Access control for Montréal buildings
Plexes with outside staircases, condo towers with underground garages, walk-ups changing tenants every July: Montréal buildings have their own access problems. Vega Access is built and supported from LaSalle, on the island of Montréal, in English and French.
Moving day: July 1 is an access-control event
Many Quebec leases run from July 1 to June 30, and July 1 is the province’s traditional moving day, felt most strongly in Montréal. For a property manager that means a large share of a portfolio’s fobs and keys change hands within a few days, in the middle of trucks, elevators booked by the hour and tenants arriving late at night.
With Vega Access, that week is prepared in advance instead of handled at the door:
- Outgoing tenants: set an end date on their fobs and codes for the last day of the lease. Access stops on its own, and nothing depends on a key coming back.
- Incoming tenants: issue fobs in June with a start date of July 1. You can hand them out early; they only work from move-in day.
- Movers: a temporary code or card with an end date, or a remote unlock from the panel when the truck arrives. On WLock common doors, an admin can keep a door open for a set period and Vega Access closes it again at the end.
- After the rush: the audit log shows which fobs were issued, ended or marked lost, and who did it.
Plexes, walk-ups and towers: different doors, one panel
Duplexes, triplexes and walk-ups
Montréal’s plexes often give every unit its own outside door, with no lobby and no central reader. Battery smart locks fit these doors well because nothing needs to be wired from a central room. Locks built on the SMLock platform (TTLock app) work with Vega Access through gateways; on small buildings, gateway placement is the main design question, since outdoor doors are farther apart than doors along a corridor.
Condo towers and rental high-rises
Larger buildings usually combine wired readers at the lobby and garage with battery locks on unit and service doors. Wired doors on WLock (UniFi Access) sit in the same panel as the SMLock-based locks, so a tenant can carry one fob when the fob type allows it. See condo access control for how syndicates use it.
Mixed portfolios
Most Montréal management companies run a mix of all three. Vega Access organizes them as buildings, floors, units and doors, and gives each building manager only the buildings they handle. See access control for property managers.
Winter and battery locks
Doors that open straight onto the street or into an unheated vestibule live through Montréal winters. Cold weather can shorten battery life, and a lock that dies in February is a tenant locked out in the snow. Vega Access shows the battery level of every lock, alerts your technician when a lock falls under the threshold you set for the building, and logs each battery change with the date and who did it. Outside doors deserve a higher threshold than interior ones.
Rules that apply in Montréal
These are Quebec-wide rules, and they matter in a city with a large rental market:
- Entering a dwelling: under the Civil Code of Québec, a landlord must give the tenant 24 hours’ notice before visiting or working in a dwelling, except in an emergency. A remote unlock does not change that; it only makes the visit traceable.
- Personal information: Quebec’s Law 25 applies to the names, units and entry records an access system holds. Vega Access limits access by role and records every change; see security and privacy.
- Disputes: lease disputes go to the Tribunal administratif du logement. Entry records with door, method and time are facts you can export if you ever need them.
This page is general information, not legal advice.
Bilingual from the start
Montréal buildings have tenants, staff and contractors who work in French, English or both. This website is in English and French, the panel and the tenant experience are bilingual (the French interface is rolling out now), and our team supports clients in both languages.
Local team, Canadian hosting
Our office is at 8457 Newman Blvd, Suite 272, in LaSalle. Vega Access is hosted in a Canadian data centre with encrypted daily backups; the lock vendor’s cloud may be outside Canada. Plans are quoted for your buildings and doors: try the door calculator and compare plans, then call us at +1 (833) 330-8080.
Questions from Montréal managers
Can we prepare July 1 access weeks in advance?
Yes. Fobs and codes can be issued with a start date of July 1 and existing ones given an end date of June 30, so the switch happens on its own.
Do smart locks work on outside plex doors?
It depends on the lock model and whether it is made for outdoor use. Send us the model and we tell you whether it is SMLock-based and what gateway placement it needs.
Related pages
See your buildings in Vega Access
Tell us about your doors and we’ll walk you through Vega Access on a short call — with your own buildings in mind, not a canned slideshow.
- Bring your lock models — we’ll confirm what is SMLock-based and what gateway you need.
- See the real panel — buildings, cards, tenants, remote unlock and the audit log.
- Get a tailored quote — for your doors, buildings and support level.
Prefer the phone? Call +1 (833) 330-8080.
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