Apartment being entered

bmpoleary

Hi All,

Have an apartment abroad and so do some friends. Heard some scare stories of where a keyholder is letting an apartment without the owners knowledge.

Is there anything out there that can send a notification to the owner when the door is opened.

Something like a chip in a keyring that transmits a message via wifi just letting the owner know the door has been opened

Thanks

Barry

foggy_lad

bmpoleary wrote: »

Hi All,

Have an apartment abroad and so do some friends. Heard some scare stories of where a keyholder is letting an apartment without the owners knowledge.

Is there anything out there that can send a notification to the owner when the door is opened.

Something like a chip in a keyring that transmits a message via wifi just letting the owner know the door has been opened

Thanks

Barry

You can get motion sensors and also Cameras which send notifications when motion is detected but these are dependant on the property having power and WiFi/broadband.

KoolKid

Is there an alarm in the property at all?

retepnosnikta

The only true way of tracking usage of your property is a water and electricity meter reading. A photo of before and after letting is one true way of keeping check on occupancy. Not too many clients willing to rent without water and electricity.

Even if you have an alarm or some form of broadband monitoring system your letting agent has the ability to disable it and report it as out of order to you. Broadband is constantly reported down abroad for one reason or another.

The only other option is a neighbour on the ground who you trust to report activity on your property. It's one of the drawbacks as an absent landlord trusting local agents. They look on this activity as a top up on their earnings.

kub

retepnosnikta wrote: »

The only true way of tracking usage of your property is a water and electricity meter reading. A photo of before and after letting is one true way of keeping check on occupancy. Not too many clients willing to rent without water and electricity.

Even if you have an alarm or some form of broadband monitoring system your letting agent has the ability to disable it and report it as out of order to you. Broadband is constantly reported down abroad for one reason or another.

The only other option is a neighbour on the ground who you trust to report activity on your property. It's one of the drawbacks as an absent landlord trusting local agents. They look on this activity as a top up on their earnings.

An ability to disable an alarm system? Tell me more please, was it something cheap as chips?

MarkR

kub wrote: »

An ability to disable an alarm system? Tell me more please, was it something cheap as chips?

The pin code. Presume letting agents would need to be able to disable the alarm.

retepnosnikta

kub wrote: »

An ability to disable an alarm system? Tell me more please, was it something cheap as chips?

The letting agent will have the code so disabling is just a case of leaving it unarmed. This could be put down to cleaning or viewing activity.

The owner will not want the mains switched on or the water supply running to the property during vacancy periods for obvious reasons.

Foreign property ownership brings it's own difficulties that may not be encountered at home. Local bye laws may affect the use of alarms or CCTV particularly in a managed complex. They may even be illegal depending on what country the property is in.

It might be wiser if the owner enquiries locally as to what other absentee landlords are doing to prevent unauthorised use of their property.

Calahonda52

op: retepnosnikta is on the money here re the different issues under this topic: the local laws, real or made up is the big problem:
its their legal system and language and being absent you are at their mercy for a vast number of scams.
Utility usage is one way of tracking it but it is after the event.
Even with "registered" letting agents you get screwed.
Infrequent owner visiting is a problem also.
There are ideas out there such as putting a meter on the immersion cylinder with a time stamp.
Forget about anything covert such as cctv...legal nightmare

wandererz

Have a look here, it may give you some ideas for motion sensors and the like.

http://www.cnet.com/uk/pictures/get-connected-with-these-ifttt-friendly-smart-devices-pictures/1/

A camera internally located and if the place isn't rented out or lent out to visitors may be ok.

KoolKid

You could have a decent alarm installed that will notify you of the system being armed/Disarmed as well as logging all detection devices regardless of the alarm status.
The letting agent could only arm/disarm the alarm not disable it.