Man refuses to leave hallway door unlocked; single moms in building freak out. AITA?
"AITA for no allowing my neighbors to make a copy of my apartment key?"
So I recently just moved into my new apartment complex less than 60 days ago. There are only 4 units in my complex, two downstairs and two upstairs. I reside downstairs in the second apartment.
Everyone here has lived here for at least 5 years whilst the oldest resident has reside here for 8. Everyone knows everyone and has been good friends with each other for as long as each one has been a resident. Everyone in my building has children besides me majority are single mothers, I am the only man.
Apparently there is an unspoken agreement I at first had any knowledge of between the rest of the tenants that the hallway door is to never be locked. No one ever locks the hallway door. That is until I arrived. From my knowledge no one in the building has a hallway key just the keys to their apartments.
The cost to replace a key is $70 for each quoted from my landlord. I just finished up my place and have officially moved in for about 3 weeks now. Each time I leave and come back from my complex I always lock the hallway door. It's always been a habit to lock all doors behind me.
My neighbor that works night shifts has arrived home for the past couple of weeks to a locked hallway door which is a surprise given that the door hasn't been locked for years.
Apparently everyone lost their key their first year or so living in the complex. I will hear continuously knocking and banging until someone comes to open the door. The first few nights I was awaken and got up to unlock the door.
After the first week I've since stopped and my neighbor will be up to unlock it to let our neighbor in. If my neighbor isn't home or doesn't wake up to come to the door she will knock and bang on every window and yell until someone comes open the door.
Yesterday my neighbor ask I I could please leave the door unlocked given it has always been that way and would like me to continue doing so. I expressed that while we live in a dangerous neighborhood ( rated one of the top 5 most dangerous in our city) Is feel more safe knowing strangers can't enter the building.
Whilst she understood my concerns she assured me no one ever comes here but residents and invited visitors and my safety is not to worry. I had to beg to differ. She then asks would I mind lending her my hall key so she can make a copy and let other make their own copy from hers.
I politely declined because I wasn't comfortable with that. She offered to pay me to make a copy myself in which I also declined. For the past week my neighbors has barely spoken to me we usually tell each other good morning and chat a little or just a hi and bye even but not even that nowadays.
My neighbor whom volunteers at the food bank in our community would come back with goodies and share with everyone in the complex. She has since knocked on my door to deliver me a box as she usually would every Wednesday.
I don't care for the food but for the change in this routine leads me to believe I may have upset the rest of the tenants and I honestly don't want any bad blood. AITA?
Let's see what internet users had to say. They were torn!
limitlessmogan writes:
YTA. You live in a dangerous neighborhood and are making it so your female neighbours are trapped outside at night. Aren’t participating in letting them in despite knowing you locked them out.
And refuse to get them a copy of the communal door key even though they are happy to pay for it. Yeah dude, you're the worst.
armchairclaire disagrees:
NTA. The ytas blow my mind. Why is it your job to copy the keys and give them to people. They lost their own keys so they should have to spend the 70 dollars to get a new one from the landlord. Is there no personal accountability?
This isn’t on you, they need to be more careful and not lose important keys. They’re putting lots of people at risk by leaving the door unlocked.
I truly don’t understand how you being responsible makes you an ah. Copying the keys without discussing it with the landlord and going under his nose just to save people a couple bucks? That could land you in major trouble with said landlord.
intertialobserver writes:
OP is YTA for coming in and disrupting the status quo then refusing to compromise in any way. If single moms feel safe enough to leave the hallway door unlocked then it's not that dangerous of a neighborhood.
Even so, OP is allowed to feel frightened and take measures to alleviate his fear but it's wrong to do so by creating an actual risk to his neighbors who don't have a key and presumably cannot afford the replacement cost.