How Uber Drivers Can Be the Key to Misplaced Keys

As of the 1st of June, Landlords and Agents are unable to charge the majority of fees due to the tenant fee ban. Great for tenants but not so for Landlords & Agents.

We recently had a tenant who left his set of keys at his workplace and came home to realise he could not gain access. Our office was closed and he gave our out of hours line a call asking to be let in. Most of our properties have key safes (which are amazing leverage by the way) but this property did not unfortunately.

Because of the fee ban, we would only be able to charge a minimal fee for the time to travel to the property to provide access. There is no strict amount but the sentiment is that £15 would be the maximum. For myself, to drive 30 minutes from my home with our spare keys and then back again would certainly be a waste of an evening. Also my wife would not be too happy as we were just getting ready to watch a movie together, awww its sweet, I know.

Instead of driving down, the tenant was requested to order an Uber and start the journey from the street where my home is. Once the Uber driver arrived, I went down and gave the keys to the Uber driver. There was no identifying tags or such on the keys and the tenants apartment was in a multi-complex - so it would be impossible to find the apartment if he was feeling devious. 

The tenant tracked the journey all the way to his street and picked up the keys from the driver, as well as picking up the bill for the journey time. The tenant gained access and I told him to leave the keys for our cleaner to collect. No locksmith or wasted journey required.

Using Uber to deliver keys is probably not within their job description but nonetheless another helpful potential tool, should it be necessary.

And I got to watch my movie. 

Article by Adam