I know that you are in the UK, but are you a Native? In English law, the word “duplicity” refers to duplicate copies of the same document. As in “I apologize for the duplicity your Honour” (In English law, as in American law, the court likes to have the documentation presented in a very clear and organized manner.)
Which also made me wonder about this;
You are aware that in England, the “Landlord” for the situation you describe is typically something like a “body corporate”, only a person not a legal fiction. As such, what he’s warned you is that damage won’t be covered by the “body corporate” insurance, (covering the envelope of the building, shared stairs etc), and damage will have to be made good by the “lease holders” unless they want the building to fall down or whatever.
What confuses me is that in the situation you describe, the flats would typically be leased by lease holders on long term leases, then let out to you by the lease holders on a month-to-month basis. Having your “landlord” be the same person as the building “landlord” would be slightly unusual.
Born in New York City, lived a year in Old York. I do vote here and have watched the PM Questions (even on C-SPAN in the USA when they had nothing else to show). I know that to “table” some bill or law means the exact opposite between Parliament and US Congress. I don’t know how they’d literally interpret what I wrote, yet in the context of them saying “Do not do this! - especially at night” is logically ambiguous, to say the least.
In fact, often somehow a door open at 10PM would often be locked at midnight. I wrote my original email after 1AM so whomever has appointed themselves “Door Warden” skipped a night. Clearly it’s some large family that can’t afford £4 for the Ironmonger (great word) to duplicate (hope that’s the same meaning) a key or two or themselves. Oddly, the front door key is a regular key yet when my wife and I tried to get a copy for the room key, it has some special bits that make it generally un-copyable by regular means. When I mentioned that to the head foreman (they are still renovating the place) / superintendant-type-guy he just set us up with a brand new lock with two keys.
I know there are many differences in property laws between the two countries. It’s my understanding this building is owned by one guy and his Ltd corporation. I certainly do not dress as fashionably (outside of a suit) than the average British guy, and neither do I have fashionable running clothes, so the only time I met him was when he was here and some sweaty miscreant entered and ran up the stairs - halfway. I don’t have a New York (or any discernable accent) yet it won’t take long to hear I’m not from the UK, and who can forget an American and his Russian wife (likely spies for somebody) are tenants.
So no reply yet and I guess there won’t be any. The “feature” on the door may be needed sometimes, yet often a wooden wedge is employed by the workers. I tried again last night to get it into an open state yet after 5 minutes gave up. Something like 'put the key in the door, turn this or that and then using some small screwdriver slide this thing. Undoing it is easy as it’s spring-loaded so I’m not going to try anything else. Yet the landlord can decide to apply a bit of Gorilla Glue and that slide isn’t going anywhere easily.
The overall intent of my last email was “I have informed you of this four months ago” and if any judge/magistrate doesn’t consider that informed neglect on the landlord’s part then I guess “I know nothing, Jon Snow”
Yet thanks for the info!