My brother is working in the construction business on the other side of the Atlantic, he's started to sell flats which use smartcard + reader instead of physical keys.
How does this work during a power outage?
Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
171–180 of 367 posts
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#172Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#173The comments seem to be missing the two key aspects: accessibility and surveillance. The smart lock requires you to have a charged, working smartphone that you can use in order to get into your own apartment. One of the claimants is 93 and lacks the manual dexterity to do that. On top of that, smart locks can report when you enter and exit your home to the landlord; and, if under the landlord control, can provide oth…
> charged, working smartphone Not just that, you also have to install a proprietary piece of software onto the phone from a third party and accept their TOS. > can provide other people with a pseudo-legitimate access to it I think in the news story the smart locks were only installed on the front door not on the doors to the homes. If the landlord installed them on the doors for the homes as well, that would be very…
> charged, working smartphone
> Not just that, you also have to install a proprietary piece of software onto the phone from a third party and accept their TOS.
Also, the lock has to be charged at all times... is that the landlord's responsibility?
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the ability to immediately remove previous tenants access to the home This doesn't really require a smart lock. In Germany it's common to replace the lock immediately once you rent a place and put the original lock back in when you move out. This prevents the landlord, previous tenants and whoever else might still have keys from entering without your permission.
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.
For typical residential locks there's no specific expertise required, just two screws.
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI for Americans, it is generally illegal to change your locks and not provide the owner (or agent aka landlord) with a copy. It's their property, not yours, and depending on state/lease they have the right to have the locks drilled/replaced at YOUR expense because you are not allowed to lock an owner out of their property. There are only a few US states which have laws permitting tenants from changing locks and not…
If you need to get in a house you own in an emergency that could cost 100's of thousands of dollars why wouldn't you just break a window, or call a locksmith? I don't think the tenant would be responsible for these damages unless the incident was caused by their negligence.
I'm not a lawyer but in many states these liability claims go through a system which determines the % of liability for each party.
A tenant illegally locking their landlord out and causing delay of several hours for a time-sensitive emergency would almost assuredly get a lot more % liability blame than a tenant who properly gave their landlord a copy of the key and who was able to give access to the plumber immediately.
Hopefully they have enough renters insurance to cover the claim and their insurance company will handle the court side of things when other tenants sue!
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The landlord stole £600 off this guy... but the Marmite thing is too much somehow?
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#177Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#178smart locks are useful when you airbnb your apartment. otherwise I don't see the use for it.
Running? I don't like carrying keys
Don't you carry at least an ID card? Most keys are much smaller than an ID card, taking the key out of the keyring and putting it together with the ID card would only make the resulting package a bit thicker.
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who’s the bad one? Hmm And you basically did a disservice to all his future tenants by not reporting him to the police after being caught by you illegally accessing your home and destroying your property? By not reacting you basically silently allowed him to keep doing this. I would understand that he had some kind of power over you and you were afraid to react and report him, but you choose to confront him by bein…
Actually it's not quite that easy. If you think anyone even gives a crap about this sort of stuff then you're mistaken. Even today. Firstly, I spoke to the police and they said they couldn't do anything because I likely couldn't prove he was snooping and couldn't prove that it wasn't against the terms and it wouldn't be worthy of their time investigating it and it was probably a civil or contractual issue. "go see a…
Sounds familiar. I have some friends suing their old landlord for essentially walking off with their entire deposit (several thousands of £). They moved out of that place more than a year ago - the case is still working its way through the courts. Nothing is simple.
Re: Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords
#180The comments seem to be missing the two key aspects: accessibility and surveillance. The smart lock requires you to have a charged, working smartphone that you can use in order to get into your own apartment. One of the claimants is 93 and lacks the manual dexterity to do that. On top of that, smart locks can report when you enter and exit your home to the landlord; and, if under the landlord control, can provide oth…
> The smart lock requires you to have a charged, working smartphone that you can use in order to get into your own apartment. The landlord claimed (about half way down the article) that there was some sort of code that could be entered to open the door with no phone. Is that not the case?
That is the case - they offer a code you can punch it as well as a key card you can keep in your wallet (according to their website).