My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
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It was one of the main drivers for me to move out. I will never rent an apt with a system like that again. Now I know to ask if they have "smart" locks and will avoid them like the insecure plague they are.
They also had some wireless box that communicated with my apt lock that I had to put in my apt, connect it to my wifi, and use my power, all without any compensation.
Are you assuming that the exterior and intermediate doors have unique codes for each resident? That pretty much guarantees people will be carrying around the codes in their wallets for quite a while.
Either way anyone who visits once will have the front door and internal door codes and will be able to come and go as they please unless temporary visitor codes can be issued.
The fact that it takes two seven-digit codes to enter your apartment (one for the lobby door, one for your apartment) only makes cracking the code more difficult; it doesn't change the basic problem that control over entering the building (and your apartment) is freely available to anyone who determines the code.
1) Hire locksmith. 2) Have them replace app-supported lock with regular metal key one. 3) Profit (in time & annoyance saved). 4) While you're living there, if landlord threathens legal proceedings: hire lawyer & "see you in court". 5) When you leave: hire locksmith to revert lock to app-supported one. If landlord requests so.
Sure there's ownership. But for all intents & purposes, while paying rent you are owner of said apartment, right? If doorlock isn't working, fix it.
Wrong. You don't own that place, the owner owns it. And they have the right of entry in emergency situations, or typically with 48 hours notice. They will bill/sue/evict you for tampering with the entry locks, for sure.
Check your lease; YMMV; most people aren't actually allowed to tamper with their door locks. Shocker, I know, right? When the Constable comes to evict you, your landlord/owner's going to have the keys to let him in.
If, for example, the unit below yours has water coming through the ceiling I don't know of anywhere that requires them to give you 24-48 hours notice.
I'd have a hard time believing anything comes of it if they try.
Let's say:
* You contacted the landlord and let them know the lock was not functional and you'd been unable to access your unit on several occasions. You'd had to sleep at friends' houses several times due to being unable to access your unit. You give them a reasonable timeframe within which to respond appropriately given the severity of the situation (i.e., replace the lock the next day not just send you the phone number for Latch tech support).
* The landlord did not appropriately resolve the situation.
* You replaced the lock with a simple keyed lock without damaging the old lock. You then immediately notified the landlord and provided them a copy of the key. (They also have a legal right to access the unit.)
Where I am, you have committed an act that is explicitly contrary to statutes governing residential tenancies. However, you did so in response to what was effectively an illegal lockout. (It doesn't matter if their intent was to improve the unit--they effectively restricted you from accessing it when you have a legal right to do so.)
They can:
1. Bill you: They can send you some paper. The question is how they enforce collecting the money. It's possible, though unlikely, they _may_ be able to obtain an order for "damages". In this case that would amount to about 15 minutes of a their maintenance staff's time to put the lock back. Using the typical rates I've seen the boards here use for that kind of unspecialized work, you'd be out about $5-8.
2. Sue you: For what? What outcome are they trying to have the court enforce? The court isn't going to order the lock put back and effectively enforce an illegal lockout.
3. Evict you: They already tried to do that via an illegal lockout. I cannot see any board here ordering an eviction in response to changing locks in a way that the landlord's access was never restricted--it's completely disproportionate. They're also generally not going to order an eviction over something that could be easily rectified without an eviction (put the old lock back on, matter's settled, everyone go home).
The "courts" are people, not computers blindly applying a set of instructions. If their options here are (1) to enforce putting the lock back and lock you out of your unit; (2) to evict you because your smartphone isn't compatible with the lock the landlord wants to use; or (3) tell the landlord to kick rocks and fix their damn locks, I'd put my money on #3.
(I'm an involuntary landlord in Canada. I've had to argue in front of a tenancy board--the "court" with original jurisdiction over disputes under the tenancy act--a time or two or thirty. In preparation for that, I've probably read more previous decisions than some of the people _making_ those decisions. IANAL YMMV offer not valid in conjunction with any other offers or promotions HTH HAND.)
Of course, most landlords insist on consistency in maintenance, for example that all the ovens installed are the same make and model, so that they can be repaired or replaced when the time comes. A resident who installs their own equipment of whatever vintage is going to cause trouble for that maintenance flow, so it would seem to be in everyone's best interest to go through proper channels, and allow the landlord to select and install door locks consistent with what their maintenance team can handle, whatever that may be.
the landlord has no right to enter your home without you being present, no matter what. if there is an emergency like a fire or a broken pipe then they may have to break the door if you can't get there fast enough, but that then should be the least of your worries.
No, at least not in my US state. I cannot, for example, paint my apartment, install new carpeting, change the locks, or any other modifications to the premises without my landlord's permission. Doing so would violate my lease and I could technically be evicted for it.
You do have some specific rights as a renter, but they aren't even close to the rights you'd have if you owned the place.
The purpose is to deprive you of the resource they control should you say something they disagree with.
In fact, this applies to all smart devices, and IoT gadgets - to spy on you, and to control you if you step out of line.
"Oh I'm sorry your dishwasher won't start, should have thought of how much you valued having clean dishes before you started speaking out against the regime"
Obviously, that doesn't happen right now. But if the infrastructure is in place, all it'd take is a software patch and suddenly we get a dystopia that nobody could see coming and everyone reached for with arms outstretched.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I think you're showing yourself a little too eager to go down the cybery slope of dystopia.
We need to go to a place where it's possible to charge and while the device charges we can quitely contemplate on all the life choices that led to this situation.
Latch sounds like they just turned your phone into a really shitty physical key without the convenience of an actual twist-it-in-the-hole key physical key.
These kinds of things want BLE to scan all the time. Your phone OS wants BLE to scan never. The app will always lose this battle.
All of these services work with an RFID fob or keycard. I suspect it will take a couple of "equal opportunity" lawsuits to force landlords to cough them up.
I ended up going with the Schlage Encode Plus. Works as a dumb NFC, accepts keycards, full HomeKit, Apple Watch, etc., physical key, and keypad.
(If anyone from August is reading please help, it’s error log ID e720cfee2a9e90e5)
I never appreciated what an excellent solution a physical lock and key is until I experienced: - The paranoia when my phone was low on battery that I'm not going to be able to get back into the house. - The refusal of the stupid app to connect to the lock, requiring 5 attempts, turning things off and on again. Whilst standing in the street with all my stuff. Several times. Which causes... - Paranoia that the thing is just not going to work.
A smart lock needs to match the reliability and convenience of the thing it replaces. The reliability of a physical lock and key is so high that I'd describe it with a 1 rather than 9's.
We begged for a key card which they finally relented to giving us after 3 months which was a bit more tolerable but still annoying to not just have a key. Technology has improved to a degree but it’s definitely not fully baked
Apartment owners prefer not to give them. Don't ask me why.
Since when this became an insurmountable task?
https://www.kwikset.com/smartkey-security
Combine that with a protected keyway and you can have the tenant rekey themself.