Walking into your new apartment for the first time is an exciting feeling. You walk around the empty space thinking about all the new possibilities that can be. But what if that apartment is not empty?
TikToker Casey Thomas (@caseythomas444) says that as they were walking into their new apartment for the first time, they discovered that other folks were still living in it. In the video, someone is putting the key into the door of an apartment as someone else (presumably Thomas) records. After the person unlocks and opens the door, they can be heard saying, “Oh, what? Wait,” as they start to push back away from the door. The text overlay says, “POV: you get the keys to your apartment and walk in to people already home.”
The video has 5.8 million views and almost 405,000 comments as of this writing.
Why was the apartment already occupied?
In a follow-up video, Thomas explains that the situation was a misunderstanding. They say that when they arrived at the apartment complex, they went to apartment E, which is the correct door letter. However, there are multiple apartments with door letter E.
“So there’s like four different ‘E’s,’ and so we basically just had to walk ’round until we found our actual apartment,” Thomas says. “Yeah, that was pretty much it. We didn’t run into any people in that apartment, thankfully. But, just pretty much a misunderstanding. There’s not really much else to the story.”
@caseythomas444 @itsedenm ♬ original sound – Casey Thomas
Viewers in the comments section of the original video were at the edge of their seats to learn what had happened. Some believed the people in the apartment might be squatters, and others surprisingly shared similar experiences.
“We rented a house and when it was time to do a last walk through people were living there. They ended up being squatters so they rented us a nicer house for the same price,” one viewer wrote.
“Same thing happened with my realtor,” a second shared. “We rented 2nd floor of a house. She picked up our keys and got confused w/which door. Our key opened 1st Flr Apt. changed that lock quick.”
Do apartment complexes really give different doors the same key?
In a response comment on their follow-up video, Thomas said they doubt the other tenant’s key could unlock their apartment.
“I don’t think so, I think either theirs was unlocked or somehow ours opened theirs for whatever reason,” Thomas wrote.
However, tenants on online forums have complained that their landlords have used the same lock and key for multiple units.
In response to an Avvo commenter questioning whether this practice was legal, real estate attorney Brandon Alexander Robinson wrote, “Not sure whether it is ‘illegal,’ but it is certainly ‘actionable’ if one of the neighbors ends up being harmed because s/he is less secure due to the landlord’s negligence in having two apartments similarly keyed. Either you or the landlord should change the locks for one or both of the apartments as soon as possible and also confirm that no two apartments have the same set of locks.”
Perhaps, just to be safe, Thomas should get new locks or do some further investigation into whether the door in question was actually locked when they put their key in it.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Thomas via TikTok and Instagram direct message for more information.
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