Where can you get this WD40? I don't remember seeing this in OBI or Migros.
The usual household oil (huile de menage) that you get from OBI- and which can be applied on everything, including bikes, locks, sewing machine etc.
I saw it on sale in Otto's.
Coop Bau und Hobby also stock it. https://www.bauundhobby.ch/suche/wd+40
To clarify, there is nothing wrong with the lock, i.e. it works perfectly well when I turn the key without trying to lock it into the doorframe. The problem is when I try to lock it into the frame. It's one of those locks in which each turn of the key pushes the locks further into frame. Turn 1 works well. Turn 2 is, firstly, difficult to implement; and secondly, if implemented, is difficult to undo.
Then its not the lock... the door and frame are out of alignment.. assume you have a metal door frame and the hinges are the type that screw into the frame that allow adjustment? If so the door needs to be lifted off and the hinges rotated 1 turn either in or out and the door rehung.
The lock tang will have wear marks and tell you if it's on or out... or take a file to the recess.
Thank you! I think that you have diagnosed the problem.
The door hinges are rather weird. It's something along the lines of this (although not quite)
http://www.archiexpo.com/prod/agb-al...67-306514.html
It's beyond my abilities to fix this. But is this something for a locksmith? Or rather, who exactly can fix this?
It's the hinges I expected to see... lift the door off and turn the hinge on tbe frame either in or out 1 turn. Re hang the door and see what happens.
I would contact your agency and tell them .. check.if they want charge you as they shouldn't.
Correct.
Absolutely not. Irrespective of any reason given, the landlord is not entitled to a key, period.
Anyway, in case of emergency, fire departments etc. aren't going to twiddle their thumbs and wait for the landlord to turn up with a key to rescue someone, they're going to break in and provide help.
If the landlord wants you to (perhaps even tries to contractually force you to) give a key to a neighbor/trusted person of your choice so that he can access the apartment in case of a long (meaning multiple weeks/months) absence of the tenant (you), that's a different matter entirely. In this case, you are still well within your rights to not give your keys to anyone no matter what the landlord says, it is your apartment for the duration of your lease and therefore you as a tenant, and you alone, decide who enters and who doesn't. The only way the landlord can enter is if he announces himself 24/48 hours in advance and you permit his entry .
If you lose or copy any key, meaning if you change the number of keys provided to you by the landlord at the beginning of the lease, you can be required to replace the locks, and as others said this can become quite expensive quickly, especially if your insurance doesn't pay. I'm not sure if they pay in case of copying keys and then losing a copied key or if they only pay when losing an original key.
Some locksmiths may have the capabilities. I'd go for a carpenter (Bauschreiner) who also does doors (doesn't matter if he displays wooden doors only as this is about the hinges), e.g. this one . However the landlord/regi may have decided on that already based on previous experience.
Keep in mind:
Who orders, pays. Unless the regi/landlord gave you a go-ahead before the fact - I'd want that in writing, along with what should be done and the cost maximum mentioned.
Not at all! Nobody is forbidden from changing a lock. Such a thing is impossible to forbid in any case! Flat occupier changes lock, end of story.
The first thing I do in when moving into a new home is to change the lock on the flat entrance door.
You simply can't be too careful and you can't ever know how many copies of the keys have been made previously and who still has them, whether they are Kaba keys or otherwise. You also don't know who has a master key.
My neighbour, 95, still has keys for the previous properties she's lived in as well as keys to properties that her deceased son used to live in and her living son's ex wife used to live in, the addresses are even written on the key fobs! She said she has been meaning to give them back...
More was written about key sagas here: charge for lost keys
I agree with this entirely, nobody should be entitled to a key to someone else's flat except for the current legal occupier. But I would be interested in reading the actual Swiss laws/regulations that detail it all precisely.
Our housekeeper has a pass key / master key and enters some of the flats freely. Some tenants have complained and got into arguments with him as they knew he had been in unauthorized, - items were moved, windows/doors opened.
I have always felt this (the fact that such a key even exists) was totally wrong, possibly illegal, but I don't know what the law says about it. In some other countries such keys are forbidden by law. In Switzerland?
The only flats he can't get into are the ones like mine, which have changed the locks or have an additional lock and/or chain fitted.
Precisely for this reason also, I changed the lock before moving my stuff in.
Would an insurance policy cover a theft where no break-in has occurred?!
