay for locksmith fee?

Postby johnny » Tue Apr 09, 2002 7:37 pm

3R,
It's been a week since the lock broke and the LL has not come to install a new lock nor had he expressed any intent of doing so. He really should have come right away to install a new one because I had no lock on my door at all after it broke.

So since he didn't bother to install a new lock(one which is required by law), which I assume he has no intention of doing now, then I should be entitled to a reimbursement.
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Re: who should pay for locksmith fee?

Postby ChrisG » Thu Apr 11, 2002 2:45 pm

at this point i would contact him again and tell him you would like to pay your next month's rent minus the cost of the new lock. most LLs seem to go for this rather than physically paying you back for stuff. you should also keep harping about a second lock; he might just have you put another one on and you can again take it out of the rent. negligent LLs just want to be left alone so i find this approach to be the least invasive.
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