Changing the number your Toronto condo buzzer calls

The number your buzzer dials is stored in the lobby panel, in a directory entry for your unit. On a Mircom TX3 panel, for example, that entry holds an apartment number, a dial code, a name and one phone number. You cannot reach that entry and neither can your phone.

In a Toronto condo, the person who can change it is property management. In a rental it is the landlord or the management company. The general version of this.

Need to ask for the change in writing? Get a ready-to-send message for your building manager, landlord or front desk. It is free, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

Who to actually email

The concierge is the person you see, and often not the person who can help. A request left at the desk may never reach anybody with panel access.

• A Toronto condo owner: the property manager, at the management company address on your notices.
• A tenant renting a condo unit: your landlord, who passes it to the property manager.
• A purpose-built rental: the building office or the management company.
• A small landlord: the landlord, who may have to call the panel vendor.

If you cannot find a contact, look in the lobby. Toronto’s property standards bylaw, Chapter 629, says the owner of a building with three or more units must post the name, address and phone number of the owner, manager or person responsible there. Read Chapter 629.

What to send

Short, specific, and easy to act on without a reply.

1. Your unit number, and the building address if the company manages several.
2. The number you want the panel to dial, written in full.
3. One sentence saying it is a change to the existing entry phone directory entry.
4. A request for the date it will be done and an email confirmation afterwards.

You do not need to explain why. If they ask, the honest answer is that more than one person lives in the apartment and the current number only rings one of them.

Decide what number you want first

Think about this before you send anything, so the building only has to make one change.

Putting a personal mobile in the field solves the problem for one person and recreates it for everyone else in the apartment. A number that rings more than one roommate avoids asking the building again, including when a roommate moves out. Why that matters in a shared Toronto apartment.

The number also has to be one the panel can reach, and many panels only place local calls. BuzzMeBro picks one inside your building’s local calling area and rings up to 4 phones on it for $9.99 a month. How that works.

Then check it yourself

1. Wait for the written confirmation Testing before the work is done tells you nothing and wastes a trip to the lobby.
2. Press your own unit code at the panel Your phone should ring within a few seconds.
3. Look at the name on the display The displayed name and the dialled number are separate fields in the directory, so one can be updated without the other.
4. Answer and open the door once With you standing at the door, this confirms the whole chain rather than just the ringing part.

If it rings nothing, the likely causes are that the change was not made, or that the stored number is not reachable as a local call from the panel. The second one, explained.