Bloody estate agents

You may recall that a month ago we were burgled. The estate agents, Sanderson James, sent a man around to fix the lock.

They have now telephoned us to let us know that they would like us to pay them for the lock and then claim the money back off the insurers. (they said to Ant that it was an "unauthorised" repair, but this was patently not the case. When I rang them back they just said "nah you're liable".)

I can sort of understand their reasoning but it does strike me as very underhanded, not to mention petty and mean. Certainly the way they're handling it rather makes the blood boil.

If we had more than a month left on the lease, and it didn't run out on Easter weekend, we'd be thinking about moving...

EDITED TO ADD: Apparently this is a standard clause in the tenancy agreement, it's why they make sure their tenants are insured (by selling them an insurance policy). Again, I can see that it makes sense to get an insurance company to pay for something if possible, but surely the landlord should have building insurance...?

Bloody Landlords (coda)

Further to previous post: On checking our tenancy agreement, the agent's claim that we agreed to insure the property as part of it (!) appears to be entirely made-up, surprise. Also it does explicitly state that the Landlord agrees to insure the building. We shall be telephoning them on the morrow to investigate this further.

In related news: The agreement also reveals that if we want to move, we have to let them know one month in advance, in writing. In fact, "While the tenancy is periodic," it says, we have to let them know a month before the last Rent Due Date. Internet research suggests that the tenancy is not yet periodic, so we don't have to let them know tomorrow, but it does give us about a week^[1] to decide whether or not we can find alternate living arrangements between now and the 10th of April...

[1] Or, if you prefer, exactly 10 days.