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Can apartments fine you if it's not in the lease?
taliosfalcon
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, to explain the situation:
in canada(alberta to be specific) i've been living in a rental apartment for 6 months, i received a letter that last weekend I attempted to enter the wrong apartment (302 instead of 301) while slightly inebriated, i tried 302 once, realized i was wrong then went to the right apartment,, in the letter it states that if it happens again I will be fined since it's apparently scary that someone could try to enter the wrong unit in a secured apartment(their words, not mine), and it states that the police were contacted after my one wrong attempt, my lease/rental agreement which i've since re-read doesn't mention anything about the possibility of fines, while I don't see it happening again since i very, very rarely drink that much, or drink at all period, can they actually fine me ,or at worst end my lease early in case of similar offenses?
I find the whole thing extremely silly since I have people incorrectly attempting to enter my apartment once every couple of weeks, but i'd like to be clear on the legalities before calling the building manager out on it, which in my understanding right now is they can do nothing since i've been a model tenant up until this point.
in canada(alberta to be specific) i've been living in a rental apartment for 6 months, i received a letter that last weekend I attempted to enter the wrong apartment (302 instead of 301) while slightly inebriated, i tried 302 once, realized i was wrong then went to the right apartment,, in the letter it states that if it happens again I will be fined since it's apparently scary that someone could try to enter the wrong unit in a secured apartment(their words, not mine), and it states that the police were contacted after my one wrong attempt, my lease/rental agreement which i've since re-read doesn't mention anything about the possibility of fines, while I don't see it happening again since i very, very rarely drink that much, or drink at all period, can they actually fine me ,or at worst end my lease early in case of similar offenses?
I find the whole thing extremely silly since I have people incorrectly attempting to enter my apartment once every couple of weeks, but i'd like to be clear on the legalities before calling the building manager out on it, which in my understanding right now is they can do nothing since i've been a model tenant up until this point.
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Don't do it again, and it won't be a thing.
the handle rattling
scratching at the lock
mumbling like a crazy person
it happens, they probably could terminate your lease over something like that, especially if it happens more than once or the complainer is vocal enough about it, although you'd have to check your lease for anything even remotely related (noise complaints, nuisance, etc) as well as local laws
but yeah just realize what you did and keep your head down over it
maybe go over there and apologize for scaring them enough to call the cops
If you are in a lease this would not work out for you. The only reason they would do that is because of a breach caused by you, in which case you still have to pay your rent to them for all the remainder months of the lease in addition to being evicted.
It is possible for them to track you down if you just pack up and leave as well, which really sucks because if they take it to court and if the courts rule in favor of management then they garnish around 30% of your wages if you are working or start working anywhere.
So I agree with everyone else about keeping your head down, just simply don't do it again and don't start anything.
The number is 310-0000
I don't know if you need 780 in front of that
I never finish anyth
Apparently after receiving the complaint they went and looked at the security camera footage of the front door and saw I was the last one to enter the building, which, once more falls back on me going "wahh?" that they would take the time to do that for something so trivial, but I guess i'll just put it down to this building being crazy and move on on my first opportunity
While it's a trivial mistake, to the person who lives there it can be scary. Especailly since you said it was night and you were drunk.
You have someone unknown, trying to get into an apartment. Say a bugler got into the building and trying EVERY door, to see if one is open to try and steal stuff. That's why they are making the big deal out of it.
My fiance and I have been living in our apartment and we get that once every 3-4 months but we've never told anyone. It's usually someone realizing they are on the wrong floor. Every floor looks exactly the same.
Apologize and say it won't happen again and be careful when you come home.
I have been in your shoes, however. I was in Victoria celebrating a friend's birthday at a club and went back to her apartment with her keys to crash (right across the street from the club). I was fairly smashed; went up to her door and tried opening it. No luck. I must have fumbled with that damn key for two or three minutes before an annoyed female voice called out from within "Wrong room!"
It was only then that I realized that there were two symmetrical wings to the apartment building that had the exact same numbering system and I had gone up the wrong set of stairs. Even in my inebriated state I was downright mortified.
I kinda wish I could go back and apologize to that woman.
I'd also recommend going over to 302 and introducing yourself. Tell them exactly what you've said here: you don't make a habit of getting that drunk, this was an isolated incident, and you're really sorry for freaking them out.
I'm going to follow the advice in this thread and keep my head down, but man i'm not going to go nearly as out of my way to be a good neighbor like I did before.
Filing noise complaints in retaliation doesn't seem like the way to go. Go round, apologise, job done.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Alright, that's one of the reasons I made the thread, to see if other people agreed that this was a legitimate viewpoint, and you seem to, so case closed. I'm still a bit baffled because it's a very regular occurrence in apartments, and I don't see someone trying a key in my apartment as odd at all due to this but i'll go along with it, since everyone else has said the opposite I have no choice but to knowledge my viewpoint as wrong
edit: also to be clear, the reason I was thinking about calling in when they are thumping away in the middle of the night was it seemed so ridiculous to me I was almost convinced they'd just called in to complain as kind of a revenge because I was asking them to tune it down so frequently. But going from the feedback here that doesn't seem likely to be the case so oh well, guess i'll let it go
You can not be evicted from your apartment for mistakenly trying to open your neighbour's door. You also can't be evicted for coming home drunk.
