Security of my apartment, the garage and backyard

By Justin Iler

I have an issue that I am trying to find out what responsibility my landlord/manager has in the below situation. My complex has detached garages with automatic garage doors, and no other way in. There is a safety pull cord attached to a kind of keyed lock in the door in case of a power outage. You would unlock it and then it can be pulled out to unhook the garage hook from the track so you can then just left the door open. The problem I have is when the power goes out and after you use the safety unhook thing you cannot secure the garage, you cannot hook it back into the track. Only when the power is restored can you do it. There is no latch on the outside of the door. So basically when the power goes out if I have to open the door to leave I cannot secure it after. I have repeatedly asked the manager to install a latch so I can lock it if I need to, but it has not happen yet. so this is part 1 of my two part question, since I have repeatedly made them aware of the inability to secure the door, and ask for a remedy the latch and they have not fixed it, if in the event that the power goes out and I have to open it and cannot secure it, someone’s gets inside and steals stuff I feel they should be held responsible, are they? Do I have legal recourse to have them make me whole again, replace what was taking and such; this is of course having detailed inventory, and documentation to prove my claim.

Now part two, they have been doing some repairs to the outside of the apartments and the workers in order to get to my back yard preyed off the gate latches. They have not repaired or replaced them, and in fact have left the gates wide open at the end of the day. There are two gates to my backyard; both were left in this state, as well as a main gate from the parking lot through an open space that leads to my gate. Usually all these gates are closed and locked, but the workers have as I said left them unsecured and open, letting it be seen and obviously that anyone can just walk through into my backyard. I do close the gates when I get home but there is a long amount of time they are left open, and even though I close them I cannot secure my backyard at all. I have removed everything I can but there are things that have to stay there like my BBQ and smoker which are very nice and expensive, along with potted dwarf tress that are also expensive. I again have advised the landlord/management, but also again they have failed to do anything so same as the above issue, can I hold them responsible if anything is stolen, or worse if someone breaks in through the back door because it as unseen by anyone and would be convenient for a bad person to do get in undetected.

If anyone has any input I would appreciate to hear it, or any suggestions where or what I should try next to get this taking care of.
Thank you for your time and thoughts
Justin

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