
Tenants win right to physical keys over smart locks from landlords - walterbell
https://www.cnet.com/news/tenants-win-rights-to-physical-keys-over-smart-locks-from-landlords/
======
xamuel
From Philip K. Dick's "Ubik" (1969):

The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.” He searched his
pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door.
Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he
informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”

“I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed
when you bought this conapt.”

In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it
necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his
door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.

“You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug.

From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it
he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-
gulping door.

“I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out.

Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through
it.”

~~~
jermaustin1
I should put this kind of tech on my office door. If I want to leave, I have
to feed it a dollar. An amazing savings plan or just motivation to keep
working instead of going to veg out on the couch.

~~~
chrisco255
Or if someone wants to interrupt you, 25 cents for admission.

------
pjc50
The 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 other people
with a pseudo-legitimate access to it. I don't know what the tenancy law is in
NY, but in the UK this is supposed to require the permission of the tenant
except in an emergency.

(Does anyone have the search expertise to find the actual case from NY public
records?)

~~~
intopieces
>The smart lock requires you to have a charged, working smartphone that you
can use in order to get into your own apartment.

When you say “The smart lock,” are you referring to the one in this story? The
article mentions that this smart lock, which led to a common area, had a
keypad:

“Lisa Gallaudet, the landlords' attorney, said the smart lock was on a single
door and that tenants were able to enter a numeric code to get in and didn't
need an app. They'd also been offered codes they could enter without a phone.”

So a few things here.

(1) This system did not provide access to a tenant’s apartment directly, only
a common area, probably a hallway or entry to the apartment area (article
mentions tenant was trapped without it)

(2) The claim that a 93 year old lacked the dexterity to operate the smart
lock is spurious. A physical key requires more dexterity than pushing numbers
on a keypad.

Overall, this does not seem like a resounding victory for tenants everywhere.
More like, a technical win that would support future action by tenants if they
find themselves faced with a mandatory-smart-lock-on-their-actual-door
situation, which this is not.

~~~
flensortow
> (2) The claim that a 93 year old lacked the dexterity to operate the smart
> lock is spurious. A physical key requires more dexterity than pushing
> numbers on a keypad.

In this case absolutely not. I've used the lock in question. It does not have
physical keys, and the keypad is non-responsive, and round in shape (think
rotary phone). Every person I know who has used the keypad has had trouble
both on their first and succeeding attempts. I am pretty good with it, but it
requires typing very slowly and using my thumb in order to ensure the key
press is accepted.

~~~
Gibbon1
I'm also thinking a 93 year old with bad eyes. My grandmother in her late 80's
could thread a sewing needle by feel.

------
adwww
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.

~~~
lqet
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, this does not seem to be enforceable, even
if it is part of the contract, and you are free to change locks after moving
in. You only have to give the landlord access to the apartment in case of
emergency, and he may enter forcefully if you don't do that (or if you are not
present / have changed locks).

~~~
_delirium
It's legal in the UK for a tenant to change the locks, and there's also no law
requiring them to provide the landlord a copy of the key. You do have to allow
the landlord in for certain reasons (like maintenance) with advance notice,
but you can do that by just being home and letting them in yourself. However,
the letting contract might prohibit it, and I think commonly does. It's not a
_right_ of the tenant to be able to change the locks, so the contract can
restrict it, but it's allowed by default if the contract doesn't say anything.

Details: [https://www.urban.co.uk/landlord-university/questions-and-
an...](https://www.urban.co.uk/landlord-university/questions-and-
answers/urbancouk-qa-my-tenant-has-changed-the-locks-on-my-property-and-not-
given-me-a-key-is-this-allowed/)

