Landlord entering tenant's apartment without permission

[rambone]

does she rent a house or an apartment?

Apartment.

 

[rjstew317]

the reason i ask is because when i lived in a apartment, the landlord would send out news letters that usually had a schedule for maintenance buried in it, so we didn't always see it, but it would suffice as a written notice. heck, a post-it on the door is good enough, doesn't mean you'll get the message

 

[rjstew317]

and there may be a clause in the lease that states they may enter to perform routine maintenance.

 

[Flintlock]

According to the Indiana Code, that is not good enough. Landlords are legally obligated to give "reasonable written or oral notice" before coming in uninvited. Pounding on the door and expecting to come in does not suffice.

Shouting LANDLORD after knocking for several minutes is reasonable oral notice in my book. The LL should be respectful of this though and it's best to just stop by and let the tenant know when you'll be by to fix things and such. Sometimes you run into tenants who refuse to answer the door, etc. and this method of entry must be used if work is to be done. I'm not going to let my houses go to crap just because you won't answer the door. If I need to do work on the place and you know it needs to be done but won't answer the door, tough, I'm coming in to do it.

Again, though, it all comes back to being considerate--both parties. LL respects tenants privacy, tenant respects LL's property and the maintenance requirements which come along with living in such a property.

 

[slmlrd]

I am a landlord and I have heard of other landlords doing this many times. I have my tenants phone numbers so on the rare occasion that I am coming by on short notice I can give them a call.

How many of you have ever done a check on your potential landlord? It has only happened to me a couple of times where a renter will ask to talk to other tenants to ask questions about the building, the neighborhood, and me. Usually people are so excited to get the apartment that they don't ask those kinds of questions.

Ask the neighbors how the landlord is about keeping up on maintenance and any other issues. If they have been there a while and give a good word then hopefully you won't be getting a PITA landlord.

 

[rambone]

Shouting LANDLORD after knocking for several minutes is reasonable oral notice in my book. The LL should be respectful of this though and it's best to just stop by and let the tenant know when you'll be by to fix things and such. Sometimes you run into tenants who refuse to answer the door, etc. and this method of entry must be used if work is to be done. I'm not going to let my houses go to crap just because you won't answer the door. If I need to do work on the place and you know it needs to be done but won't answer the door, tough, I'm coming in to do it.

Again, though, it all comes back to being considerate--both parties. LL respects tenants privacy, tenant respects LL's property and the maintenance requirements which come along with living in such a property.

I understand you need to keep your property maintained. Legal requirement don't really seem to match up to your method of entry.

The Indiana Code aside.... this "knock and enter" method is all sorts of rude, and potentially very dangerous as well. Here are a few rude/dangerous situations that could be completely avoided if you would just give 24-hour notice or get permission to enter.

• Kids home alone, and instructed to not answer the door. Parents are less than pleased to find you alone with them.
• Tenant was in the shower when you knocked, then they are startled to find someone in their home.
• Tenant doesn't answer because they are on the toilet, having sex, etc.
• Tenant works the night shift and is sleeping, only to be awoken to find somebody in their house. Pulls a gun.
• Tenant comes home to hear unexplained noises inside the apartment, pulls a gun.

I am so glad that my landlord doesn't pull that kind of crap with me. I would not have a sense of humor about finding someone inside my home.

 

[lane440]

The golden rule he who has the gold makes the rules . Its unfotunate that it takes money to protect your rites and land lords usualy know your finances . when i was younger i had a landlord problem and one day after an arguement with the landlords son i was taking a shower my power went out so i found my towel and about then i herd the son opening my door and yelling for me to get out and he shut off my power , well i had a lease and the power was in my name so by the i had lost my cool i got my gun went down stairs and told the son a thing or two , by then he could not wait to get out . After that no more probs .

 

[Eddie]

A lot of leases do contain a clause dealing with a "right to inspect" that usually requires 24 hours notice and a right to enter to make emergency repairs which has no notice requirement but demands that there be some sort of emergency like a gas leak or water leak.