What happened to fobs/keycards? Do people not want those?
My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
11–20 of 47 posts
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#12Sounds like Latch is just garbage. Our August locks consist of me talking to the watch (or phone, if that's your thing): "hey dingus, unlock the front door". I can do that after a run when I'm still 50 feet away, or whenever is convenient for me to do so. Of course, leaving the house is just the opposite, me shouting at HomePod on the way out the door: "hey dingus, lock the front door". And before I'm out the front g…
ALL BLE phone app access control thingies are garbage. It doesn't matter whether it's Latch, OpenPath, whoever.
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.
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#13This just sounds unreasonable. How about: 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 & pur…
You can probably do that on your personal door but doing that on a shared access front door will very much get you in hot water.
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#14This is just nuts, what happens if your phone is out of battery? You're supposed to stay out for minutes or hours at potentially past midnight before you can go into your own home?
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#15What happened to fobs/keycards? Do people not want those?
> What happened to fobs/keycards? Do people not want those?
Apartment owners prefer not to give them. Don't ask me why.
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#16This just sounds unreasonable. How about: 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 & pur…
> But for all intents & purposes, while paying rent you are owner of said apartment, right?
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.
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#17When I was apartment hunting, I asked about this at a place that had smart locks, and they said I just had to fill out a "Reasonable Modification" form (or something to that effect) and they'd install a traditional lock.
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#18> ..I’d have to memorize two separate codes — one for the main entrance and another for my apartment door — which seems unlikely since I lost the ability to memorize any seven-digit numbers when I bought my first cell phone 23 years ago.
Since when this became an insurmountable task?
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#19> ..I’d have to memorize two separate codes — one for the main entrance and another for my apartment door — which seems unlikely since I lost the ability to memorize any seven-digit numbers when I bought my first cell phone 23 years ago. Since when this became an insurmountable task?
I would guess about 23 years ago for this person
Re: My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature
#20I was living in a building that converted to "smart" locks (not Latch) in the middle of my lease. It was horrible. It mostly worked but, it added daily frustration and friction. There was almost no benefit for me and it all went to the landlord. There is a record of every time I entered my apt that I'm not in control of. It made it harder for delivery people because the complex already had an intercom system and now I had to give directions to two different systems to successfully deliver.
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.