~~~
sjtgraham
Tenants have common law "exclusive possession" and "right to quiet enjoyment"
in a UK residential AST. Landlord's presence must be with tenant's consent, it
is trespass and possibly an "unlawful eviction" offence otherwise. Landlord
don't even have a right of entry to comply with their own statutory
requirements, e.g. gas safety check. The only exception is in an "emergency",
e.g. a fire.

~~~
cr1895
>"right to quiet enjoyment"

Ah, yeah I encountered the same in Netherlands. A while back the law changed
and some legal liability shifted towards landlords if their tenants were found
to be growing cannabis. So my property management company decided that they
would do random, unannounced inspections of all their tenants four times per
year. Plainly contrary to the authorized, agreed-upon reasons for visits and
counter to my right not to be bothered. Cue some unknown to me guy knocking on
the door asking to look around. Nope! After I argued with the company a few
times and refused them entry they finally stopped pestering me. And I'm not
growing cannabis...but neither am I a freshman in a college dorm!

------
iicc
Firefox can block _muted_ video from autoplaying:

    
    
        about:config
    
        media.autoplay.allow-muted false

~~~
joncp
CNet lost their javascript privileges on my machine a long time ago. This
extension is a godsend: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/disable-javas...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/disable-javascript/)

~~~
meower
You might not even need it if you are already using uBlock Origin. It can
disable JavaScript both per-site and globally.

------
SEJeff
Leslie Carhart, a relatively well known infosec community person posted about
this: [https://tisiphone.net/2019/01/28/security-things-to-
consider...](https://tisiphone.net/2019/01/28/security-things-to-consider-
when-your-apartment-goes-smart/)

Turns out she was right...

[https://twitter.com/CharlesDardaman/status/11016265103336734...](https://twitter.com/CharlesDardaman/status/1101626510333673474)

~~~
friedegg
I've been following her adventure in this area. She kind of had to become an
expert on it quickly when her own apartment decided they were switching to one
of these systems, and there was no opt-out short of moving.

~~~
SEJeff
Same. I've followed her awhile because she's amusing and generally quite
sensible. She was absolutely right to be scared of these.

------
aeharding
I see where the story is coming from. Devil's advocate: I think it would be
really cool and great for security if the smart lock manufacturer could notify
you if your landlord accessed you unit.

I can see pros and cons for both sides, is all...

------
mehrdadn
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?

~~~
ulucs
My current apartment has a "smart lock" system for entry into the building.
The system becomes unresponsive with no electricity, which means you're locked
out.

But you can kick open the door anyways, so at least that's an alternative to
being locked out.

~~~
lawlessone
Jesus, what if that failed in a fire?

~~~
more_pylons
In the case of a fire tenents try to get out of the house and usually there is
a normal manual turn lock on the inside of the door that works without
electricity.

For the fire fighters, I assume they break down the door anyways?

------
netcan
Reminder that technology changes power balances, and raises the question of
who controls it.

It's easier (both physically and in terms of dispute) for whoever controls the
smartlock (landlord, presumably) to "change locks," for example.

------
danpalmer
There are many issues with smart locks, but one thing I'm quite interested by
are the entry policies you could set. As a renter, two things spring to mind:
the ability to immediately remove previous tenants access to the home, and the
ability to potentially enforce the legal notice period for the landlord
entering the home (in the UK a landlord must provide 24 hours notice before
entering).

~~~
sc11
> 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.

~~~
londons_explore
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.

~~~
thrower123
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.

~~~
TeMPOraL
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.

------
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.

~~~
CydeWeys
Yes, rent stabilization/control requires that the leases be renewed.

And yes, these kinds of smartphone locks are often used by landlords as a way
to try to harass out their rent controlled tenants, who are less likely than
younger market rate tenants to have or know how to use smartphones.

------
unreal37
Interesting that the vast majority of comments here assume the facts of the
case. Nobody read the article.

It's wasn't the door to their apartments! It was a common door to the
building. The case was not "won", it was settled, and there is no precedent
set.

------
raverbashing
Good

Having an internet connection up is less essential than, you know, being let
into your home.

Smart locks are "acceptable" (with caveats) _as long as they have a physical
key override_.

People forget how reliable old solutions are. Maybe they will remind after
getting locked out a couple of times.

