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Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

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Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#91

Post by gliop »

navaati wrote: post #76
cr1895 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A "bail" is you compensating the landlord for a resource they lend you. Deposit? Haven't heard that name before.

In French that word has a different meaning, it specifically means a rental contract and is pronounced like "bye", I'm not sure it has anything to do with "bail" in English. So could be that parent is French.

Bail is a security deposit. In English bail is generally used to mean a deposit against a promise to appear in criminal court, but it's the same concept.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#92

Post by CaptainZapp »

mehrdadn wrote: post #12

What happens to such a smart lock if it loses access to electric power (or internet access if it needs one)? Is there a key backup? Do you get locked out of your home if you don't have said backup key with you?

Add "or the manufacturer decides to deactiveate the servers on which the locks are dependent and the email informing landlord winds up in the spam folder" to the mix.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#93

Post by deadbunny »

iicc wrote: post #4

Firefox can block muted video from autoplaying: about:config media.autoplay.allow-muted false

Nice. Thanks.

Also for any Firefox Sync users, you can sync about:config preferences:

1. Open about:config

2. Right click > New (Bool)

3. Preference name = services.sync.prefs. + name of setting; true

eg: services.sync.prefs.media.autoplay.allow-muted

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#94

Post by mr_luc »

gmueckl wrote: post #36
Insanity wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Family recently bought a house in the US, and it is pretty. But it is mainly wood by the looks of it. I do wonder how well that works (for y'know, not being fire hazard and not being terribly insulated, being able to whither bad weather conditions, ..). I have not visited their new place yet so I can't comment on what it is like to live there. But houses in Europe just look more sturdy. That is one thing that makes m…

Well, during the Seattle "Snowpocalypse" (that is, the few actually cold days in the area last winter), the heater (actually, the AC doubling as heating unit) in my apartment had to work overtime to make up for the bad insulation. The worst offender was the balcony door that was just a normal wooden door with no proper rubber seal around it and even pretty big open gap between it and the floor. The single pane window…

The Pacific Northwest is a poor example there, because as you indicate, the "cold" winter days in the densely populated areas are still pretty mild.

The Great Lakes region of the US (like Minnesota, where I live), and some parts of the Northeast, are places that experience considerably more ... 'Scandinavian' extremes of cold, and the houses are built to handle it.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#95

Post by jethro_tell »

lqet wrote: post #30
adwww wrote: post #22

When I was last renting (in the UK) I changed my locks the day I moved in, then swapped them back to the original cylinders when I left. I thought it was pretty good practice not to have a door with an unknown number of previous tennants, cleaners, letting agents, landlords etc with access.

Is this legal? At least here in Germany, the apartment owner is allowed to enter your apartment using his key in emergency situations. [0] I can imagine that you can be held liable if, for example, a fire breaks out in your apartment, the apartment owner notices it, tries to enter your apartment to extinguish it, cannot enter because of changed lock, and the building burns down. [0] as others have mentioned below, th…

Wouldn't say fire, they're going to break the door down anyway, but something like a pipe burst or sewer backup, is also time sensitive but not life threatening and in that situation, you might be liable.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#96

Post by cdolan »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #64
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't security locks common over there? The typical night latch (Yale lock) is super easy to pick, but it wouldn't be easy to get UK insurance without a 5 or 7 lever Chubb lock, or one of the newer security locks. So pretty much everywhere has one - and quite often both. Newer doors tend to have multiple bolts in three places, operated by the single security key. Just a night latch might be used for internal doors,…

Thats because in the USA, the next level after an easy to pick lock is a dog. And after the dog, is a homeowner with a rifle, shotgun, or pistol. Unlike many jurisdictions all through Europe, the US has guns equaling in quantity to that of Somalia or Uruguay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g... Given the amount of guns (100+ per 100 people), and that some have a stockpile while others have…

If you’re facts/theory are correct then there should be no burglary events, as it could be assumed all homeowners have guns?

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#97

Post by sgift »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #64
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't security locks common over there? The typical night latch (Yale lock) is super easy to pick, but it wouldn't be easy to get UK insurance without a 5 or 7 lever Chubb lock, or one of the newer security locks. So pretty much everywhere has one - and quite often both. Newer doors tend to have multiple bolts in three places, operated by the single security key. Just a night latch might be used for internal doors,…

Thats because in the USA, the next level after an easy to pick lock is a dog. And after the dog, is a homeowner with a rifle, shotgun, or pistol. Unlike many jurisdictions all through Europe, the US has guns equaling in quantity to that of Somalia or Uruguay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g... Given the amount of guns (100+ per 100 people), and that some have a stockpile while others have…

> Given the amount of guns (100+ per 100 people), and that some have a stockpile while others have none, you're taking your life in your hands if you want to break in and burglarize.

Yeah, and you know who has probably one of these guns? The people breaking into your home. And they usually have the first mover advantage, aren't surprised, and so on and so on .. I'd rather have a good lock on my home than risk this as a home owner.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#98

Post by Waterluvian »

setquk wrote: post #90
adwww wrote: post #22

When I was last renting (in the UK) I changed my locks the day I moved in, then swapped them back to the original cylinders when I left. I thought it was pretty good practice not to have a door with an unknown number of previous tennants, cleaners, letting agents, landlords etc with access.

I did this as well after having a couple of snooping landlords. Also it's empowering. One rental I had, prior to the tenancy deposit protection scheme I had a serial con artist landlord. At the end of the tenancy, he billed my entire £600 deposit return to three companies he owned. One for gardening, one for cleaning and one for maintenance. This made it difficult for a claim to be placed upon him. This was without e…

"My wife decided to add insult to this injury by spreading marmite all around the inside of the letter box."

This was the part where you lost my support. That's a bit too petty.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#99

Post by TeMPOraL »

thrower123 wrote: post #86
londons_explore wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing locks is typically very expensive unless you have the expertise to do it yourself though? One can easily pay £500 ($700 USD) to change the locks on a home in the UK.

I think it would really depend on the type of the locks. Standard door handles and deadbolts cost on the order of $20 apiece, and only require a phillips screwdriver and maybe 10 minutes to change.

Seconding. In Poland, about the only issue changing a standard lock is the hassle of going to a shop and buying one. As far as I can tell, most anti-break-in doors here have a modular locks too, allowing you to replace just the auth and bolt-actuating mechanisms.

Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords

#100

Post by noego »

Does anyone know if these tenants were covered by any rules preventing the landlord from not renewing their lease? If not, the landlord could always choose to not renew their lease the next year, install the smart locks, and then lease out the apartments to tenants who have explicitly acknowledged and approved of the smart locks.

I wonder if the courts would still try to enforce a no-smart-locks policy in that case. If they did, it would set a major precedent against landlords being able to customize their own homes and renting it out only to tenants who are okay with it.

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