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Landlord question — Brooklynian

Landlord question

brookfetish
brookfetish
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
We love our landlord. Great brother combo. Pretty responsive. Gave us a preferential rate on our lease renewal.

However, when we returned home yesterday, we realized that someone had been in the apartment. My wife called the landlord, and he said it was him. He was doing "apartment inspections". Now, he didn't tell us that he was going to be there at all.

I find that slightly annoying...but I'm also not even sure if it's legal?

Does anyone know what the law says?

EDIT: this isn't the first time one of the brothers has entered our apartment without telling us.

Comments

  • daver
    daver
    Sounds bogus to me, you may need to check your lease though.
    RIGHT TO PRIVACY

    Tenants have the right to privacy within their apartments. A landlord, however, may enter a tenant's apartment with reasonable prior notice, and at a reasonable time: (a) to provide necessary or agreed upon repairs or services; or (b) in accordance with the lease; or (c) to show the apartment to prospective purchasers or tenants. In emergencies, such as fires, the landlord may enter the apartment without the tenant's consent. A landlord may not abuse this limited right of entry or use it to harass a tenant. A landlord may not interfere with the installation of cable television facilities. (Public Service Law §228) .
    http://www.oag.state.ny.us/realestate/habitability.html
  • bunnycup
    bunnycup
    The general rule is that once you sign a lease and take possesssion, you have the exclusive right to control access to the apartment, and thus the landlord may not enter without your permission. This is qualified by specific exceptions:

    -A landlord may enter at any time without notice for an EMERGENCY;
    -A landlord may enter to make necessary, non-emergency repairs (or to show an apartment to a potential future tenant) after giving notice (I cannot confirm the exact amount of notice required).

    This is not legal advice - I used my superlawyer powers of entering "new york housing landlord entry" in a google search box, and reported here the answer from the first link.
  • gc72
    gc72
    I think landlords are supposed to check with you before entering your apartment when you're not there. All of the property management companies I've rented from in the past have, and I expect my future landlord to too (Hi, AW :wink:). But I don't know if it's just a matter of courtesy or something legal.

    Try posting on http://tenant.net/phpBB2/.
  • brookfetish
    brookfetish
    I'm mostly just curious. I doubt I'll do anything, as I'm in a stabilized apartment, and I really don't want to give them any reason to strong-arm us out.
  • dakotas way
    dakotas way
    Bunnycup and GC72 are right on the nose. At the very least, you should be given 24 hours notice before the landlord enters with your approval and otherwise only come in without notice in an extreme emergency and then should still call you first to advise.

    Also, how did you know he was in the apartment if he was just doing an inspection? Did he touch or move your things? Cause he has no right to do anything during an inspection like that other than look around.
  • brookfetish
    brookfetish
    dakotas way wrote: Bunnycup and GC72 are right on the nose. At the very least, you should be given 24 hours notice before the landlord enters with your approval and otherwise only come in without notice in an extreme emergency and then should still call you first to advise.

    Also, how did you know he was in the apartment if he was just doing an inspection? Did he touch or move your things? Cause he has no right to do anything during an inspection like that other than look around.
    Good question. We might never have known...but he locked the 2nd lock on our door, which we never do. In fact, my wife didn't even have that key with her, so she had to wait over an hour for me to get home.
  • stacey
    stacey
    BrookFetish wrote: [quote=dakotas way]Bunnycup and GC72 are right on the nose. At the very least, you should be given 24 hours notice before the landlord enters with your approval and otherwise only come in without notice in an extreme emergency and then should still call you first to advise.

    Also, how did you know he was in the apartment if he was just doing an inspection? Did he touch or move your things? Cause he has no right to do anything during an inspection like that other than look around.
    Good question. We might never have known...but he locked the 2nd lock on our door, which we never do. In fact, my wife didn't even have that key with her, so she had to wait over an hour for me to get home.

    Brook if you dont want to rock the boat maybe explain to them in such a way that they will call you when then enter like "please let me know next time you are going in because my wife came home and thought there was a stranger in there and almost called the police." Make sure they have your cell #'s and work numbers.

    PS - Last time I saw you she was your fiance - congratulations on the wedding!
  • brookfetish
    brookfetish
    stacey wrote:
    Brook if you dont want to rock the boat maybe explain to them in such a way that they will call you when then enter like "please let me know next time you are going in because my wife came home and thought there was a stranger in there and almost called the police." Make sure they have your cell #'s and work numbers.

    PS - Last time I saw you she was your fiance - congratulations on the wedding!
    That's a good idea.

    Thanks...we got hitched in May!
  • bunnycup
    bunnycup
    I like Stacey's idea too - not aggressive or fighting words, but gets the point across in a reasonable, rational way.
  • boogieknight
    boogieknight
    As a landlord myself, just wanted to chime in.

    If they've been cool before and nothing is missing or broken, chill.

    I always give prior notice before repairmen/exterminators come, but I know I've missed/forgotten a couple of times and after knocking/announcing quite loudly and at length, I've gone into my tenant's place.

    I've also entered when they've been oput after hearing loud/weird noises or investigating that electircal work hasn't knocked out power to weird parts of the house. In short, if they're cool and its not a regular thing, there's toms of legit reasons for a landlord to pop in on the rare occasion.

    No reason to freak out. The suggestion about asking for a phone call or note afterwards is excellent.

    (All this in a brownstone setting, but probably applies to large buildings as well.)
  • mateo
    mateo
    I would say it depends on how often your definition of, "rare occasion" is. Once every other year because you forgot to notify? Sure. More often than that? Gets sketchy. Because for all intents and purposes, it isn't your property for the duration of the lease.

    I guess the flip side is how often would you be cool and chill with your tenant paying rent three weeks late?

    But add another vote for Stacey's clear, but gentle, language in addressing it.
  • dakotas way
    dakotas way
    Sometimes as a landlord you have to give a tenant a few extra weeks to pay rent in extreme circumstances. Everyone runs into hard times at one time or the other.
  • bunnycup
    bunnycup
    Since it's illegal in every scenario other than (a) EMERGENCY, or (b) after giving reasonable notice, I don't think there is any legit reason for the landlord to pop in on the rare ocassion. It seems to me that what is "illegal" is simply not "legit".

    I'm not implying Boogie or any other LL automatically has any nasty intentions, but I pay a LOT in rent and one of the things I am buying is exclusive use of the apartment, including freedom from having LL poke in whenever they feel like it.
  • mateo
    mateo
    That's why I analogized to the paying rent scenario. You're legally obligated to pay your rent in order to maintain the lease. But especially in a brownstone situation where the landlord/tenant relationship is also one of neighbor/neighbor a bit of trust and cushion can (although doesn't always) creep in. If it doesn't, fine. Go by the law. Easy answer. But if there is some give in the relationship, and it is a truly rare and honest mistake that they forgot to notify you that they were having the exterminator come in, then that's fine, too. It just depends upon what the reality of the situation is and the irregularity of the occurrences.

    Obviously, Brook's LL is coming in a little more than he feels comfortable.
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