~~~
isoprophlex
Let's not forget the time-proven insecurity of your average IoT device,
coupled to generally terrible security practices in (any given
organisation)... I'd rather deal with physical keys.

Whoever is in control of your API keys is opaque for the tenants. If you think
your physical keys are compromised you can just replace the cylinder.

------
syshum
>>>Lisa Gallaudet: characterizing the settlement as a win for the tenants is
"misleading."

two seconds later

>>Lisa Gallaudet: when parties come to an agreement to resolve litigation,
it's a win for both sides."

So is this lawyer being misleading by calling it a win...

~~~
glastra
Add 'only' to the first sentence. Problem solved.

------
hijinks
As a landlord.. why would I want a smart lock? If there's one thing you learn
as a landlord is if it can break, it will break. Why would you want a tenant
calling you at 2am because the smart lock won't work.

------
MagicPropmaker
I won't use electronics and certainly not a cellphone on the Jewish Sabbath. A
"Smart Lock" that requires a cell phone is unfair for people who choose to
opt-out of using technology for whatever reason.

------
_cs2017_
The smart lock had a keypad that could be used to open it with a code. And to
clarify, it was a smart lock into the building, not into individual
apartments.

How is this possibly a privacy concern?

Also, the tenants didn't win a right to anything; they settled the case
without going to trial.

~~~
threezero
It’s a privacy concern because it can still track your comings and goings. And
even the codes were personalized to each tenant, so they could be tracked.

~~~
_cs2017_
Ah yeah if it's personalized, then I understand. That said, it seems just
asking the landlord to make the codes the same for everyone would have been
far simpler than going to court over this.

------
tracer4201
I’m in Bellevue, WA. My building uses smart locks. Instead of a cell phone,
you have a small fob, a little larger than a quarter that you hold against the
lock on the door to unlock it. The door is always locked.

On one hand, it’s nice the door is always locked and I don’t need to worry
about it. More practically speaking, if you go out the door without the dog,
you’re SOL.

What I really dislike is they can easily track when my spouse and I leave or
are at home.

~~~
randyrand
I went from that to a normal key. I much prefer the normal key. I don't ever
forget to lock my door, and once or twice I accidentally locked myself out
with the old system.

Also, I can make copies of my key if I like which I couldn't with the old
system.

------
the_watcher
The headline here is misleading - the tenants didn't win any rights, they
reached a settlement with their landlord in which they got physical keys.
"Tenants win rights" suggests there was a case with a ruling that would
establish precedent, which isn't what happened here.

------
drilldrive
I do not personally use a smartphone, so smart locks would disallow me from
using the apartment. These locks may be unlawful as a result (I am not
familiar with tenant rights in general).

------
baud147258
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.

~~~
astura
How does this work during a power outage?

~~~
aphextim
If it is at all a decent system most boards that control the door locks have
battery backups for this situation.

Our keyfob/door lock system at our small office works in this way where if you
were to lose power the boards still operate on their own independent system
via battery power up to 48 hours with no power.

Even on a server controlled system the server client only issues updates to
names/keyfobs on the control boards and even if the server computer were to go
down any current information still works as intended with no power and the
boards operating on battery (which most last 48 hours and the batteries are
cheap to replace so unless it is an extended outage you are fine)

------
ijustwanttovote
It's pretty stupid that I have to pay $250 if I get locked out of my place,
because only the landlord has the master key card.

------
galkk
WTF is with this site. Even with adblock enabled, it played video
advertisement to me, and then started narrating the story.

------
Animats
What if you have a Next door lock and your Google account is terminated for a
terms of service violation?

------
Y_Y
Most house locks are trivial to pick in about 30 seconds, and what I've seen
of "smart" locks isn't much better.

