TWO families claim their lives are being made a misery because they keep getting locked in their homes.

Dean and Joanne Hornby and newlyweds Mark and Julie Lisle both moved into their rented two-bedroom homes on the new College Heights development off Newstead Road, Weymouth, last year.

All went well until early this year when Mr Hornby began to find that their front door lock was jamming, sometimes so badly that his wife Joanne couldn't open the door at all.

Then next door neighbours Mr and Mrs Lisle nearly had their wedding day ruined when their front door lock jammed solid during their wedding party.

Mrs Lisle said her husband rang and complained to landlords Magna Housing but was told it was not an emergency and Magna wouldn't come out without charging them. Two days later Mr and Mrs Hornby's front door lock jammed and Magna told them that repairs were not a priority.

Mr Hornby said: "I was furious because I asked them what would happen if there was a fire.

"They said use the back door but I said that would be impossible if the fire was at the back and we would burn to death.

"Since then Magna has written to us saying that they will not be round to carry out our lock repairs until September 14."

Mrs Lisle said that Magna told her husband they would not help the couple - even though it was their wedding day - because it was not an emergency.

She added: "I was furious. This was our wedding day, we had a house full of guests who could only come in and out via the back door and all Magna could say was that it wasn't important and if we called them out on a Saturday they would charge us.

"It left a nasty taste in our mouths because it was our big day and they were so unhelpful.

"At the very least I feel we deserve an apology for the attitude they showed and we also want Magna to repair our door as soon as possible."

Magna building services head Trea Murphy said: "Our computer records show that on Monday it was reported that the front door locks to 152 and 152A Newstead Road had jammed.

"All our repairs are automatically prioritised by our computer system dependent upon the nature of the repair.

"The repairs had initially been prioritised as routine repairs which take 20 days.

"When the tenants contacted us on Tuesday morning to point out the inconvenience and to ask whether the repairs could be carried out any earlier we arranged for our carpenter to attend today and they are now fully operational again."