Alright Evan I was hoping to get the answer without going into too much detail but since you seem interested I will divulge the grand master plan with you. =P First understand I agree with you on most points but I have already thought this through quite considerably. I will admit the personal security paranoia because there is no point in denying that though my motivation also stems from the love of locks I have developed after being here for a while. Anyways my responses:
Evan wrote:The permission you were granted to alter the door included consent to install any kind of lock you wanted to? Did they ask you for a copy of the new keys so that the landlord could maintain access to the unit?
Yes, let me explain. In addition to being a tenant here I am one of three maintenance staff that services the property, therefore my landlord is my boss and we have a written agreement that upon my leaving I will restore any changes I have made to my unit back to the default. You are 100% right that by the terms of the lease I am required to provide the landlord with a working key to my unit for maintenance purposes.
Evan wrote:LOL... Given your response that no one has messed with your door and that there is not a high crime rate there, adding more to your door opening could attract the wrong kind of attention... If your door is the only Fort Knox in the building that is usually a very good indicator to people who are in the burglary profession and constantly window shopping for the next score that treasures and prizes are contained within... You will never know who these people are, they could be a neighbor in your building or some outside contractor/vendor who comes to your unit with the landlord's staff present and sees your "overkill" mechanical security upgrade and starts dreaming of gold bars or stacks of cash hidden in secret compartments inside your furniture...
I agree adding more to my door could attract the wrong attention; however, if the Strikemaster II or similar product is installed correctly is should not be visible from the outside to the best of my knowledge, same applies to hinge upgrades. Now you could argue that they will of course see the Abloy Protec and see that as an upgrade but I will say that if someone around here actually recognizes the Protec for what it is, chances are I am inviting them in anyways. lol
Evan wrote:In an apartment setting people are only usually interested in upgrading door security when there have been numerous burglaries either in their building or in another at their complex... Case else is paranoia/overkill and you should build your own house to prevent kick-ins as adding a plate on the top of the door frame only make kicking in the door slightly more difficult, not impossible...
I would love to build my own house, would you like to lend me the money? lol I agree its not a perfect solution it still probably could be kicked in with enough determination, but I would like to make them work for it. =)
Evan wrote:Seems to contradict the right of access/inspection duty that your landlord has over their rental property... A lot of maintenance issues and emergencies happen on the fly like water leaks where management personnel will enter your unit without contacting you first for permission... Especially in a building protected with a central fire alarm system like the one indicated by the smoke detector on the hallway ceiling in your first picture... How many people work for your landlord? Odds are 75% of them have master keys to access your unit...
I have agreed to provide the landlord (my boss) with a working key as stated before. You are right about the maintenance emergencies I deal with them all the time. 4 people work for my landlord 3 are maintenance staff (including me) 1 is office staff. Nobody has master keys we do not use a master system all individual key sets are kept in a locked key box in the office.
Evan wrote:Just keep in mind that whatever additional "mechanical security" you add to the door, even with permission, you could be asked to remove at your expense and restore the door frame to its original condition that it was in when you moved into the unit when your tenancy ends in the future... The person granting you permission to modify the door today might not be in charge of the property when you move out... This is why most people don't bother adding fixtures/things to their apartments beyond what the landlord provides...
In your situation adding any additional "mechanical security" doesn't actually secure your rented premises against the major threat of internal theft by someone employed by the landlord, as such people would still have a key to your unit and are able to effectively bypass any such upgrades you make of that type... Even with employees who have gone through background checks and screenings this type of thing does happen as temptation gets the better of some people and not all maintenance/management employees are paid well... The only way to ensure true protection of your unit is to install a monitored alarm system so your central monitoring service can inform you when your unit is entered by someone who doesn't have the alarm code...
I am totally cool with removing at my own expense at the end of my tenancy so that is not a problem. To protect myself in case of a landlord change this has all been recorded in a written agreement with my current landlord.
Aha! You bring up a very good point at the end of the day my keys still reside in the poorly secured key box. (Btw I am one of those poorly paid employees -_-) Anyways to deal with eternal threats as best I can to the key box I talked my boss into letting me install an Abloy Protec cam lock to replace the original 4 wafer cam lock that was on there. (I do all lock maintenance on the property.) Now they still don't have a security system in the office and they still are only using Kwikset locks but at least the key box itself is slightly more secure.
Now to deal with internal threats I will call your electronic monitored alarm system and raise you a mechanical one as originally promised. The idea is this, I use the Protec for my deadbolt and provide the office with one of the three Protec keys. K done that protects me from most everything except the actual office staff. Now to deal with the office staff I am going to put a special Schlage KIK cylinder I have prepared (by removing the top cover off the bible and instead tapping and capping with socket head set screws) into the lever handle you see in the picture. And I will provide the office with a key to that lock as well. So to recap you will need 1 Schlage key and 1 Protec key to open my door. Now on the copy of the Schlage key that I provide the office I am going to file down the ramp on the 5th pin in such a way so that the key can be inserted but not removed and it will still operate the lock fulfilling my lease agreement to provide a working key. This will let me know someone has been there as the key will be sticking out of my door and at the same time if they had legitimate reason to be there they can still lockup with the Protec key. If I anticipate them coming which in most cases I will be able to because I work there, I simply remove the pin that would otherwise cause the key to trap. Now lets say the key does trap, the first person they are going to call to fix it will be me, because I do all their lock work. Because its a lever KIK and because I put in the socket head set screws freeing the key will be super easy. Additionally I can explain the key being trapped as it being a bad key (very believable because our key duplicator is on its last leg). So there you have it my mechanical system to determine if an employee has gained entry without my knowledge.
Evan wrote:Sounds like you need to become a property owner, ASAP... Plus this statement tends to support the personal security paranoia explanation for wanting to upgrade an intact door in a building/complex with a very low crime rate...
As I said before I concede I will accept the paranoia explanation; however, I would like to add that this system I want to do, makes for a hell of a conversation starter. =) And again I would love to become a property owner if you would like to lend me the money. =P
Seriously though, back on topic do you have any suggestions for upgrades?
