Especially if there’s no signs of forced entry. Don’t you instantly suspect your neighbor?
Back when I was younger and much more naive I rented an apartment where the landlady said that her other tenant did all of the maintenance so he had to have a key to our place. Indeed, stuff went missing. Long story short, we ended up moving out of that apartment with a very bad taste in our mouths.
I’d never let anyone but the landlord himself have a copy of our key now. And I really trust our landlord these days, so that helps.
Easy, use their key (since I’d certainly never give someone my housekey without getting theirs in return) to ransack their house to see if I find any of my stuff.
If I was ever in a situation where I had to trust a neighbor, rather than a friend or relative, with a key, I’d make darn sure I had some sort of surveillance system set up.
Do you sell your house any time a jerk moves in nearby? I’ve got a few neighbors I wouldn’t trust, and one I’d happily see get run over by a septic truck.
In our last apartment the only one who had a copy of the key was the super. He stole $50 in cash from us within 3 weeks of moving in. We changed the locks and arranged to be home for work that needed to be done from that point forward.
My friend Emily who watches our cats for us when we are out of town has a copy of our key but she is the only person who doesn’t live here that does. We completely trust her not to steal our stuff. We also pay her for watching the cats and occasionally hire her to do odd jobs for things so if she was stupid enough to steal she would be cutting off her nose to spite her face.
I actually am ambivalent about my neighbors. I live in a VERY low crime place so I am not truly worried, the thought just crossed my mind.
The woman across the street is a nice old lady. The guy on the right has a whole posse of noisy kids, but we have a six foot wooden fence separating us so we can’t even see them, really. And the guy on the left is separated from us by a good 100 feet of trees, grass, and a driveway, but I am almost positive he is a Tea Partier (due to signs on his front lawn) and I wouldn’t trust him with a pencil, forget my house key.
I am excessively private, I know this. I’m a bit weird and prefer my neighbors to all be relative strangers. But I like the idea of exchanging keys - that seems to make the most sense.
Wow, I would never consider giving a key to a neighbor. And I live in a quiet suburban neighborhood and think everyone around me is a-ok.
I don’t inherently distrust my neighbors, but I would think that they would not want to be responsible for whatever having a key entails.
My brother’s got a key and my parents have a key. If there was some dire emergency where someone had to get into my house and no one with a key is available…well, I’d be cool with having a window broken and dealing with it later.
Boy. I’d trust anyone in our neighbourhood with a key. Being that we regularly see most immediate neighbours socially (played euchre and got drunk next door last weekend) I can’t imagine not trusting them all with a key.
Of course most times our doors are unlocked anyway, so there’s that.
Holding a house key for a a neighbor can cause difficutlies for a innocent person in the event of a burglary. The police wanted to talk to me once because a friend of mine suffered a break-in, and when they were investigating, they asked her if anyone other than her had a key to the house. I did (and still do), so they came knocking on my door.
I don’t know. I live in a small subdivision of houses. It’s about 8-10 streets, with houses lining each street. We smile and say hi to each other but I am not really comfortable with being friends or friendly with them, certainly not friendly enough to exchange keys.
On the other hand, it’s an extremely safe neighborhood, as I said. So I am not really worried.
I can’t quite articulate what I feel about not being friends with your neighbors, but it is an instinctively strong feeling in me - same feeling as trying to be friends with your landlord, which I’d never do. I’d never rent from a friend, unless I was in dire straits, and I’d never hang out with my landlord socially. Same with my neighbors.
I guess I worry that if something should happen and we end up NOT liking each other, and not getting along, then we’re stuck. I am not moving and neither are they. So then we have to put up with each other. I prefer to remain relative strangers, I think.
Nobody but our roomie, ourselves and the dogs collar have keys to the house. I would love to see someone try to get the key off of Souage’s collar without shooting her first. Back when I had the 150 pound wolf hybrid, I put a spare key on his collar also.
I rarely trust anybody - up until I left Norfolk VA, I had a lockbox in a bank for my important papers and certain heirloom pieces. In general I do not like even having maintenance of any sort in unless I was at home [or a roommate was home]
I do not care to have the police accuse me of a crime. I don’t care to see the police at all unless I have called them for help. So when they came to my door and asked if they could come in, I said No, I’ll talk to you outside. Of course they asked why, to which I said Because I have the right not to.
Responses like this arouse suspicion on their part, which in turn brings anxieity on my part. But I don’t let an on-duty policeman with whom I am not acquainted socially into my house unless, I dunno, I have called to report a break-in or some such.
Oh, so I’m innocent, so I should have no problem with the cops knocking on my door and scaring the crap out of me? Not thrilled about that one.
When I first moved into this house, there were some…issues with the previous tenant. One Saturday morning at 8 AM two people showed up from the Comptroller’s office. Or something. They flashed IDs, and I looked at them, but it;s been three years now and have forgotten. Looking for him. In a way, it was good that it was so early and they woke me up, because I think in my sleepy state it was obvious there was no way I was lying when I said I had no idea where he was and didn’t know him at all, not even his name.
That still pisses me off, and I got rid of them easily. They were not polite, though they did not ask to come in, and I am a law-abiding citizen. It was a pain, and it leaves a bad impression forever more.
Moreover, Mika is not, as I understand it, of European extraction or complexion. I don’t know what things are like in upstate New York, but hereabouts she’d be well advised not to give the authorities permission to come in.
Same here, I wouldn’t want a neighbor to have a key to my house. Not that I don’t trust them, but I’d also have to trust every person who comes into their house.