When we moved into our apartment, the landlord asked to hold a spare key for emergencies. At first this seemed like a good idea as he is local and it could always be helpful.
Since then we have noticed that having one less key can cause problems when we have more than one visitor.
Does anyone know if there is a legal requirement that landlords are entitled to hold a key.
As far as I know they do now have to hold one and its illegal for them to have one without your knowledge. Thats what I was told anyway. I could be wrong.
As I once found out, my landlord does not keep a spare key.
I think it's a little odd, I would prefer to keep a key with a friend rather than the landlord. The landlord isn't even allowed to enter the flat without express permission from yourself (as I understand it).
If you feel awkward you could at the very least ask for a replacement key, he may take the hint.
Why don't you ask him if you can make a copy for a new key? Most apartment keys (those with the dimples) can't be copied without the paperwork which is probably held by the landlord.
We had our agency do a couple of extras for us after my son was born - the in laws now have a key, for example.
I'm not sure about landlord having a spare key to your apartment. It would make me at least a tad uncomfortable. Being left with only one spare pair of keys is a bit weird too. We had 10 keys cut and handed in by landlord. One key belongs to me and other key belongs to my other half. One key to rule them all...The other 8 keys were given to elves, dwarves and people of earth (not really ). But seriously, we just keep them in emergency.
I have never discussed with our landlady whether she has a spare key or not, not directly in any case. We did receive three sets of keys when we moved in, I gave the spare to my m-i-l as she is only a couple of blocks away and could be called in emergency.
Meanwhile, landlady was in the building recently and asked us to give one of the neighbors the third set in case of emergency - which still did not indicate whether she has any herself or not. Said landlady was fine though when I told her that m-i-l has the spare as she has the phone number for m-i-l for emergency / reverence / something purposes anyhow.
This wasn't the case for me when I lost my keys, or if so, they went to great lengths to hide it. However, the landlord did get hold of the locksmith who installed the locks for the entire building, and he did have a master key for everything, while I was glad at the time, it's probably not right.
This just came up with my land lady. We had a power outage while on holiday and she called a mutual aquaintance asking where we were (we had the nerve to leave our apartment for a week with out telling her). She then bent his ear about us and our children for a good long time.
We're pretty sure she let herself in - she claimed to our friend she needed to make sure everything was alright after the power outage since she'd talked about the coffee maker in our kitchen . Of course we have no proof. I'll never rent an apartment with a live-in land lord again.
How can you protect yourself from this kind of trespassing?
Being a Landlord in Switzerland; I actually keep a key for all the apartment front doors.
The tenents are aware that I hold a key.
I would never ever enter an apartment without them inviting me in.
It is useful when they mislay their keys as they know they can come and get it to let themselves back in their flat and if they have lost their key, I can get a copy cut cheaply for them.
I have kept a copy key becuase if you have read my post:
This all arose because the tenent that moved out of the apartment when I terminated his lease never returned the Keys because he was trying to be vindictive.
The landlord is the legal owner of the flat and should something happen when you are not home or not contactable then I think they should be able to gain access. Should the roof leak, a window get broken or a leak from upstairs it is in your interest (after all it is your possessions inside) for the landlord to have a key to sort out those problems in case you can't be contacted or are away.
Most rental contracts in the UK and Australia (where I have previously rented and had rental properties in) have a clause that says that the landlord can enter the property in case of emergency.
As for notifying your landlord when you go on holidays, a building insurance policy generally has a clause that the property shouldn't be vacant for more than 28 days or the insurance isn't valid. I have had it written into the rental agreements that I am informed should this happen.
Maybe this is some euro thing that I don't get but why would a land owner not be allowed to have keys to his own properties regardless of whether or not you are renting it. Typically, renter laws state that the landlord must give you notice if he needs to enter your unit for any reason. If a water pipe breaks in your unit and you are out of town what's he/she supposed to do? Wait until you get back? Hire a lock smith? Jeez, people. If you think your landlord isn't trustworthy, move out.
Below is a link to an article on the Home-owners website which, if anything, would be in favour of landlords. It expressly states that landlords are absolutely NOT entitled to keep a spare set of keys except with the express permission of the tenants.
Of course, most rental contracts stipulate that if you are away for any length of time the tenant must leave a key with someone and inform the landlord/agency who they can contact in case of emergency.
I wish some of you would think what was reasonable if you were a Landlord?
If the apartment above yours dishwasher hose burst and was flooding your flat and the tenent upstairs was on holiday. I gather you would just sit there with the water flooding into your apartment until they came back?
Or if you rang your landlord up to explain there is water coming through the ceiling and the landlord said I don't have a key for the apartment and I don't want to trespass in my tenents apartment, you would be cool with that?
The question the OP asked was not if it was reasonable or not, but whether or not the landlord is entitled to keep a spare key. The answer to that is a clear and definite no.
Whether it is reasonable I guess will depend on the circumstances. I have had a landlord that I left a key with and who went in and turned my heating up before I got back from a long trip abroad and others who I would not trust 6 inches...
With the rental market the way it is, one is not always in a position to choose a "nice" landlord...
We didn't give our key to the hauswart for several years. Then when I was at work one day, there was a small fire in the kitchen (really a plastic meltdown). Because they didn't have a key, the firefighters had to get around to the back of our building, climb up on a ladder and break a glass balcony door to get in. Not only did I need to clean up the hideous mess from the fire (burnt cat food in a plastic container makes a mess like you wouldn't believe!), but also broken glass and repair our cat net on the balcony. The firefighters were unbelievably considerate, cutting through only as much net as was necessary and breaking only one panel of glass - but it was still a mess. Had the hauswart had a key, they could have come straight in, not terrified our cats and I'd only have had a small cleanup. They've had a key ever since.