• Home
  • About
  • Clinic
  • Training
  • Tenants
  • Landlord Law

The Landlord Law Blog

From landlord and tenant lawyer Tessa Shepperson

  • Home
  • Posts
  • News & comment
  • Cases
  • Tenants
    • The Renters Guide Website
    • 15 Places for tenant help
  • Clinic
  • Series
    • Analysis
    • should law and justice be free
    • HMO Basics
    • Tenancy Agreements 33 days
    • Airbnb
    • Grounds for Eviction
    • Tips

Do house shares have to have locks on the doors?

November 11, 2014 by Tessa J Shepperson

keysThis is a question both landlords and tenants seem to ask quite a lot so here are my comments.

It depends on the type of tenancy you have.

If the tenant is renting a room in a shared house

By this I mean if the tenant has his (or her) own tenancy agreement for their own room and share the rest of the property with the other tenants – all of whom also have their own tenancy for their own room, etc

Then yes, the doors should have locks on them. The room is the ‘property’ that the tenant is renting and as this is a tenancy, they have the right to keep everyone out. Including you.

So the room has to have a lock.

If the tenant is renting a house or flat jointly with other tenants

By this I mean if all the tenants have signed one agreement, together. Here it is really up to the parties what they want and what they agree.

So far as the legal situation is concerned, the tenants are renting the whole of the property together. So they all have an equal right to use all the rooms.

Of course they will almost certainly each have their own room in the property and may want to keep their fellow joint tenants out of it.

But they don’t have a legal right to require the landlord to put locks on the doors, if they are not there already.  It is up to the tenants to sort this out themselves.

If asked, the landlord may or may not give permission for the tenant to put their own locks on the doors.

Although if the landlord refuses permission, there is not really anything they can do to stop the tenant putting a lock on the door anyway, at their own expense.

However if this damages the door in any way or if the landlord really does not want the lock there, the landlord will normally be entitled (if the lock was added against their wishes) to claim for the cost of getting the lock removed and the door made good from the deposit at the end of the tenancy.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Tips and How to Tagged With: keys, sharing property

Scroll down for the comments

IMPORTANT: Please check the date of the post above - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

You should always get independent legal advice before taking any action.

Notes on comments:

For personal landlord and tenant related problems, please use our >> Blog Clinic.
Note that we do not publish all comments, please >> click here to read our terms of use and comments policy. Comments close after three months.

Keep up with the news on Landlord Law blog!

To get posts sent direct to your email in box click here

About Tessa J Shepperson

Tessa is a specialist landlord & tenant lawyer and the creator of this site! She is a director of Landlord Law Services which runs Landlord Law and Easy Law Training.

« What are the tenants rights if an agent uses her keys to enter the property without permission?
Landlord Law Conference 2015 – Cambridge »

Comments

  1. Terry Samuel says

    November 11, 2014 at 10:24 AM

    Apart from the legal position, there are other reasons why landlord’s should resist putting locks on bedroom doors, when all the tenants have signed one agreement:

    1) If the house is burgled, then the damage will be more substantial if thieves break down locked doors.

    2) The last tenant vacating the house should be able to close/lock all windows. This is particularly important in a student house, where there is often a ground floor bedroom. The tenant would be negligent if they left a window open in a locked bedroom and the house was burgled.

    3) In the event of fire it is potentially easier to escape from an unlocked area.

    4) It can make an inspection of the property more challenging, if some members of the group are absent and they have locked their bedrooms.

    5) It’s another key for the tenant to lose!

  2. Colin Lunt says

    November 11, 2014 at 10:29 AM

    This is a rare time that I specifaclly disagree with Tessa; although the disagreement may be semantic.

    I do not think that properties let on room tenancies should (as in MUST) have a lock on the room door. It is possibly correct that they should (as in it is a good idea or reasonable to do so, unless it was being argued that the structure, as in the walls and opening of the room were unfit. I think that would be too much of a stretch of legislative meaning.

    However under mandatory HMO , or addtional licensing, ot the HMO Management Regs 2006 it may be a locally determined requirement.

    This issue was a regular complaint for student/young pro shares and I was never able to establish a common or statutory legal requirement.
    However I am always open to being given a convincing alternative opinion.

