Posted: 7/14/2011 9:03:39 PM EDT
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We live in an apartment. I go to take a shower tonight and there's fresh caulk around the mixing valve and faucet. I call the building manager to raise hell, and he doesn't know anything about it, but said that the maintenance person was doing some plumbing work in the apartment below mine.
We never got a notice, a note that anyone had entered, or a phone call. A fire or broken pipe would constitute an emergency. Running a bead of caulk is maintenance, and we're supposed to get advanced notice prior to entry. The guy didn't want to make a trip back for a ten minute caulk job, so he just decided to let himself in. I expect to get no response out of the management company when I contact them tomorrow, and honestly there isn't much they could do that would restore my confidence. What happens if I go to the police station and file a complaint? |
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Absolutely sure it was not a plumbing emergency?
Interested in anyone here that may have handled something like this as I had a similar thing happen to me, but many more times than once. The guy must have felt entitled, because a lot of the neighbors I talked to had the same problem with him. Mostly the naive ones like myself at the time, younger kids, early 20's. Even caught the guy leaving my apt and locking the door back up one day, only to find nothing done to my apartment inside. What the hell did he do in there, I don't know. Property management and landlady could have cared less, I reported it a couple times. Never called the police. Thinking back, I should have, but that was many many years ago and I was just a kid. It took walking in to the muzzle of a .45 to help him change his mind on doing that again. That however caused some bad blood between the property manager and I. Lived there 6 years and that last year after the incident wasn't all that great. Never got anything fixed right, got treated like dirt by the manager and landlady. Can you even feel comfortable in that living situation anymore? |
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Quoted:
Absolutely sure it was not a plumbing emergency? One would be hard pressed to explain how running a bead of caulk around the trim ring of the mixing valve constituted an emergency. That area barely gets water splashed against it. Even if the emergency status were to be granted, they may have a legal requirement to communicate with the tenant in order to make entering the premises a non-criminal act. Quoted:
Can you even feel comfortable in that living situation anymore? We've lived here eight years. Always paid on time. Never been any problem. Whether they had a legal requirement or not, I would expect that nearly a decade of honorable dealings would warrant the courtesy of a phone call, and now that it hasn't, I don't think it would ever be reasonable to assign them any trust. There's some jackhole with a key to my place that feels empowered to make unilateral decisions about whether or not he comes in, and doesn't feel the need to communicate that he's done so. That is probably the definition of an uncomfortable living situation. We had a regular annual lease for three years and then went month to month with an agreement to give 60 days written notice prior to vacating, and not to vacate between Nov-Feb. So I'm relatively liquid in my ability to leave even if I honor that arrangement, and it's quite possible that their B&E constitutes a breach of the arrangement and releases me from my obligations. The place has been too small for us for a long time, but it's convenient. At a minimum it's time to go. At a maximum I'll be the complainant in criminal proceedings against the offender, and consult an attorney to determine if he was acting as an official agent of the management company; making them civilly liable for his actions. I'm QUITE displeased. |
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Quoted:
Change your locks. Don't mention it. this is what i did when i rented. if the land lord needed access he can call me. if it is a emergency and they have to kick the door in, i will pay for it. when you rent, you own the inside of the building. there is no reason the land lord should be in there without my knowledge of it. not once did i ever have a problem after the locks were changed |