I think if you were really serious about preventing intruders (rather than
discouraging opportunism) you need alarms and cameras and someone with a big
stick.

~~~
lucb1e
> Most house locks are trivial to pick in about 30 seconds

How many training seconds are required to be able to manage an average of 30
seconds? Or do you mean destructive? If yes, is it loud?

Maybe the American locks are different (doubt it) but as a casual lockpicker I
can say it's not as trivial as you make it sound. Or if you're talking about
destructive methods rather than picking, that's still better than an
electronic lock where you potentially never know if someone managed to bypass
it. It might also be done or at least prepared remotely (no need to spend at
least a few minutes single pin picking the door, or making noise destroying
it).

~~~
hansjorg
See lock bumping:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_bumping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_bumping)

"Lock bumping takes only an instant to open the lock. The lock is not visibly
damaged, although the force of the bump can leave an indentation on the front
of the cylinder."

~~~
Sharlin
Around here pin-tumbler locks haven't been used for house/apartment doors in
several decades. Even the "classic" Abloy disk-detainer lock introduced in
_1907_ [1] is practically bump-proof, and more modern versions such as the
Exec, never mind the Protec2 [2], are nigh impossible to pick without
considerable skill, special-purpose tools and state-of-the-art knowledge.

 _> The Protec's design enables it to resist a variety of common attacks,
particularly lockpicking. There are no confirmed non-destructive attacks
against Protec cylinders in the public domain._[2]

See the whole Abloy family at [3].

[1]
[http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Abloy_Classic](http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Abloy_Classic)

[2]
[http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Abloy_Protec](http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Abloy_Protec)

[3]
[https://securitysnobs.com/item_images/4323f39aa0570924212c3c...](https://securitysnobs.com/item_images/4323f39aa0570924212c3c0ffedd323e_2.jpg)

------
PeterStuer
Alexa, open the front door.

I'm afraid I can't do that Dave.

------
thrower123
I'm so glad to live in places where you don't have to lock doors

~~~
leoh
Where do you live?

~~~
superkuh
Most places that aren't cities and even the suburbs when the cities are <20K
pop.

------
PunchTornado
smart locks are useful when you airbnb your apartment. otherwise I don't see
the use for it.

~~~
throwayEngineer
Running? I don't like carrying keys

~~~
Freak_NL
You don't have a place to put a single key, but you do lug along a smartphone
to unlock the door again? Just put the key wherever you put the smartphone.

My running pants came with a special key pocket. Before that I just hung a
spare key on an old shoelace around my neck.

~~~
bloak
A proper programmable lock would let you set a temporary password. You could
then leave the house wearing just some cheap clothes and get back into your
house even if someone stole your clothes while you were swimming in the lake.
Sounds good to me. No smartphone. No Internet. No surveillance.

There would be a high-entropy emergency password in a sealed envelope hidden
in your brother's house in case you ever locked yourself out.

But I don't think the market will produce secure programmable locks at a
reasonable price until some government regulator lays down a standard that
manufacturers can follow.

------
weliketocode
Note that this was just a settlement, not a 'won' case.

As per me, I'll stand with the smart locks. They're better for everyone.

For landlords:

\- change locks by adding/removing users & passcodes

\- tenant forgets their code in the middle of the night? Remind them of the
code

For tenants:

\- No more lost keys; just remember a simple number or use your phone

Some of the anti-lock tech arguments here are just silly.

Landlords aren't going to use an electronic lock to harass you anymore than
they'll use a regular lock. They'll have access either way.

But a landlord can use an electronic lock that's hard to open for the elderly,
you say! That's NOTHING compared to having a heavy deadbolt that doesn't fit
quite right and requires excess amounts of force.

~~~
yrro
I wonder how likely a landlord would be to share the code upon receiving a
suitable urgent-sounding text from an unknown number, containing only the
property address and tenant's name (or perhaps not even that much...)

~~~
weliketocode
Just as likely as an ordinary locksmith would be to help the same person out
in the same situation I'm sure.

