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How to deal with a rude, intrusive landlord
Jinn
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm currently subleasing a room in a 3br house. The landlord barges in on a regular basis to show the house to prospective tenants. He does usually give notice the night before via text, but he must expect me to vacate the house or something. He leads the people in to my room (opens the door, whether I'm here or not doesn't seem to matter to him), around my bed, to the bathroom, opens my closet and just generally invades my space. How do I deal with this? It's one thing if he wants to lead people in to the common areas of the house, but I really don't like that he barges in to my room, with the door closed, dog growling and barking. He's walked in on me shitting and showering on separate occasions within the past week. Just now he walked in while I'm laying here watching a movie and wanders around my room spouting off sales points to the people he's showing the house too. Four people barging in to my room without my consent is not okay. It's fucking obnoxious and really rude. Is he even allow to do this? Don't I have some privacy allowances? Should I be butt naked jerkin' it to really loud hardcore porn next time?
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Uh dude, if you're looking at an apartment, don't you want to see the bedroom and closets prior to renting? Not to be a douche, but all he really has to do is warn you a day ahead of time. You can ask to get more info on this, but he does own the place, and needs to rent it out if you don't want it.
Cause if you are he's gotta show the place. If you're not... weird. If you look up the tenant laws in your area they may be able to tell you more about how much notice he has to give when he does this.
First - yes he has the right to show your room and your closet space.
Second - He has to give you notice to show the property. Most places call this a REASONABLE notice - and most judge types define Reasonable as a days notice. So request that he give you 24 hours notice, share this info with your roommates and make sure the place looks presentable on that day.
UPDATE: as I was typing this post he texted me to say he's coming back in an hour with some people that are ready to sign the lease, so hopefully it's the last time.
-BUT-
They have to give you a specific time in which they are showing up, And you have the right to refuse the time that he's given you if it doesn't work for you. but you have to be willing to give him a time that does.
For Tenant situations, you are paying for temperary ownership of the space you are renting.. actually co-ownership of sorts. As far as I know. Tenant acts are different from State to State, Country to Country.
It's your space... you're paying for it, and respecting your privacy is part of the deal when someone accepts money in exchange fur a room.
he's in violation of the contract if he isn't giving you proper notice.
That is how you do it in college towns. This is normal.
Your landlord is just a big douche, but there's nothing you can do that would be resolved before you've left anyway.
I admit, I probably wouldn't have thought it necessary to ask that of anybody, but seeing as how your landlord has shown that he doesn't do that automatically maybe he would if you requested it.
If the landlord is just some dude with an extra house he rents out, it may be difficult for him to organize things in advance. It couldn't hurt to ask him for more advance notice and/or courtesy; he may honestly not be aware of your frustrations. If he's someone with multiple rental properties, though, then he's definitely just being a dick.
I'd communicate with him that if you could set up a particular time in the day that would be best.
Anecdotal, once a landlord showed off my apartment after I did a 28 hour swing shift at the hospital and when I let him in I was in my pajamas looking like fresh hell and he never came back without setting an appointment with me.
I think the "room showing" business only applies if you've given 30 day notice. Doing this with less than 24 hours notice months before you depart is prohibited by almost any standard lease. YMMV depending on the lease you signed and landlord/tenant laws in your area but the 24 hours notice is standard almost everywhere. There's also "reasonable hours" that'll vary so he may be violating that too.
Explain to him that he needs to give you 24 actual hours of notice, not 12 hours the night before notice or an hour beforehand notice. If he's just some guy renting out his house, he may just be clueless as fuck and needs a wake-up call. If he does this for a living, he has no excuse.
You're not reading the entire thread. The OP is sub-letting, leaving in less than a month, and the reason the landlord is showing the place early is because it's a college town. This is pretty standard behaviour aside from the landlord not knocking before entering the house.
I'm used to leaving when a house is being shown, is he giving you the times for when he's going to be coming over?