Unlocked door into communal entrance

[Gail]

Hi I am a owner of an apartment which I rent out. I have returned to live in the apartment for the past 6 months. There is one other apartment on the first floor which is rented out to 4 other tenants and has a landlady. There are two doors into the communal entrance. The main door is off the street and the second door to enter the rear of the building is on the 1st floor accessed via an outside metal staircase.

This rear door has a thumb turn lock and is always left unlocked. I have spoken to the tenants downstairs regarding my concerns that the access to our property is unsecured. This had no effect the door remains unlocked, I decided to speak to the landlady of the apartment below and this also has had no effect.

Are there any alarms I can place on this type of door as often I have to lock this door at midnight or later even though I locked it at 20.00hrs. Are there any laws that I can use to ensure this door is kept locked?

Five months I have been trying to resolve this issue. I will be letting the apartment next month and would like to know how I can proceed.

[green-foam]

There are several D.I.Y.  "stand alone" door alarms that are available (any diy superstore)  but in this instance i would suggest they would be pointless since your neighbours could easily turn them off or even remove them.

If you decided to get an alarm company in to install an alarm on one door, it raises more questions, who would pay for it, who gave you permission for them to install it, who is going to turn it on, and those same people could always turn it off, again I would say in this case an alarm is not the way to proceed.