  3. Tessa Shepperson says

    November 11, 2014 at 10:36 AM

    @Colin I don’t think it is actually specifically set out anywhere in tablets of stone. However if you are renting your own room in a shared house on an individual basis – where you do not have any choice over the other occupants – then I think it is implicit in the type of letting that the door should be lockable. After all you would not rent out a house with no lock on the door.

    @Terry Those are excellent practical reasons why joint and several shared properties should not have locks on internal doors. Plus in those tenancies the tenants have a choice over who they share with. Tenants should take care to only sign a tenancy agreement jointly with someone they trust.

  4. Cathy says

    November 11, 2014 at 11:07 AM

    In my area, any internal lock must be of the type that can be opened from the inside without a key to comply with fire regs.

  5. Ian says

    November 11, 2014 at 3:55 PM

    Some BTL mortgages that allow letting to sharers on a single (joint) AST, don’t allow locks on the bedroom doors.

  6. Yvette Newbury says

    November 11, 2014 at 8:43 PM

    We do not allow locks on our (shared flats) bedroom doors with a maximum of 4 tenants. All tenants sign one agreement for the whole flat and usually pay one amount in rent to us for the whole flat (sometimes we accept individual payments) No locks enforces the idea that they SHARE the whole flat and therefore cleaning only their “own room” is unacceptable, they need to clean all common areas too.

    Rarely tenants ask to put locks on the doors and the reasons we refuse are due to the following:

    1. a particular lock that does not requite a key to exit from inside the room is the only lock acceptable in a shared property due to fire regulations;
    2. if each tenant has a TV in their own room, with a lock on the door, then each tenant will need a TV licence;
    3. if the council decide to check and find locks on each door they can decide to charge council tax to each room independently;

    A tenant once asked for a lock to be put on as they were unable to find an insurance company to insure their contents without it. I therefore researched the market and found 2 leading providers who provided this insurance on shared properties and forwarded the details to my tenant, who was then happy with no lock.

    In addition I firmly believe that when a tenant leaves the building, if they do have a lock on their bedroom door they will ensure that is closed and locked, but do not check that other doors/windows are closed before leaving, thus leaving the property more vulnerable to being burgled.

    • Bob Leydon says

      November 13, 2014 at 2:12 AM

      @Yvette Newbury
      Your points are likely to persuade tenants but are not strictly true.

      1. “a particular lock that does not require a key to exit from inside the room is the only lock acceptable in a shared property due to fire regulations” – I would agree if it were an HMO otherwise it need not be a requirement.

      2. Disagree – “if each tenant has a TV in their own room, with a lock on the door, then each tenant will need a TV licence” – This assumes separate tenancies. If it is a joint tenancy a single TV license is acceptable for the entire house regardless of the number of TV’s and their locations.

      3. Disagree – “if the council decide to check and find locks on each door they can decide to charge council tax to each room independently” – This might be true for say a self contained flat within a block with exclusive access and possession. Tenants sharing some basic amenities like kitchen, bathroom or lounge do not have exclusive possession and further if they have a joint tenancy cannot legally exclude fellow house-mates (notwithstanding exclusive bedrooms is what they agree between themselves) and so keys are irrelevant to LAs in this context. Even individual tenancies, and sharing amenities would share such a property as a single dwelling and be assessed as such.

  7. just saying says

    November 12, 2014 at 1:13 AM

    Ah, all this talk of burglars..

    Let’s be honest, locked (with a key) internal doors will likely deter theft more than encourage it; whatever side you get to them from. Most burglars are opportunists, not interested in sticking around that long. The other sort will have likely cased the joint and know not to bother. (this being a housesahre with so many ppl coming and going).

    As for TV’s, just let each tenant decide; many will not want a TV anyway, opting to watch everything on their laptop now.

    As for “challenging inspections” and “lost keys” pls stop with these self-interested excuses.

    Many a houseshare gets filled room-by-room and / or filled by the agent or landlord without consulting the current tenants. Tenants will want key locks for the obvious reasons, like privacy and security / peace of mind. (Your needs don’t trump theirs, incidentally). But this just demonstrates again how legislation continues to let tenants down.

    • Ian says

      November 13, 2014 at 9:51 AM

      “Just Saying”, I think you are describing a setup that should never happen, e.g. people that don’t know and choose each other being on a joint AST.

