I am new to the forum and am just looking for advice in case someone has experienced something like this before. My family and I have been living in an apartment in Kreis 5 for a little over a year and we are having safety concerns about the front door to the building constantly being left open.
A restaurant operates on the ground floor and it seems that the employees constantly either leave the door propped open, or if it is closed the little latch on the lock mechanism that allows it to be opened without a key is almost always switched on. This is the case throughout the day and also late into the night - whenever I come home late it is most always open. They do it for smoke breaks and to move supplies in and out so I understand why it is easier for them to do that but I think it compromises tenant security.
The management company has dispatched maybe one or two notices requesting that the door remain locked, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.
A couple of months back we returned from a weekend trip to discover that someone who was most likely a heroin addict had camped out in the communal attic space - there was a tourniquet, antibiotic pill pack, the random mattresses left up there had been slept on...and there was urine all over the floor. This is the space where we are required to hang dry our clothes (not allowed in the flats according to contract). Our place is on the top floor so this was directly above us. Seems like a pretty random discovery of a free space for someone poking around off the streets but am blaming the fact that the door is allllways open on their being able to get up there in any case.
Management took over a month to clear the stuff out and for a little while the door was locked more often than not, but now it is back to being left open again (I believe a conversation was had with the restaurant about this issue).
There is also another tenant who we have seen leave the door open using the little latch because he claims that the safety chip on his key has been broken off and he can't get a new one. Maybe he is subletting and can't get one? Seems a little shady but I don't know the details.
We have a little baby so I guess I am feeling more concerned than average, but since the attic incident I really feel uneasy and unsafe despite the sense that this city is generally pretty safe.
Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? Any advice on what to do? We have written to the management company again but it never seems to change much. Do you think that if I consulted a tenants rights organisation that we could at least arrange to receive a rent reduction?
The goal is to keep the door locked and not to save rent money but I don't get the sense that I have any power in this matter if the agency just sends notices every once in a while and nothing really changes.
Thanks for any advice!