The Angry Resident in the Apartment Block: Force, Witnesses and the Report
You provide concierge security in a private apartment building from 18:00 to 02:00. At 23:30 a resident, visibly intoxicated, bangs on the lobby glass because his key fob has stopped working. He is shouting that he pays 'a fortune' and that you are 'a nobody in a cheap uniform'. When you open the door to explain that the fobs are reprogrammed by the building manager on weekdays, he steps very close, jabs a finger at your chest without quite touching it, and says 'open the door or I'll open you'. Two residents are watching from the lift lobby; a camera covers the entrance. You are alone. You are 1.75 m; he is taller and heavier. The building's post orders say guards may not use force except in lawful self-defence and may not bar a resident from entering the building.
1. Assess the situation against the requirements for lawful self-defence and decide your immediate conduct.
Read the worked answer
Test the conditions rather than reacting to the insult. Self-defence requires an actual or imminent unlawful attack, a response necessary at that moment, and proportionate to the threat. A shouted threat and a jabbing finger is intimidation; it is not yet an attack, and pushing him first would convert you from defender into aggressor.
Immediate conduct.
- Create distance, not contact. Step back and to the side so you are not cornered against the desk, and keep your hands open and visible at waist height.
- Lower your voice and slow down. Say one short sentence: 'I'm not going to argue with you. I'll call the manager's emergency line and we'll get you in.' Naming a concrete next step is more de-escalating than explaining policy.
- Do not touch him, do not block the door with your body. The post orders and the law point the same way: a resident's access to his own home is not yours to withhold.
- If he pushes or strikes, then a proportionate defensive response - blocking, creating space, withdrawing - is lawful; a retaliatory strike once the threat has passed is not. Call police and the manager.
Note the asymmetry: you are alone, smaller, and on camera. Distance and words are your advantage.
2. He calms slightly and asks to be let in. The fob is genuinely broken. What do you do, given the post orders, and what do you record?
Read the worked answer
Resolve the actual problem. His fob failure is a legitimate access issue; the shouting is a separate conduct issue. Do not merge them, and do not use access as a punishment.
Action. Verify that he is a resident by a route the building accepts - asking his name and flat number and checking the resident list, or asking a neighbour to confirm. Then let him in through the door you control, and log the entry with the time and the reason 'fob malfunction, identity verified'. Inform the building manager in the morning so the fob is reprogrammed. If verification is impossible, call the manager's emergency line rather than leaving a resident outside at midnight.
Record.
- Times: fob failure reported, verbal aggression, entry granted.
- Exact words used, quoted, including the threat, marked as a quotation.
- That he was intoxicated and that you observed it; describe behaviour, not diagnosis.
- That you stepped back and did not use force.
- Witnesses present in the lift lobby and that the entrance camera covers the area; request that footage be preserved.
- The fob fault and your notification of the manager.
Do not record opinions about his character or a conclusion that he was 'aggressive by nature'. Facts and times only.
3. The next day the resident complains that you 'threatened and humiliated' him. The manager asks for your account. How do you respond, and what does professional deontology require of you?
Read the worked answer
Respond factually and without defensiveness. Provide the incident report, offer the camera footage reference, and name the two witnesses. State what you did and did not do: you did not touch him, did not raise your voice, did not refuse him entry, and did step back. Avoid counter-accusations and avoid sarcasm about his drinking; the complaint will be judged on evidence, and a calm written account is stronger than an indignant one.
Deontology requires:
- Truthfulness: report your own conduct honestly, including anything you would do differently.
- Impartiality and non-discrimination: the resident is entitled to the same service as anyone else; his conduct does not remove that entitlement.
- Confidentiality: discuss the matter only with the manager, not with other residents or colleagues in the lobby.
- Proportionality and restraint: the fact that you had grounds to call the police does not mean you must, and the fact that you were insulted gives you no licence to retaliate.
- Loyalty to the client's instructions while refusing any instruction that would require you to act unlawfully.
Practical note. If the complaint leads to a disciplinary process, ask for the footage to be preserved immediately; recordings are often overwritten within days.