      There are only two clean setups:

      1) An separate AST for each bedroom room, locks on each bedroom room, landlord chooses each tenant as and when the room becomes empty. Landlord takes the risk of the kitchen etc getting damaged not expecting tenants for pay for each other damage.

      2) All the sharers know each other and choose to form a group; the group rents the complete property on a joint AST. All the tenants being responsible for paying for any damage etc any of them do. No locks on doors, as the tenants know each other, and they each have full legal access to the complete property.

  8. Tessa Shepperson says

    November 13, 2014 at 9:56 AM

    @Ian you are absolutely right. The legislation for joint tenancies is intended for situations where people choose who they share with.

    Landlords should not force new occupiers on joint tenants and indeed the existing tenants have the legal right to keep them out.

  9. Ian says

    November 13, 2014 at 10:34 AM

    Likewise if one tenant on a joint tenancy wishes to leave or stops paying their share of the rent, the group must understand that the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the landlord.

    You cannot have your cake of lower rent on a joint tenancy while expecting the benefits (e.g. locks on bedrooms) of being on separate ASTs.

  10. just saying says

    November 14, 2014 at 1:39 PM

    “I think you are describing a setup that should never happen, e.g. people that don’t know and choose each other being on a joint AST.”

    Should never happen, no. But certainly does.
    Tenants are told then, that :

    a) security, privacy and peace of mind only matter when you’re strangers. b) those locks don’t even need keys c) daring to ask for locks-with-keys in a joint teancy means you have an unrealistic sense of entitlement, apparently.

    Of course, none of those things is actually true. Or realistic.

  11. Tessa Shepperson says

    November 14, 2014 at 1:54 PM

    I expect it does happen but it shouldn’t.

    Tenants need to protect themselves and not take on joint tenancies with people they do not know – which is a very dangerous thing to do. Not only is there the keys issue – they are also making themselves personally liable for the rent arrears racked up and damage done to the property by all their joint tenants!

    I can understand that tenants feel under pressure because there is limited accommodation available and feel that they have to take what they can get.

    However that is not the fault of the legal system!

  12. just saying says

    November 14, 2014 at 2:53 PM

    The trouble is Tessa, many a letting agent or landlord that doesn’t care for what suits the tenants, and preferring joint tenancies for those very reasons. As Ian put it a missed rent payment “has nothing whatsoever to do with the landlord”.

    Tenants are under pressure, certainly. When you say “However that is not the fault of the legal system!” I think you mean “If a tenant signs a joint tenancy, then they must accept their fate”. Of course we know that. But it isn’t so constructive. The blog post has been very welcome tho, thankyou.

  13. Tessa Shepperson says

    November 14, 2014 at 2:58 PM

    The problems in the industry would be partially solved if we could have proper agent and landlord regulation. But it seems that is some way off. But this is the fault of the government who seem strangely reluctant to introduce it.

“Interesting posts on residential landlord & tenant law and practice - in England & Wales UK”

Subscribe to the Landlord Law Blog by email

Never miss another post!

Sign up to our
>> daily updates

If you are new to the blog >> click here

Get Your Free Ebook:

Click to get your Free Ebook

>> Click Here for Your Free Copy

Featured Post

Tessa Shepperson

Why you need and how to get proper legal advice on landlord and tenant issues

Tessa’s Podcast

The Landlord and Lawyer Podcast

Worried about Insurance?

Landlord Law Insurance Mini-Course

Disclaimer

The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion.

Although Tessa, or guest bloggers, may from time to time, give helpful comments to readers' questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts.

Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa or any guest bloggers should not, therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute.

Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a lawyer-client relationship (apart from the Fast Track block clinic service - so far as the questioners only are concerned).

Please also note that any opinion expressed by a guest blogger is his or hers alone, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tessa Shepperson, or the other writers on this blog.

Cookies

You can find out more about our use of 'cookies' on this website here.

Associated sites

Landlord Law Services
The Renters Guide
Eco Landlords
Your Law Store

Legal

Landlord Law Blog is © 2006 – 2021 Tessa Shepperson.

Note that Tessa is an introducer for Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers and will get a commission from sales made via links on this website.

© 2006–2022 Tessa Shepperson | Rainmaker Platform | Contact Page | Privacy | Log in

This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
I accept