What to do when your landlord will not change the buzzer number

You asked, and they said no. Maybe the superintendent shrugged, maybe the management company never replied, maybe your landlord said the buzzer is not their problem.

Whose job the entry system is in an Ontario tenancy is a separate question. Start there if you have not asked yet. This page picks up after the refusal.

Why did they say no?

The reason decides which route works. These four are the common ones.

• They heard a second number. Many entry panels store one phone number per unit. On a Mircom TX3, for example, each resident record has one telephone number field. A request for two numbers gets a reflex no.
• The change costs them a visit. On some panels the number is typed in at the lobby keypad or by a technician, so somebody has to go and do it. Which system your building has decides whether this is a two-minute job or a service call.
• Nobody owns the task. The superintendent cannot edit the panel, the management company assumes it was done, and your request sits in the gap.
• In a condo, your landlord may not be able to do it. The panel is usually run by the condominium corporation’s management, and your landlord is a unit owner with no more access than you have.

What is the version of the ask they usually say yes to?

Change the ask before you escalate. Storing one number, once, is the routine edit a building makes when a tenant moves in. Adding phones, or ringing two people, is the request that tends to be refused.

BuzzMeBro gives your apartment its own local phone number. You hand that number to the building once and they store it in the lobby entry panel like any other number. When a visitor buzzes your unit, every phone registered to the apartment that is set to ring is called at the same time, up to 4 of them. Whoever answers first can talk to the visitor and open the door.

That shrinks your request to the smallest version of itself. One number, one edit, and no reason to revisit it. A buzz arrives as an ordinary inbound phone call, so there is nothing to install. It is $9.99 a month or $95.00 a year per apartment, not per person. How the ring-everyone part works.

What can you actually force them to do?

Two different requests get called the same thing, and only one is enforceable.

Section 20 of Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act makes the landlord responsible for keeping the residential complex in a good state of repair and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. In Toronto, one of those standards is Chapter 629 of the municipal code. In a building of three or more units with a shared entrance, each unit must be connected to the principal entrance by a two-way voice communication system and a security locking release, maintained in good repair and in operative condition.

The line runs through the word connected.

Enforceable

• The panel has to reach your unit. If the stored number is disconnected, or belongs to a tenant who left years ago, nobody can call you from the lobby.
• The door release has to work from that call. A call that connects but will not open the door is half a system.
• The lobby sign has to show a current name and phone number for the owner or manager, updated within a week of any change.
• None of this depends on your lease. The Act says a lease term inconsistent with it is void, so a clause making the entry system your responsibility should not hold up.

Reasonable, but nobody will order it

• Swapping the stored number to your mobile because you prefer it.
• A second number on the panel for your partner, where the panel even has a place for one. Why a second slot rarely helps.
• Getting the edit done this week rather than next month.
• The panel ringing you instead of your roommate.

If your panel dials a number nobody can answer, you are in the first list and you have a real complaint. A buzzer still calling the old tenant is the clearest version, because a stranger can currently release your lobby door.

Who do you send it to, and who do you copy?

A no from one person is not a no from the building. Usually you have been talking to whoever is easiest to reach, which is the person with the least authority to act.

• Start with the name on the lobby sign. Toronto requires that sign to carry the current owner or manager, and it is often not the person who said no.
• Copy the management company’s general inbox, not only the superintendent. A shared inbox creates a ticket. A text to a superintendent creates nothing.
• In a condo, ask your landlord to request it from property management with you copied. The corporation often will not take a directory change from a tenant directly.
• Send it from an address you will still have in a year, and keep everything in one thread. The thread is your evidence later.

1. Write down what the panel does now Press your unit code at the lobby panel and note what happens. It rings out, reaches a stranger, reaches your roommate, or does nothing. How to find what number your buzzer calls.
2. Send one email with one ask Give your unit, one sentence on what the panel does today, and the single number you want stored. Ask for written confirmation and name a date. The City of Toronto’s own advice is to ask for repairs in writing and keep a record.
3. Follow up after a week Reply in the same thread rather than starting a new one. Ask for a status and the name of the person handling it. In a RentSafeTO building (three or more storeys and ten or more units), the City says landlords have seven days to respond to a non-urgent service request.
4. Go up one level Forward the whole thread to the owner or manager named on the lobby sign. Say what you asked for, when, and what response you have had.
5. Call 311 if the system does not work In Toronto, if the landlord has not fixed it within a reasonable time, the City says to contact 311 to have it investigate. This fits an entry system that does not reach your unit, not a preference about which phone it rings.
6. Apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board last A T6 is the Tenant Application about Maintenance. A T2 is the Application about Tenant Rights. Tribunals Ontario lists the filing fee as just over fifty dollars, a little less through its online portal, and has a fee waiver request form.

What if you cannot wait months for any of this?

Escalation is slow, and a Landlord and Tenant Board hearing is not quick to get. You still need the door to open in the meantime.

Forwarding the line the panel already calls: free, and fine for one person

If the panel dials a line you control and only one person ever needs to answer, forward that line to your mobile. For a single occupant that is the right answer. The keypad tone usually survives a carrier forward, so test the door once. How to set that up. It fails the day a second person needs to hear the buzzer, because a forward rings one phone.

Google Voice: free, but the door often will not open

A Google Voice number can ring several phones, which is why people reach for it. The door is where it can fall over. The lock releases because a keypad tone travels back down the call, and services that re-encode audio can mangle that tone. You get the call, press the digit, and the door stays shut. More on why.

The route that ends the argument is the one that needs a single edit. One local number stored in the panel, the roommates you choose ringing at once, and nothing extra for the building to maintain. BuzzMeBro is $9.99 a month or $95.00 a year for the apartment, across up to 4 phones. Check whether a number is available for your building.