Hell’s Kitchen tenants win battle to use keys instead of high-tech entry system

A group of Hell’s Kitchen residents fought the tech boom — and won.

The five tenants of 517-525 W. 45th St. sued their landlords for installing a keyless entry system but sued to get back their good-old-fashioned keys.

“It means that we can be real people again and have a key to our door and not be monitored,” one of the plaintiffs, Mary Beth McKenzie, 72, told The Post.

On Tuesday, a judge signed off on a deal in which the building’s owners agreed to issue physical keys to the plaintiffs by evening.

McKenzie and four other tenants brought the Manhattan civil case against landlords, Shai Bernstein and Offir Naim, last year after they installed an electronic security system called Latch which requires a smartphone app to get into the building’s lobby, elevator and mail room.

Tenants could still access stairwells without entering through the lobby but walking up several flights was burdensome for elderly residents, the plaintiffs argued.

Latch also allows the building owners to monitor tenants’ social media and movement using GPS which some tenants took as harassment and an effort to push them out of their rent-regulated apartments, the residents previously told The Post.

Charlotte Pfahl, 67, a retired lawyer who has lived in the building for 45 years, said, “We are relieved that something as simple as entering our home is not controlled by an internet surveillance system and that because we will now have a mechanical key they will not be tracking our friends and our family.”

Pfahl said that the landlords are expected to give the plaintiffs their keys Tuesday evening.

“It was outrageous that they would not give us keys…I have had a metal key in my hand for all my life,” said another plaintiff, Ron Sharpe, 65.

He said Latch is “complicated, cumbersome and invasive.”

The tenants’ lawyer, Michael Kozek, called the agreement a “huge victory.”

“These types of systems, which landlords have used to surveil, track, and intimidate tenants, have been used frequently in New York City,” Kozek said.

“These tenants refused to accept the system, and the negative impact it had on their lives.”

It was not immediately clear if mechanical keys would also be made available to any other tenants who may ask for a physical key.

The app, which is currently in use in more than 1,000 residential buildings in the city, also came with an 84-page contract which stated that any information collected through the Latch system goes to the building owner, the tenants claimed.

The owners said they installed Latch to provide tenants greater security following a burglary in August 2018 and the GPS function is optional, The Post previously reported from court papers.

Both Bernstein and Naim declined to comment.

Their lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.

“This lawsuit contained many inaccuracies about how Latch works, and we’re happy the parties were able to reach a private settlement to resolve their dispute about entry methods in this particular building,” a rep from Latch said. “Latch does not capture, track, or store GPS data, cannot monitor social media, does not share personal information for marketing purposes, and offers physical keycards—including at this very building.”

Additional reporting by Melissa Klein