Hacker News Reader

Comment by KeepFlying | Hacker News Reader

You've described my situation too, though it's not a rent increase I'm worried about, it's the installation of a mandatory smart lock that I've somehow avoided for a few months now.

View on HN

I signed a lease which specifically stated that I was responsible for providing the internet for the smart locks and devices within the apartment. I brought this up to them, but they said "Nah, you don't have to do that" and wouldn't remove it from the lease. They were correct though: everything functioned before I had internet and I never had to join them to my network, but it made me think about the rest of the stuff in the very legally binding lease that worked similarly.

Why do you not want a smart lock?

As a renter I wouldn't like it too, I would think why does the landlord need to know when I go/come to the house. But as a landlord I use smart lock and the need is different, its useful because I don't have to change locks every time a get a new renter, I just change the codes (specially if I consider doing short term rentals/airbnb at some point/season) and I don't have to worry about any spare copies of the keys made by the renters.

Generally smart locks, in my experience, need internet to change codes without having to be physically present, not for lock/unlock functionality.

> its useful because I don't have to change locks every time a get a new renter, I just change the codes (specially if I consider doing short term rentals/airbnb at some point/season) and I don't have to worry about any spare copies of the keys made by the renters.

Is that something that people generally worry about? I’m pretty sure none of the rentals I’ve lived in over the past decade had the locks changed between tenants.

If it’s not, it should be, if nothing else then for the safety of your next tenant.

It (like everything else to do with renting) depends on the socioeconomic demographics of your renters.

I live in a remarkably shitty, crime ridden city and having locks changed is a standard part of rental contracts. It’s so standard that every August, our local papers’ “student guides” suggest that new renters ask about having locks changed.

Knowing what I know now, I’d actually leave a city if I saw that term in a contract.

> Is that something that people generally worry about? I’m pretty sure none of the rentals I’ve lived in over the past decade had the locks changed between tenants.

That would be horrifying news to many women.

> Is that something that people generally worry about? I’m pretty sure none of the rentals I’ve lived in over the past decade had the locks changed between tenants.

To immediately see why this is important, think what the answers would be when you tell your daughter or spouse that the locks weren't changed before you moved-in.

As a home owner I don't want a smart lock. That just sounds awful, I don't want to worry about power or internet for my door.

As a former renter I find it dystopian.

First, most locks work with batteries and notify well in advance about low battery, they also come with a old fashined physical keys, so in case it dies, you can still use the key instead of your access code. Second, they work without internet, you need internet only if you want to be able to add/remove access codes remotely while not physical present.

About finding smart locks dystopian, I feel like a lock that notifies lock/unlock is far better than say a device like nest cam/door bell with abilities to capture video/pictures and for whatever reason are more widely accepted than smart locks.

Unless it's a short term rental place where that makes more sense and your paying for the internet bill, don't put smart locks. It feels like mandatory surveillance cameras that you have no control over and your creepy landlord can look at any time. It doesn't matter if I can look too. Tenant changes should ideally be once every few years, so to optimize for a once every few year event feels like false economy.

People want the landlord to implicitly need the tenant to do things in order to enter their private house, or to otherwise to leave physical evidence via a break & entering if they did so. A smart lock can very easily remove all evidence that the landlord entered your house without you knowing, and that feels violating.

Basically anything that could be used by some creepy panty sniffing pervert to help them be a more effective creepy pervert, don't put that on your units. Smart locks help this hypothetical person.

> About finding smart locks dystopian, I feel like a lock that notifies lock/unlock is far better than say a device like nest cam/door bell with abilities to capture video/pictures and for whatever reason are more widely accepted than smart locks.

You're missing the big difference here. A Ring doorbell is both trivial to remove when someone moves out, and generally under the control of the tenant. Smart locks are neither.

>> why does the landlord need to know when I go/come to the house

Exactly for that reason I did not want this in my last (and hopefully final) rented home.

> Why do you not want a smart lock?

Wait until you have to replace batteries every 2 months and constantly be worried about when it runs out of power and get locked out of your house.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com