You have two responsibilities as a tenant: obey the law, and obey the rules set out in your rental agreement. If there is no clause in there that says, "two strikes jiggling the wrong door handle and you're out," you're okay.
Landlords/property managers often get a little power hungry, and they're also used to dealing with some of the worst people you'll ever meet (varies by area, but still). Put those two together, and you have a person threatening you with things they couldn't dream of following through with just to "fix" a simple situation.
Your landlord was misguided in sending you that notice when you've had no problems with the building management in the past. Further, there really is nothing they can do about this if it happens again. They can call the police, but the police aren't likely to get involved.
Again, unless there is a clause in your rental agreement about this, I wouldn't worry. Just keep on keeping on. And preemptively: I really doubt jiggling the wrong door handle falls very firmly under "disturbing the peace." People make mistakes, and this one was harmless.
So, did the tenants call the police? It would make sense that the police would tell management to check the security cameras to see if anyone suspicious was in the building. It is retarded as hell if the management saw that it was their neighbour last, stumbling home, and that's when they decided it would be dandy to send a warning letter. There is no law/rule about trying to open the wrong door by mistake. This is a ridiculous reaction by the property management.
They've been helpful to me in the past.
I never finish anyth
It was three in the morning and some drunken idiot tried to forcibly get into our apartment while she was asleep on the couch. She ran into the bedroom to wake me up and was pretty freaked out by it.
It's happened again once since then. We found out it was some airhead girl that likes to get blitzed and then hook up with her boyfriend/booty call late and night and can't remember which apartment he lives in.
It's a settled situation now, but it legitimately freaked her out when it happened, because the girl didn't knock, she just ran up the stairs and started trying to open the door and key in...
Do they have proof it was you trying to enter that apartment? No? Okay. Just because you entered the building doesn't mean shit. For all they know your upstairs neighbor went down the flight of stairs and tried to get into the apartment to get his rape on.
Don't even worry about it. If it escalates and he tries to fine you, take him to court.
Just curious, since I rent from a rent from a management company, do you know the name of who runs the building?
After everything thats been said in here I want to add my two cents.
1) Don't be a douche about things, you made a mistake and simply sending an apology to the people next door and to the landlord/manager is a welcome gesture. Just like whats been said it was a one time thing and your embarrassed that this happened and your sorry if your alarmed anyone..etc..etc.
2) Don't be petty and start things with the landlord, and don't try to get them to toss you out by terminating you lease. Other apartments want references of where you've lived so they can call and see how you were, if they hear you were a troublemaker they can refuse service to you (not rent to you). This can screw up things for you down the road.
3) If the people next door are having loud parties after "quiet time" (usually 10pm) you have every right in the world to complain about it to the landlord, I'd just hold off making any complaints for a few weeks else it seem that your being petty and starting things with them as payback for this.
You made a mistake its as simple as that and they are trying to make a point to you as keep in mind...the landlord doesn't know your personality from the guy whos sitting in the bus stop over on 12th street. They sent out a letter to let you know that that type of behavior isn't appreciated or tolerated there.
The thing I'm taking from that letter is that you could be fined, it doesn't say by them...I mean it could be from the police, such as a drunk in public fine/citation.
To be quite honest with you after living in a very shady part of LA for a short period of time before finding a better place to live the fact that your landlord gives enough of a crap about this type of thing is a good thing. To you it might seem like its a big deal, but basically they're just reading you the riot act and giving themselves some coverage if this continues so they can say "we gave him a written warning" and show a copy of that.
TL;DR - You made a mistake, apologize to landlord and people next door. Live out the rest of your lease quietly and uneventfully so you have a good housing reference in the future.
In this situation, ignore the letter, obviously hold onto it. If you really want to you can bring up your concerns, in a non-dick-like fashion if possible.
It's highly unlikely anyone else tried to do it, but don't roll over and admit guilt and start apologizing just because they have a video of you entering the building.
Also, I hope that video is properly timestamped, because video footage of you entering the building you live in isn't exactly watertight otherwise.
Anyway, none of that has anything to do with whether or not they can actually fine you, nor does about 3/4 of the rest of the advice in this thread. I don't think it's reasonable, but I don't know what it says on your lease. The best thing you can do is get it out and call the number mentioned above.
I'm with Figgy, here. The whole thing seems ridiculous. I would assume that this is the sort of thing that absolutely happens somewhere in the world at pretty much any given time.
I'd also be interested in who called in the incident, because if it was your neighbor and they did know it was you, you'll want to probably start a paper-trail. I find this sort of vindictive behavior to be unlikely, but if it is the case and they have shown that they are willing/wanting to call the police on you for something like this, you're probably better off lodging formal complaints about their noise levels or at least keeping a log of any time you have to ask them to turn it down.
"Keeping your head down" is good advice, but you don't want to screw yourself by never telling your side of the story. Again, I'm not advocating "picking a fight", just covering your behind. In any case, vindictiveness on the part of your neighbors is probably a very slim chance.
Still, threatening with a fine is stupid and likely unenforceable.
Just ignore the fucking thing, and try to be more careful about which apartment you try to go into.