MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Advice please...

Advice please...

posted 5 years ago by Kj1oceanlust (1456)
45 replies | jump to latest

What if you were hired to be a house keeper and you cleaned the house one day as instructed. And your boss (the house owner) left you and said you could just leave after your done. Upon completion you locked the house up. Then the next day they show you a locksmith bill. As it turns out they were locked out of their house of 20 years. And now they expect you to split the cost. I asked why they didn't have a key and they explained they had some elaborate system in place, but somehow I messed that up by locking up the whole house. Are they justified in asking me to split the locksmith cost?

[–] kukuxu (5409) 5 years ago

It seems you didn't have the key neither. How did you manage to lock the house?

[–] Kj1oceanlust (1456) 5 years ago

It was locked from the inside.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 5 years ago

Well, I'd say you shouldn't pay.

You're supposed to make a reasonable informed decision. If he had told you not to lock the house, then that'd be your fault. But he didn't.

Without specific instructions, the reasonable assumption is to lock the house once you leave, otherwise you could be hold responsible because some burglars entered the unlocked house.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

This ^. Who wouldn't lock up a house that isn't yours upon leaving in that situation? Unless the person specifically told you to leave it unlocked.

[–] davodikum (6197) 5 years ago

was it?

[–] Kowalski (75523) 5 years ago

MY MOTHER CLEANS HOUSES....THATS INSANE...I WOULDNT FEEL RESPONSIBLE AT ALL.

[–] ODB82 (2055) 5 years ago

Split the cost and then key their vehicles.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

👍😉

[–] ODB82 (2055) 5 years ago

I’m sad my advice will be ignored.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Maybe not. It isn't the kind of thing you want to announce.
But I would be very tempted.

[–] ODB82 (2055) 5 years ago

I would announce it on here. Probably wouldn’t tell the story and mention my fantastic solution on Facebook though.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

No, I would not split the cost. Locking the house up is the typical, responsible thing to do . They could have held you responsible if you hadn't locked the doors.

I think they are 100 percent responsible for it because they didn't let you know about this elaborate system they used instead of a key, which is the norm. I think they were being unreasonable expecting you to leave the house unlocked despite not telling you about this. This whole story about an elaborate system sounds dubious to me, anyway. Do they always leave a door unlocked when they aren't home? Maybe they just forgot the key and made up something about an elaborate system to give them a reason to blame you.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 5 years ago

And not only the doors. Unless told the opposite, any responsible cleaner is gonna check that both doors and windows are locked before leaving. Usually she's gonna open the windows the moment she arrives, to air out the house, and she'll lock them when she's leaving.