Who's Entitled To Keys?

Who's Entitled To Keys ?

Last week I entered a building in which I know every single resident. As I walked up to the front door a young man was in front of me and he opened the service door with a key. I thanked him for holding the door open and proceeded to ask him which apartment he was living in. He candidly told me that he didn't live in the building, but his buddy gave him a key because he didn't like getting up to answer the door all the time. Apparently, this person was a fairly regular guest.

Now, there are two ways of looking at this situation. The guest was quite annoyed when I demanded that he give me the service key as he was not a resident of the building. The tenant further attended my office to insist that I give the key back. During our conversation, this tenant indicated that several other people had service keys to our building, all of whom he personally gave out a key. His position was that it was a matter of convenience and should be of no concern to the Landlord. Needless to say, the conversation went from bad to worse.

I am confident that I speak for most Landlords when I say that this is certainly an unacceptable practice. If the Landlord didn't care if anybody had keys to the entrance to the building, they wouldn't bother putting a lock on the door.

The situation described above is not that uncommon. I have frequently even heard of situations where tenants give their friends keys to the underground parking garage, keys to their apartment, keys to the laundry room, and so on. I would suggest to those people who are so casual in this practice that they take a moment to read their lease very closely. Many landlords are starting to make specific reference in the lease as to who is entitled to keys - namely the leaseholders and occupants only. Landlords are also opting for double cut keys or expensive European lock systems in which the replacement key is fairly expensive. The Landlord in turn only hands out enough keys for the leaseholders. Another option being adopted for underground garages is the card system in which you need a special card to access the underground parking garage.

Many people ask why Landlords are going to such extremes, but the reality is that this is an issue of security. As well, society as a whole is also becoming increasingly concerned about this issue which makes the added measures a strong selling tool for rentals. Please do not give out your keys to people who are not entitled to have them. Respect your neighbours and your Landlord. Nobody wants an incident at their home.

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