Posted by John Burnetski on April 06, 2000 at 16:36:09:
In Reply to: Actions of Landlady may be inappropriate, unethical, or illegal....need advice fast!!! posted by Matthew Dunn on April 05, 2000 at 19:02:30:
: I am renting an apartment in Jackson, MS. The apartment is one of only four arranged in a 2-story quadraplex located in a middle class neighborhood.....the landlord lives in the house right across the street from the complex. Well, peculiar things have been going on. I discovered yesterday (Tuesday, 4/4/2000) that my key will work in my neighbor's door. She was locked out of her apartment and had heard from one of the other tenants upstairs that her key worked for BOTH of the upstairs apartments. I tried my key in the other ground-level apartment, and it worked. We told this to the girl upstairs, she tried her key in a ground-level apartment, and IT worked as well. It's obvious that all of the locks in the complex are identical. My question: IS THIS COMMON? ETHICAL? LEGAL? I don't know what to do because ON TOP OF THAT, my neighbors and I suspect the landlord's wife has been entering the apartments and snooping around without consent of the tenants. She (the landlady) sits in her house across the street and watches the activity of the tenants, monitors when we come and leave, and when we have visitors. To an extent, I don't care....however, she has taken it to an extreme. She gave one tenant an ultimatum: The young woman's boyfriend is forbidden from visiting (because the landlady believes overnight visits are unethical and inappropriate) and has threatened to raise her rent. There is nothing in the lease about a visitation policy OR rent change. I feel like the landlady is invading the privacy of all of the tenants and has stepped way beyond her bounds. I realize there may be a lot to address in this situation, so any advice about anything would be appreciated. Thanks for reading this lengthy explanation.... -Matt
: PS....this is my first apartment, so I have no experiences to which I can compare this.
I had a similar situation when I rented an apartment above a tailor shop in a small town west of Philadelphia. The landlord had the habit of entering the apartment with out notice claiming that he had the right to do so because he said he could hear water running in the apartment. I even went to the trouble of making it seem like I was leaving for the day yet returned immediately to discover that he had once again entered my apartment. I was told that his entering was within legal limits providing it was to do repairs or to check on an emergency situation. This was also my first apartment. He even entered once when I was showering claiming-He heard water running. Although there was not alot that I could do legally, I went to the local RadioShack and purchased a very inexpensive intrusion alarm and had it rigged to a very loud siren in the kitchen area near the door. All signs of his entering the apartment stopped shall we say abruptly and I was able to finish my year's end without further intrusion.
Follow Ups:
Note: Posting is disabled in all archives
Post a Followup