Who pays for locks - landlord or tenant?

[Bruce Chang]

Who pays for the lock if tenants continue to keep breaking the lock?  Our family has a duplex, and the lock on the security gate has been fixed and broken several times.  Tenants point fingers at each other and neither take responsibility for breaking the lock.   Can we have the tenants split the cost of any future repairs or do we even bother fixing the security gate at all?  Front doors of both units have working dead bolts.  There is nothing in the lease that says the tenant needs to pay for a broken lock.

[Kim Meredith Hampton]

Bruce,

Anytime you get into locks, windows, etc.... it becomes more of a security issue and you don’t want that liability on you if there is a problem with a break in etc... take care of the lock and move on. Next time make it a tenant repair in your lease agreement