Should apartments relinquish any master access to units?

Question

This case has just rocked me to the core. This is my hometown. I know this place. I’ve lived in this place and I know both locations in this case.. so hitting home is an understatement for sure.
But for everyone. I want to know should apartments relinquish any master keys or other access to units once a tenant moves in? Should there be any other alternatives?

Answer

This sadly isn’t the first time this has happened. I remember watching a dateline a few years back about another young college student who was murdered by a maintenance worker. Another case of femicide 😞. Others (leasing associates/maintenance) having keys to my apartment was always a big worry of mine when I lived alone. If apartments are going to give others access then a bolt lock that can only be accessed from the inside should always be allowed.

Answer

I don’t believe they need a master key.  When we lived in Daytona multiple units in our complex were robbed blind, including ours which included them taking ALL of my deceased grandmothers heirloom jewelry😔.  If our apartment needed maintenance, they could make an appointment to be there when one of us were present.  It’s the same as if you own a home and have to call a repair person.  You don’t just leave your home unlocked and a stranger enter your home.  They can talk about how vetted their staff is all they want, sometimes you just can’t predict these things.  Every criminal has a first crime or at least a first crime they get caught for.  Poor woman😔😔😔

Answer

This is one of the things I hate most about being a renter. There’s really no reason someone needs to be in my space without my letting them in. I’ve seen this abused over and over by landlords.

Answer

It makes sense to have a master key to all units simply because of things like maintenance. In my house, I have a dead bolt that can only lock from the inside and cannot be unlocked at all from the outside. So while I’m home, I have the deadbolt locked at all times. No one can enter while I’m there & it's locked, even if they had a key to the main lock. But I have had maintenance come by and work in my house while I was gone multiple times, so it makes perfect sense for them to have that key.

Answer

I see why master keys are needed but I think there needs to be very very strict rules that are followed to a T when someone has these. I used to help with apt maintenance in the summer for a family friend when I was in my high school years...mostly landscaping and outside building repair. But for the maintenance that worked inside when they did the yearly checks for working smoke alarms or yearly cleaning of dryer vents they needed them because relying on 85 people to all be there to answer a door to go inside is just not gonna happen. Legally Apts have to have working smoke detectors and dryers are huge fire hazards. These things need done and maintenance can't be expected to rely on working around the tenants schedule. But I think there needs to be double or triple verification of checked in keys to a lock box after every shift, there needs to be recorded attempts to let them know about entry, and full transparency on the landlords part if any questions is asked. It sucks to have to put trust in someone like that but also needed. Our apt was saved from being burned down because of maintenance having access. Our neighbor reported hearing our heater on for hours while we were out of town and said the wall felt warm. Our thermostat glitches and popped the ground and we had  smoldering wires in the wall and the maintenance guy said it was blistering hot to the touch. Without them having access immediately upon us saying yes we could have burnt down the whole unit block. But anywhere you stay that you don't own you risk it...hotels, air bnbs, vacation rentals,  etc. I worked in hotels and if people knew the sheer amount of list keys-guest and master floor keys-it would shock you. With digital check in it is even worse now. Sadly it is just a risk but I do see the need...it should be taken amazingly, ridiculously seriously though and penalties for misuse or failed protocol should effect every person who was responsible for protecting residents.

Answer

I lived in an apartment where some two bedrooms had their own entry way. My room had the door cause my sister wanted the bigger room😒. Anyway it was there in case of a fire but I always had it double locked including the chain lock. I did think it was a bit weird. 
The first apt I moved into with my fiancé, the guy that does the bug spray to keep bugs away just came in the apartment and this was during my first pregnancy. I hear a noise down stairs, and I knew it wasn’t my fiancé cause he was at work. I am upstairs looking down the stairs since I wasn’t wearing clothes. He peaks up just so casually asking if I want upstairs sprayed so I went no so he’d get out. 
Also had the apartment ladies come in just to leave an envelope on our door. 
They shouldn’t have master keys. If I’m not home or don’t answer please come back later.

Answer

My family owned and rented out several complexes for section 8 and Hud housing. We had master keys and only used them when notifying the tenant more than 3 times that we needed access to their unit. Once denied 3 times we would call the local police department and enter the unit. Master keys are necessary to have for several reasons but thr biggest reason we had was being denied access.Most tenants who denied access were involved with shady buisness or they absolutely trashed and destroyed the unit and  they obviously didn't want us to know because they would get kicked out the unit. Our Master Keys were locked up and only several trusted people had access to the keys.

Answer

I don’t feel comfortable knowing that the maintenance can have access to my apartment. The way my apartment complex does it is that each apartment has a code to get into their apartment but maintenance has access to the code and we have an app that we can also use to see who opened the door and what time. I know me personally if I need maintenance done I always let them know that they NEED to call me or my boyfriend before they can enter my apartment. I do that because
 1) I have a German shepherd and he is not very friendly to strangers and I don’t wanna come home to my dog chewing on the maintenance man
2) I have to make sure my boyfriend is also there with me
3) I just like to know ahead of time

Answer

No. It sucks that she was killed, but the problem is (as usual) with the person who DOES the murdering, rather than how they do it.

Answer

Yeah, nope. I hated living in an apartment where maintenance had a key. The last apartment I lived in was with my ex and the maintenance man let himself into our home on three different occasions, and conveniently he timed it so that my ex wasn’t home each time. Nothing ever happened, thank god, and he always used the excuse that he got the building numbers mixed up, but it scared the hell out of me each time. My ex ended up having to contact the apartment manager because of it.

Should apartments relinquish any master access to units?

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