We use keycards to get into our apartments, and apparently they are doing this change due to some law called Miya's Law. So apparently now maintenance will no longer have a master key and that if they have to do maintenance or what not and neither me nor my roommate are there, we have to schedule a day for them to come in. It just makes it more complicated.

It’s a matter of appointment scheduling. You will come to love it. I promise as you’ll feel more comfortable not having people going into your home while you are away. This sounds like a positive all around.

There have been times where I would wait for them the entire day as scheduled and they don't show up. I then wasted an entire day where I could have been doing something. Also, because my work schedule is irregular, I can't tell if they will show up in the time I am available.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill aimed at making residential tenants safer by requiring background checks for prospective employees, maintaining a detailed key log and increasing notification requirements for maintenance and repairs.

Senate Bill 898, known as “Miya’s Law”, is named after Miya Marcano, an Orlando student who was killed in her apartment in 2021 by a maintenance worker who entered her unit with a key fob.

Perhaps this will be prevalent across the Country...or some version of this law will protect more renters in their rental buildings more safer. Hope so. We have enough in this Country to deal w/, than to have some crazy wacko attacking people in rental units via their master keys.

ME: There is tons of information out there too.

Florida lawmakers have introduced a new bill in honor of 19-year-old Miya Marcano who was killed at her apartment complex in Orlando earlier this year.

If passed, the bill, titled “Miya’s Law” would require landlords to conduct background checks for all apartment employees.

The bill was introduced by state Rep. Robin Bartleman from Weston. A Senate version of the bill has also been introduced by State Sen. Linda Stewart.

The background check conducted must include a national screening of criminal history records and sexual predator and sexual offender registries.

The screening would search for criminal offenses involving violence or a disregard for the safety of others, and it would allow landlords to disqualify individuals with criminal records from employment.

Marcano was found dead weeks after she was reported missing by her family. She is suspected to have been killed by 27-year-old Armando Caballero, who worked at the apartment complex where Marcano lived and also worked.

Caballero was the only person of interest in the case, and he was found dead from a suicide days after Marcano was reported missing.

Investigators said Caballero used a master key to enter Marcano’s apartment. Detectives said Caballero had shown a romantic interest in Marcano before, but she repeatedly turned him down.

“This horrible tragedy helped shed light on gaping security holes that exist, and we must ensure the safety of all Floridians in multi-family rentals,” Bartleman said in a statement. “Everyone has the right to expect safety in their own home. “

“Miya’s death is an awful tragedy – one that has put a spotlight on problems with apartment safety and security,” said Sen. Stewart. “We’ve heard too many horror stories of some landlords disregarding the security of their tenants by issuing master keys to maintenance workers without running any background checks. Everyone deserves to feel safe in their homes, and we are hopeful that ‘Miya’s Law’ will help make that a reality.”

Marcano’s family has filed a lawsuit against the management company that managed Miya’s apartment complex.

You could easily walk around the gate if you wanted to. I once saw an Amazon Prime truck go through the grass. Furthermore, the gate has been inconsistent at times. It either doesn't respond, people are having trouble getting in or something like that. But it really has not been consistent since it got hit by lightning in a big thunderstorm in 2017. Yes, they have replaced it, they put speed bumps and all that, but it isn't consistent. If somebody wanted to, they could easily just take a bike and all that. We used to have security cameras, but the company that did that folded, so we don't have anymore. Even when we did, it was not really that helpful. The area we live in used to be a cul-de-sac before it was built, and some of the people there aren't too happy with that, and they don't really watch their kids or all that.

expensive to hire security guards (retired police officers or the like), so these are being dropped as security measures by apartments or neighborhoods, we even tried the neighborhood watch, where several of us each night would drive around the neighborhoods (we had approximately 18,000 households in our particular neighborhood), but that didn't last long, I'm guessing that not enough volunteers were stepping up to the plate, which is okay, you can't blame them, being that all of us are working our tails off, dealing w/ our families, going to school, you know, life in general.

The biggest thing that they did, IMHO, is offer free clubs for cars, you show your utility statement or such, to prove that you live in the area, and the neighborhood watch working w/ the police would give you clubs for your cars. I haven't seen any stats on the effectiveness of these free clubs (and of course one must use them), but I can vouch personally for myself, as I have always used a club in my vehicle...I guess getting your vehicle stolen one time does the trick (my baby, my S10 truck which I love, was stolen, it was recovered but the insurance company wouldn't allow me to take the truck back, said it was too much of an unknown, not knowing what the perps did while driving in my truck (and I kind of agree w/ them). I did get the insurance settlement, but still. At least the insurance company did say that the video I just made of my truck, after I had cleaned it out, spit and shined it all up, and taken just before the theft of my truck, did the trick in getting me a decent settlement...but still.

Haven't we all had a vehicle that we just loved, and then BAM, it's gone. I never got over it still, and it's been 30 years plus.

I moved around a lot, from Illinois, Virginia, to now Florida, and I have seen many of them neighborhoods with that, but I am not really sure how effective it is. But again, I think security is only relative/subjective. The question is, what do we define as "security". My nana lives in a gated community there, and many times they have you call the house to see if the person will accept whoever is coming in. But in theory, someone could just follow the person in the car ahead of them and then go from there. No matter what, it will never be completely foolproof. Plus, if you are going to do something like that, I would think that it would be considered before it was built. Many residents where I live talk about security, but what are they going to do? If they wanted to do something like a gated community, they would have done that right from the start. Also, we are surrounded by creeks, another nearby neighborhood, and so forth.

Yeah, having a vehicle stolen is the worst, especially when you can't get it back.