High Handed Or What?

[jeanijay]

My daughter, with rather a lot on her plate at the moment overlooked a service charge bill on her ground floor flat, while she was at work a representative called found that her daughters new bike that had been padlocked under the stair well in the hall cut off the padlock and confiscated it. When she rang the office she was told that they considered the bike to be a hazard but as this was the first time she had missed the service charge in the five years she had been there they would on this occasion eventually return it sometime convenient to themselves.

Her job involves handling armoury perhaps they should take her keys away for a while

[Maydup]

It seems like an unfortunate co-incidence to me, that they deemed the bike to be a hazard at the same time as the service charge fee was overdue. But there we are, not best practise by any means, but best not to do either again.

[CheekyChops]

How did they know it was your daughters bike?

[woofgang]

that's theft and vandalism.

[factor-fiction]

I think they'd have mentioned the overdue service charge if that was the issue.
Have they got the right to enter her rooms without permission.
It's hard to understand why they'd take the trouble to cut off the padlock, unless she'd had previous warnings. Maybe there is more to the story than we know,

[Peter Pedant]

I think the managers went to get their portion
and thought O there's a bike...

however the opinion that a padlocked object is a fire hazard in the event of people coming down stairs etc (er when there is a fire etc), I dont think you can get over.

She has to pay her service charge - and I think they will tell her to store her bike in the flat quite honestly

[jeanijay]

Only two apartments on the ground floor, no through hall, stairs lead directly to outside door, deep space under stair to allow for push chairs and so forth. Yes, she should have paid this charge on time, they admitted this was the first time she was late and I would never believe anyone who said that they had not overlooked an invoice once in their lives. I have always agreed that bailiffs are needed but usually after due process but these were just office bods, I think a warning letter was called for or perhaps a change of property managing company