I had that queasy feeling. Where I woke up and checked my emails and in my inbox was the ‘Hi’ subject matter from the flat above me and I thought to myself, oh, what do you want?
I know that subject line, it’s means:
‘Natasha. I’m going to try and be polite to you, but actually I need a favour.’
Lo and behold, this leaseholder wanted to access my flat to get through my kitchen window to climb out onto the gutter to fix a pipe into the wall on their flat.
Absolutely fine, but my heart sunk with the complexity of the problem.
At the moment I’m not easily accessible. The keys aren’t where they normally are. And I’m going to have to negotiate with the tenants to let you in and then you’re going to be climbing through that two inch gap in the window.
Side note, the window doesn’t open as far anymore because it’s warped in the rain and I was planning on doing the windows up later on in the summer, but it’s January, So now’s not the time.
Then I thought about muddy footprints.
And If they did try and get outside or maybe they couldn’t quite get outside and they were going to try and take the window of the crawl out.
My first thought was just to be like, hell no, I’m not going to let you out.
But I just couldn’t bring myself to type it.
The ‘what if’ took hold.
What if I want to get my windows done this year and they need to approve to it because I have to get planning permission.
What if I need to do work in my flat, I would expect the other lease holders to be helpful to me. So I need to be helpful now.
I replied to the email and simply said, yes, you can have access. Here’s when my flat is empty and you can go and have a look and see if you can get out of the windows. Here’s where you can get keys from and here’s how I want you to look after my tenants.
In reality, more damage could happen saying no then saying yes. Bad relationships, damage to other parts of the property when the neighbour does the unsafe thing to get access, and ultimately that not so great feeling (I get the guilt of not being helpful!)
So I want to ask you the question, why wouldn’t you grant access?
I know, I know the first time you look at these things, it can seem like a huge hassle. but when you boil it down, and are reasonable, it’s a give and take thing.
Natasha
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