How to secure a rental door when I leave

[Anonymous]

I have no idea where to place this post.

My question is is there a tool or something that will allow me to stop people from entering a rented house? My family rented a beach house recently and upon returning home we notice someone accessed our laptops and other items and made changes.

The owner, stupidly grants access to the house by sharing their garage code. The door from the garage to the house has a deadbolt but we were never given the key. When we would all leave, the garage code was the only thing keeping our stuff safe. One day when my adult kids were there a neighbor used the code to go into the garage. We are certain someone went in to the house when we were all gone. We had a short stay and could never get the key in time.

I know there are things to use to secure doors when I am in the house. I don't know how to secure the door when I leave the house. I'm will never rent a house/condo again because of this.

Also another crappy thing I experienced was the last time I was selling a home. We bought a new house and put our house on the market a few weeks after we moved in to the new house. We lived less that a mile away and I checked on the house regularly. I saw people in my house who had visited the house previously and they had not used the automated system. The real estate agent representing the couple had made a copy of our the key in the lockbox and were going in regularly. When I told my agent, she said I shouldn't complain as they were the best offer we had on the house.

[Anonymous]

Did you rent this house on Airbnb or something? We rent our house through a property management company and we have a keypad lock that changes after every renter. What you are describing is ver amateurish and they should have some sort of system (which can also be done with garage doors) to change the code for each new renter. I would complain to whoever you rented through.

[Anonymous]

No, this was an individual renting a beach house in Cape May NJ. I am so angry we tolerated this. My spouse and I never got our laptops out and turned them on but we see someone attempted to map drives and connected to their wifi. It's so bad to realize after the fact. Anyone local who knew their garage code, could see the house was rented online. I'm so disgusted by this and the realization I shouldn't assume we are safe even if we are given a key.

[Anonymous]

Also the owner never told us how to access the house until we got there. We had no idea this is how she managed access to the house. We were stupid to tolerate it but I don't know what else we could have done.

[Anonymous]

You're not stupid. Stop beating yourself up. Of course you think if you've rented a place it's "your place" and the only people that are coming in are like maintenance, under extenuating circumstances, with notification!

This is highly irregular, but now with constant cameras everywhere (there are mini ones renters can even bring and slap near their stuff) I think we are going to see exactly how intrusive life is.

[Anonymous]

There's got to be a product that will allow me to lock a door from the outside or to add to the deadbolt inside (that we never got a key to).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea where to place this post.

My question is is there a tool or something that will allow me to stop people from entering a rented house? My family rented a beach house recently and upon returning home we notice someone accessed our laptops and other items and made changes.

Also another crappy thing I experienced was the last time I was selling a home. We bought a new house and put our house on the market a few weeks after we moved in to the new house. We lived less that a mile away and I checked on the house regularly. I saw people in my house who had visited the house previously and they had not used the automated system. The real estate agent representing the couple had made a copy of our the key in the lockbox and were going in regularly. When I told my agent, she said I shouldn't complain as they were the best offer we had on the house.

For rented property, it is not your property and you cannot lock others out. The owners have the right to enter as they wish.

For the selling the house part, that is the fault of your RE agent, allowing unfettered access to your house. it might be in the fine print of the agreement you signed. Always sell a house yourself or use a proxy that you trust, not a RE stranger. Saves you tens of thousands in fees also.

[Anonymous]

If you do not feel safe, you leave immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea where to place this post.

My question is is there a tool or something that will allow me to stop people from entering a rented house? My family rented a beach house recently and upon returning home we notice someone accessed our laptops and other items and made changes.

Also another crappy thing I experienced was the last time I was selling a home. We bought a new house and put our house on the market a few weeks after we moved in to the new house. We lived less that a mile away and I checked on the house regularly. I saw people in my house who had visited the house previously and they had not used the automated system. The real estate agent representing the couple had made a copy of our the key in the lockbox and were going in regularly. When I told my agent, she said I shouldn't complain as they were the best offer we had on the house.

For rented property, it is not your property and you cannot lock others out. The owners have the right to enter as they wish.

For the selling the house part, that is the fault of your RE agent, allowing unfettered access to your house. it might be in the fine print of the agreement you signed. Always sell a house yourself or use a proxy that you trust, not a RE stranger. Saves you tens of thousands in fees also.

Owners have to give notice if they want to come in. This person gave us no notice and had a neighbor coming in as far as the garage. He may have come in the house as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you do not feel safe, you leave immediately.

The same problem exists with houses that require a key to get in. Who knows how many copies people have particularly neighbors. We had this problem with the previous house we bought. Neighbors were very close with the sellers and were upset they moved. They kept treating our newly purchased home like it was her house. Two of the neighbors closest to her berated me for painting the house. Twice we came home to an open back door where someone had just exited. We knew we needed to change the locks but couldn't get someone out fast enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you do not feel safe, you leave immediately.

The same problem exists with houses that require a key to get in. Who knows how many copies people have particularly neighbors. We had this problem with the previous house we bought. Neighbors were very close with the sellers and were upset they moved. They kept treating our newly purchased home like it was her house. Two of the neighbors closest to her berated me for painting the house. Twice we came home to an open back door where someone had just exited. We knew we needed to change the locks but couldn't get someone out fast enough.

We immediately changed our locks after moving in when a neighbor said she had been in it a few times while for sale. She 20 years later still has no boundaries. Camera's help some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you do not feel safe, you leave immediately.

The same problem exists with houses that require a key to get in. Who knows how many copies people have particularly neighbors. We had this problem with the previous house we bought. Neighbors were very close with the sellers and were upset they moved. They kept treating our newly purchased home like it was her house. Two of the neighbors closest to her berated me for painting the house. Twice we came home to an open back door where someone had just exited. We knew we needed to change the locks but couldn't get someone out fast enough.

We immediately changed our locks after moving in when a neighbor said she had been in it a few times while for sale. She 20 years later still has no boundaries. Camera's help some.

Exactly. Next time I'll change the locks myself and install cameras immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, this was an individual renting a beach house in Cape May NJ. I am so angry we tolerated this. My spouse and I never got our laptops out and turned them on but we see someone attempted to map drives and connected to their wifi. It's so bad to realize after the fact. Anyone local who knew their garage code, could see the house was rented online. I'm so disgusted by this and the realization I shouldn't assume we are safe even if we are given a key.

Your laptops don’t have passwords??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, this was an individual renting a beach house in Cape May NJ. I am so angry we tolerated this. My spouse and I never got our laptops out and turned them on but we see someone attempted to map drives and connected to their wifi. It's so bad to realize after the fact. Anyone local who knew their garage code, could see the house was rented online. I'm so disgusted by this and the realization I shouldn't assume we are safe even if we are given a key.

Your laptops don’t have passwords??

They do and they did at the time but they clearly got in to mine. Connected to the house internet and made some weird changes trying to connect to two other laptops in the house. All have passwords.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, this was an individual renting a beach house in Cape May NJ. I am so angry we tolerated this. My spouse and I never got our laptops out and turned them on but we see someone attempted to map drives and connected to their wifi. It's so bad to realize after the fact. Anyone local who knew their garage code, could see the house was rented online. I'm so disgusted by this and the realization I shouldn't assume we are safe even if we are given a key.

Your laptops don’t have passwords??

They do and they did at the time but they clearly got in to mine. Connected to the house internet and made some weird changes trying to connect to two other laptops in the house. All have passwords.

Hmm, are you sure it wasn’t someone in your party with passwords?

Alternative, they have cameras watching your keystrokes but that is still very hard.

Anyways, this won’t secure you but it will alert you if the door is opened on a deadbolt.


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