Moving into a new apartment is always a gamble. You roll the dice on water pressure, cell reception, and most importantly, the neighbors. Sometimes you get lucky and they are invisible ghosts who pay rent on time. Other times you land in a situation so bizarre it feels like a sitcom written by someone who has never interacted with humans before. One man on Reddit recently moved into a four-unit complex and discovered that his new neighbors have a very loose interpretation of security that involves leaving the front door wide open because nobody felt like paying for a replacement key.
The Original Poster (OP) explains that he moved into a downstairs unit recently. It is a small building with only four apartments. The demographic is fascinating because he is the only man in a building full of single mothers who have all lived there for at least five years. They are a tight-knit squad who know everything about everyone. But they also share a terrifying secret habit. Apparently, there is an unspoken agreement that the main hallway door is never to be locked.
The OP, possessing a normal survival instinct, started locking the door when he moved in. This immediately caused chaos. It turns out that none of the other residents actually have a key to the front door because they all lost them years ago and were too cheap to pay the seventy dollar replacement fee. So when the neighbor who works night shifts comes home to a locked door, she doesn’t use a key. She knocks and bangs on the windows until someone wakes up to let her in.
Let’s pause here. We are talking about a neighborhood rated as one of the top five most dangerous in the city. And these residents are essentially relying on the honor system to keep intruders out. The OP rightfully pointed out that he would feel safer if random strangers couldn’t just waltz into the hallway. The neighbor brushed this off, claiming no one ever comes there but residents, which is exactly what people say right before a true crime documentary is filmed in their living room.
The neighbor then made a request that seems reasonable on the surface but hit a snag. She asked to borrow his key to make a copy for herself and the others. She even offered to pay him to make the copies. Now, most people would say sure, take the key, go make a copy. It solves the banging problem and keeps the door locked. It seems like the perfect compromise to end the madness.
But the OP said no. He politely declined because he “wasn’t comfortable” with that. This is where he loses the room a little bit. If the goal is safety, giving them keys so they can enter without banging allows the door to stay locked. By refusing to let them have access to the building they have lived in for nearly a decade, he has essentially forced a stalemate where they hate him for locking it, and he hates them for leaving it open.
The social consequences were immediate. The neighbors have gone cold. The polite good mornings have vanished. The neighbor who volunteers at a food bank and usually brings him a weekly box of goodies has cut him off. He is officially the outcast of the complex. He suspects he has upset the tenants and created bad blood, and he is absolutely right.
This is a tough one because everyone is behaving strangely. The neighbors are absolutely absurd for living in a dangerous area without keys to their own front door for years. Banging on windows at night to get inside is ridiculous behavior for adults. They should have paid the landlord for replacements years ago instead of relying on an open-door policy that puts everyone at risk.
However, the OP is also being difficult. Why refuse to let them copy the key? They live there. They are legal tenants. If they have keys, they can unlock the door themselves, and the OP gets his locked building and his peace and quiet. Hoarding the only access key isn’t making him safer; it is just making him enemies with the people who sleep twenty feet away from him.
So is he the ahole? It is a solid split. He is right to lock the door, but he is wrong to gatekeep the key. You can’t be the new guy who changes the culture and then refuses to offer the solution that makes everyone happy. Give them the key, lock the door, and maybe you will get your free food bank box back before they change the wifi password on you.