How to take someone off the buzzer
How you take somebody off the buzzer depends on what the lobby panel holds. If it holds their personal number, only the building can change it, which is a written request and a few business days. If it holds a number belonging to the apartment, you remove their phone yourself and access ends immediately without the building being involved.
A housemate moved out, a relationship ended, or a subletter finished. Whatever the reason, somebody can currently open your building door and should not be able to.
First, find out what the panel actually holds
Ask property management what number is recorded against your unit, or press your own unit code at the panel and see whose phone rings.
That answer decides everything about how long this takes. How to read the panel yourself.
Route one: their number is in the panel
Only the building can change it. Email property management with your unit number, the fact that the stored number belongs to somebody who no longer lives there, and the number you want stored instead.
Use the access wording rather than the inconvenience wording. A former resident able to release the lobby door is a building access issue, and buildings act on those faster. The full request.
Route two: an apartment number is in the panel
Then removing somebody is a change to who is reachable behind that number, and it is yours to make. Access ends when you make it, and the lobby panel is untouched.
With BuzzMeBro that is removing their phone from the apartment, in seconds, with everybody on the apartment notified that the list changed. Nothing goes to the building and nothing has to be scheduled. How the list works.
| Their number in the panel | Apartment number in the panel | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can remove them | The building only | You |
| How long | A few business days | Seconds |
| Written request needed | Yes | No |
| Anything to explain | Yes, to a property manager | No |
Decide what replaces it
If you are already asking the building, this is the moment to stop the situation recurring. Putting another individual number in the field means doing all of this again next time somebody leaves.
A number belonging to the apartment, ringing up to 4 phones for $11.99 a month, makes every future removal a thing you do yourself. What to send the building.
Questions people ask
Can I remove somebody without telling them?
You can, and with BuzzMeBro everybody on the apartment is notified when the list changes, which includes them. That is deliberate: silent changes to who can open a door are how a shared system becomes untrustworthy.
How urgent will the building treat it?
It depends entirely on how you frame it. A former resident who can release the lobby door is building access. Say that, and say if there is a safety reason, rather than describing missed deliveries.
Does removing them change the number on the buzzer?
Not if the panel holds an apartment number. The number stays exactly as it is and only the phones behind it change, which is why the building never has to hear about it.
They still have a key or a fob. Does this help?
No. Keys and fobs are a separate system and removing a phone from the buzzer does nothing to them. Those go to the building too, and are worth raising in the same message.
What if the building will not act?
Put it in writing and keep the copy. A building entry system pointing at a non-resident affects every resident rather than just you, and framing it that way in writing usually resolves it.