Heard about a situation where an apartment building’s owner was installing various “smart” devices thoughout a building (tenant is a relative of a friend). Everything from smart thermostat to electronic door locks (with no mechanical backup). These will be controlled by a tenant’s smartphone, but will be run through the contractor’s and property manager’s servers.
The tenant works in electronic security, and considers this set up very vulnerable and undesirable, but isn’t sure what they can do about it. Wondering if any of you had any knowledge/experience.
I figure the terms of the lease would control - as well as local/state law - and I’m ignorant of either. Otherwise, I could imagine an argument that this violates the tenant’s commonlaw expectation of “quiet enjoyment” of the premises.
In reality, I suspect the person’s likeliest response will be to move… :rolleyes:
Very different case but my employer has everything HR related set up for SmartPhones and pretty much a couple specific ones. Can’t say about apartments but this got fought to a degree and it came down to we’re screwed unless we want to buy tech just to keep the jobs; or at least to get the full benefits/minimums we’re promised. Its not advertised as terms of employment but it basically comes down to live with it or move along. I got a feeling the friend is in the same circumstance.
Unless we’re talking New York; they have some seriously complicated tenant-rights laws.
I’ve been in the computer field for mumble years. I love tech, but …
there’s a ton of things that do not need computerizing. Door locks in particular are something you really, really want to avoid making “smart”. There’s so much that can go wrong.
It’s 5 below, you walk up to the building, and now you find out your phone battery is dead. Great. Just great.
Throw in power outages, network failures, hacking , etc. and who on Earth thinks this is a good idea???
The real scary thing: companies are subsidizing the installation of such devices so they can track people. Info about who lives in a building and their comings and goings is very nice data. Zuckerberg isn’t the only person in this business.
Is the tenant worried about how secure the locks are with regard to intruders, or about his privacy from the landlord? And if the latter, how is that any different than the landlord having a key to your apartment with conventional locks?
In a conventionally locking apartment, the landlord can’t go to her computer and find out every time I’ve entered and left my apartment for the last 3 months. The burden of doing that is high enough that only the most determined landlords are going to be able to get that kind of data through an analog solution, and they would probably not be successful for all of their tenants, only some.
Also, quite frequently, this type of software tracks the phone’s location. That’s information that a landlord with a traditional key did not have.
It depends on what is meant by smart and what it is for. It can be a benefit for everyone depending on how it is done.
For example, if a building has a centralised heating system that delivers piped hot water to all the apartments as required by the tenant and has sensors measuring the temperature and flow into each apartment and also monitors the central boiler. All this can be used to monitor and optimise the efficiency of the heating system so it uses less fuel and gets fixed promptly if there are problems. If it gives better control and allows tenants to manage their heating and it saves energy, these are all benefits.
The lighting system can also be monitored and optimised if there are sensors switching lights down in common areas and detecting faults. Lots of potential savings.
The same can be said of the security system, though obviously a good deal more caution is necessary because the consequences of a failure can be a serious. On the other hand people inevitably lose keys and changing locks is often an expensive procedure.
There are clear benefits that could be shared by both landlord and tenants if the smart system is well thought out, proven and works well. However, it is right to be cautious, the devil is in the detail. Retrofitting smart systems is hard work and costly.
There are plenty of landlords who have a wasteful heating system and simply pass on costs to tenants, leave lights on full all night and use a very expensive locksmith to change locks. I can’t imagine that they would ever be interested in introducing a smart anything, if it is not in their financial interest.
Perhaps, as far as heating and lighting are concerned, local government regulations or taxes are being introduced designed to promote energy efficiency that are encouraging landlords of buildings to put these smart systems in place? There is usually some background story. I can imagine some tenants being very suspicious of any change. People get set in their ways.:dubious:
Even now, not everyone has a smartphone. Especially kids. Presumably this would mean every member of the household would be required to own a smartphone, which seems insane. And what if your battery runs out, a not uncommon occurrence? You can’t get into your own home if your battery runs out?
Simple, install USB charging ports on every floor.
I know: But what if you don’t bring your cable?
Hide a cable under the doormat!
But seriously, more and more stuff in everyday life doesn’t work if you don’t have a smartphone. Uber is driving taxi cab companies out of business and you need a smartphone for Uber. Capital One Bank doesn’t let you scan your checks from home anymore unless you use their smartphone app. Zelle doesn’t let you sign up to receive transfers anymore except from a smartphone. Target requires you to use a smartphone to get barcodes for various sale items around the store. Grocery stores require you to use a smartphone app to get coupons. Yahoo doesn’t let you sign up for email anymore unless you have a smartphone.
Not having a smartphone is getting to be like not having electricity in your home. And everyone wants you to have a separate app installed just for them.
Presumably every member of the household would be required to own a mechanical key, which seems insane. And what if you lose your key, a not uncommon occurrence. You can’t get into your own home if you lose a key?
Then it could be argued that the landlord is illegally denying access, unless he provides one to the tenant. Same as changing the locks and not providing a key.
Also the landlord having access to entry/exit information can be considered spying or checking up on a tenant too often in many locales.
Without specific reason to do so, ie suspected drug trafficking , this is also illegal
You don’t have to have a service plan for the locks to work.
But like I said, I believe in almost all cases the landlord would be required to supply a smartphone ( or however many are mentioned as numbers of keys in the lease) with the app installed.
Otherwise they’ve changed the locks without giving the tenant keys.
Do you know of any law or regulation that would not allow the landlord to require a tenant to supply a smartphone as a condition of entering into a new lease or renewing an old lease? This is not snark, I am curious.
ISTM that whatever benefits there may be to this are outweighed by the potential for problemswith “smart” home devices, the most common of which are ease of hacking (not to mention potential privacy issues). It probably would have to go to court, but this is something I bet could be shown to violate the terms of a typical lease, and/or local housing law. Mostly likely this is the kind of thing that must be in the lease itself and agreed to by the tenant. I imagine it wouldn’t be hard to convince a judge that a “smart” entry system puts the tenant at unreasonable risk.