Fob access to building?

We are a Right to Manage (RTM) Company, just two directors,  it’s a very difficult block having cladding and other fire safety issues that we are dealing with, and it’s all uphill.

A number of the leaseholders are resisting measure put in place, the latest is with fob access, it could be seen as micromanaging but to try to avoid short letting (this will all be irrelevant in a couple of weeks and we’ll have to think of something else) and know who is in the building, we programme the fobs for leaseholders and tenants for all areas (front door, bin store, parcel room, relevant lift floor) to the end of the tenancy, when the tenancy ends the fob access has to be renewed for the next tenant, most works fine, we delete any cloned fobs as they are used.

Agents have a fob registered to them for the front door only; they can give this to cleaners or inventory clerks as they wish.

Short lets are an issue as the agents constantly copy the fobs, and we delete them. One leaseholder is now challenging this, saying that we cannot restrict access, which we are not to bona fide tenants. He wants to know the exact lease clause and statutory provision that allows us to do this. Do we need to enter into this sort of conversation? He goes further with his demands (well known to us for using AI in his correspondence, which is frequently aggressive).

Question is, whilst we are not preventing access to leaseholders or their tenants, are we allowed to control access to others who do not meet lease conditions (short lets) and have access only to areas relevant, not the whole of the building. Obviously there will not be a lease condition covering fob access. One other issue is short-let agencies sending in their cleaners who roam the building at random hours, banging through the swing doors, and we get the complaints.

We do have a concierge 8am-5pm so access is available at these times.

Obviously, with the new rolling contracts, we will have to reprogramme every two months.

Stopping short letting is like trying to hold back the tide, (Central London) controlling access (irritating) the agents and leaseholders is a way of doing this and identifying the leaseholders who are short letting, due to the fire safety issues we have to have control, party central, as airbnb can become, is not conducive to our fire safety policy or for the quiet enjoyment of the home for residential leaseholders.

Is our approach to controlling fob access reasonable?

Thanks,

Elizabeth