Buzzers in Scarborough apartments
Scarborough has a lot of older rental stock, so first establish which kind of entry system your building runs. A handset on your apartment wall means a hardwired intercom that cannot ring a mobile. A lobby panel that phones you means a stored number the landlord can change, and in a directory nobody has edited for years that number may still belong to a previous tenant.
Live with others? BuzzMeBro puts more than one of you on the buzzer. First month free. Start free
Scarborough housing runs from mid-century walk-ups through large rental towers to newer condos near the town centre. The buzzer answer differs across that range, so the first job is working out where your building sits.
Start at your own front door
Look at the wall beside your apartment door. A handset on a cradle or a flat speaker plate means a hardwired intercom, wired lobby to apartment, with no mobile number anywhere in it.
Nothing on the wall, and a buzz that reaches a phone, means a dialling panel. Only the second kind can reach a mobile. The thirty second test in full.
Panels nobody has edited
A directory gets updated when somebody asks. In a building where nobody asks, entries can sit unchanged for years.
If a stranger answers when you press your own unit code, that is what you are looking at. A former tenant can open the lobby door for any visitor, which is an access problem rather than an inconvenience. How to report it.
Getting a change made
| Building | Who edits the panel | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Large rental tower | The management company on your lease | A written service request and a date |
| Older walk-up | The landlord, sometimes through a vendor visit | Whether a vendor callout fee applies |
| Condo | Property management or its panel vendor | Email confirmation once done |
The City of Toronto’s RentSafeTO program covers apartment buildings with three or more storeys and ten or more units. For those, the City says to submit service requests in writing, and that a landlord must respond to urgent requests, including a breach of building security, within 24 hours and to other requests within seven days. RentSafeTO for tenants.
If nothing happens, the City says to contact 311. What to write in the request.
Households with several adults
Say three adults share a unit and work different shifts. The panel still dials one stored number, so whoever is in that field answers for everybody.
A number that rings more than one roommate removes that, and it survives people coming and going without another request to the building. BuzzMeBro does it for $9.99 a month across up to 4 phones. How it works.
From our own door
- BuzzMeBro has run on our founder’s own Toronto apartment door since August 2026.
- A buzz rings the phones on the apartment that are set to ring, up to 4 at the same time, and whoever answers first handles it.
- Switching means the building updates one stored number for your unit and nothing else. Pointing it back at the old number undoes it the same day.
Questions people ask
My building has handsets on the wall. Can anything help?
Not from your side. A hardwired intercom has no phone call in it to redirect. If it does not work, report it to the landlord in writing: Toronto’s property standards bylaw, Chapter 629, says entrance communication systems in multi-unit buildings are to be kept in good repair.
The buzzer rings someone I have never met. What do I do?
Report it to the landlord in writing and say plainly that a former tenant can currently release the lobby door for any visitor. That is clearer than describing it as a delivery problem.
Is a 905 number a problem in Scarborough?
It depends where the number is from. Parts of the 905 region next to Toronto are often local, but the region is large. What matters is whether the number is a local call from your building, which the free buzzer number check can tell you.
Will my landlord charge me to change the number?
Ask before they book anything. A directory change is often done at the panel keypad, but where a vendor has to visit, some landlords pass the callout on.
What is the setup for a house with several adults?
One number on the panel that rings more than one of them. BuzzMeBro rings up to 4 phones at once for $9.99 a month for the apartment, so nobody has to be the person who is always asked to go down.
Sources
- City of Toronto, Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 629, Property Standards
- City of Toronto, RentSafeTO for Tenants - Service Requests, Complaints & Investigations
- City of Toronto, RentSafeTO: Apartment Building Standards