Landlord replaces all physical keys with a 'smart app,' charges tenants a monthly $15 tech fee to cover the cost: 'It is literally a subscription service just to enter my own home'

Sometimes 'smart tech' is actually pretty dumb. 

We're so busy asking ourselves whether or not we 'can' do something that we lose sight of whether or not we should. This is a phrase that you've heard before, but it bears repeating, especially in situations like this. Sometimes technology makes things more difficult than they actually used to be (and should be) easier when they're analog. Think about the house key. How many times has the house key let you down? Probably not very often. You keep it on your keychain, and you use it to enter your domicile. Simple stuff. Maybe you lose it sometimes or leave it in your house by accident, but you can usually find your way around this. It's not a technology that necessarily needs improving upon. That is, unless you're a tech inventor with a lot of time on your hands, trying to figure out how to squeeze more money out of an idea. Then you might think of replacing the key with an app. But the thing is, apps are pretty much only accessible from our phones, which are just as easy to lose or leave inside as a house key, and are far more likely to glitch. Plus, they cost a lot more money to install and maintain. So who wins? The landlord who charges you extra money for the privilege of losing your keys. It's not a good system, and it needs to be called out. That's what one tenant did when their landlord sent them a message they wished they could have avoided. 

Dealing with landlords is tough on a good day. You're lucky if you don't hear from them for a while. But when you do hear from them, it's rarely with good news. It's rare that they come knocking on your door to tell you they're lowering your rent. No. They usually come to knock with some idiotic new fee or another way they're going to continue to squeeze you dry. That's what happened here to one unlucky tenant. Keep scrolling to read what commenters had to say about this mildly infuriating landlord problem.