There are times that you’ll be locked out of your apartment. Maybe you can’t even lock the door to feel safe in your apartment, and you need an emergency locksmith in San Diego to help. The big question for many renters is who will be responsible for that cost.
This can be a tricky question to answer, because it will depend on a few factors. Most of the time, your landlord or rental company will be responsible, but it depends on whether it’s your fault or not.
Check Your Lease for Who Is Responsible
The best thing to do is to check your lease on any wording that involves an emergency locksmith in San Diego. This is going to immediately tell you if you’re going to be responsible for the costs or not. It can also outline how the locksmith will need to be paid for, and how you’ll get reimbursement if you call out the locksmith to help.
In a lot of situations, your landlord or rental company will need to agree on the locksmith coming out. They’ll be the ones to organize the visit, so they can pay the locksmith directly. If you make the call, you could end up liable for the payment.
Is the Call Your Fault?
If you’ve had to get a locksmith out due to your own negligence, you could find that you need to pay for the emergency. This could be due to losing your keys, or because you broke the lock in some way. The emergency locksmith in San Diego wouldn’t have needed to come out due to your own negligence.
Another reason could be due to willful damage. You may have damaged the door in anger, or a friend may have damaged the door due to their poor decision making. In this case, the landlord or rental company could say that you could have prevented this from happening, and since you didn’t, you will need to pay.
Is It Due to Something Outside of Your Control?
What about if there’s been a break-in? Or what if police have knocked down the door for a roommate or a person who lived there before you? In these cases, the fault isn’t your own. There’s even a chance that the key broke in the lock, or the locking system just failed due to wear and tear. An emergency locksmith in San Diego is needed for this, and usually, the landlord is going to have to pay.
Another problem could be a previous tenant still having a key. For safety reasons, you may need to have the locks changed in an emergency, and in this case, the landlord or rental company will need to foot the bill. After all, it’s not your fault that the locks weren’t changed in the first place.
Don’t spend money on an emergency locksmith in San Diego before you check your lease. Being in an apartment building, your landlord or rental company may need to be the one to organize the visit, because usually, the bill falls on them.
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