Example: What is to stop the housekeeper's son coming back one night, taking the key and getting into any flat he wants? It's a delicate situation.
The problem is though this 'rule', more often than not, is simply not adhered to.
For exactly this reason, if you really want to give the housekeeper a key, inform the landlord/agency (you aren't renting from the housekeeper so he's irrelevant) that the housekeeper and perhaps the landlord/agency will be held liable for any theft/break-in since you cannot prove it wasn't him due to his having a key. That way he will not want the key.
If the landlord/agency/housekeeper makes a fuss and says the housekeeper NEEDS a key (for whatever reason), tell them clearly that insurance will not cover if he has a pass key (show them this in writing if they really are insistent) and that either they let you have all the keys without giving the housekeeper any, they accept liability in case of theft/a break-in or you will look elsewhere for a flat.
Get this kind of thing sorted before signing a lease.
If you can't stick to your own principles as a tenant, you do indeed have a problem.
Think before you sign the lease, and if anything comes up after having signed and you stand your ground with the landlord/agency/housekeeper, keep all your keys no matter what they say and move out asap. You will have the back of the renter's association on this. If things escalate you can take it to police, after all the flat is your property and you alone decide who enters and who doesn't.
Thanks, Urs_Max. The apartment is owned by someone (i.e. my landlord), but other flats in the building and the building itself are managed by a regie. So, I'll run it past him first to see how to address it.
And if anyone's looking for WD40: Coop has this (usually placed near the section on bulbs, starters etc)
I'd go even further than Urs_Max suggested, I'd tell the landlord/agency to do the contacting of anyone who ever does anything in your apartment - that way it is automatically them who order and pay, and hence receive the bill and have to pay the company within the set time frame. If they then want you to pay them they can ask you to and you can calmly take care of things (and pay if warranted, of course!), whereas if you are the person ordering/calling people/companies, you will be the one faced with a bill, and no matter if your landlord agreed to pay part of it/refund you, it will have to be paid for by you to the company within (normally) 30 days.
Migros has WD-40 as well, I saw it in a teeny single M Migros next to the cables/light bulbs!
Clarification:
Contacting the regi/landlord and getting their OK for a certain order, and amount involved, includes (automatically, in my mind) that the bill will be sent to them. I agree though, it would certainly be useful to explicitly mention this.
In a sense the renter becomes the (unpaid) agent on the regi's behalf in order to speed things up and simplify the process as the regi is usually not present at the building (going there creates costs if its own). The idea behind this all is to create a win-win situation.
Note: with my post I meant that landlords do not always stick to this 'rule', they keep keys, copies, pass- or master-keys and issue housekeepers with them too, the latter also 'flout' these 'rules'. In my view this is all wrong, what I don't know is whether it is actually illegal.
It is impossible to know if all copies of keys or pass-keys that open your flat have been eliminated. The only guarantee that someone can't get in using a key is to simply change the lock(s). This is never prohibited, nor is it possible to prohibit.
And, I'm not a tenant but an owner, so this is irrelevant to me personally! Our buildings are a mixture of tenants and owners. The housekeeper using a pass-key that he has, can get into any flat (whether owner-occupied or leased by a tenant), that has not changed the locks or added a second lock.
Then get written notice of how many keys of the flat the landlord/agency/housekeeper is in possession of at the start of the lease and demand all of them be handed to you.
If you don't trust the landlord's/agency's/housekeeper's words, don't sign the lease or, if you really want to rent from/live close to someone you don't trust, change the locks.
Not really. WD40 is a cleaning agent.
Once cleaned you still need oil.
Motorcyle chain lube works quite well for locks and locking mechanisms, as it doesn't run away.
Tom
I personally don't rent, so I have no lease to sign.
I change the locks, because you don't know who has copies of the keys to the door of your new home. It has nothing to do with who lives close by.
This is Switzerland, hardly anyone would think of stealing, let alone the landlord
not only no one is changing locks during the rent period, it actually might be forbidden to - you really need to report the lost key to the landlord (and yes, it will cost you)
I would do the same, you simply can't know who has a key to the existing lock.
It is certainly not forbidden, nor is it possible to forbid something like that. How can anyone stop you? you just do it. Whilst you are a tenant you have the right to put your own lock on your door to stop anyone getting in who may (still) have a key to the existing lock.