question about renting an apartment/maintenance of the apartment
 

So Im curious when you rent an apartment and you are scheduled for some sort of maintenance on the apartment but you are not home when the worker comes to your apartment are they legally allowed to let themselves in to the apartment to do the work?

Reason Im asking is my daughter was supposed to come over today but while she was out she got a call from the maintenance guy to tell her he was in her place to fix the A.C. She got really upset/angry that he would go in without her there and headed home so she could be there.

Generally they are supposed to notify you before hand, but yes they are within their rights to let themselves into the apartment for maintenance.

Yeah, that's pretty normal!

I would like to think though, that if you specifically told them you didn't want them in without you, they would respect that. But, I know that have a lot to do and they might not be willing to "work around" people's schedules.

Yep. That's the way it goes. The management has a master key so they can get in. Good reason to make sure you feel comfortable with the people managing the place when you decide to rent.

yea see that is what I told her too. I did not think it was a big deal but she was pretty upset he went in without her being there. I told her if she was worried about him stealing then not to leave anything out in the open but that from my own experience that has never been an issue. When I lived in an apartment there was an exterminator who came around like every three months or so and he would spray whether I was home or not.

you need to read the landlord/tenant laws in your area. Generally, they need to give you 48 hours before entering an apartment. They don't need your permission to enter but you do need to notified that they will going in. The exception is when something is hazardous or dangerous, then no notice needs to be given. Also look at the lease and see what requirements for notice are in there.

yep, most places they are legally allowed. We made sure in our lease to state that no maintenance could be performed without either us, the owner, or the leasing agent present to protect ourselves.

In the last apartment we lived in, there was a paper in our lease that we signed authorizing the maintenance men to come in if we were not home. But, they always gave us 24 hours notice that they were coming.

well she said she was going to talk to the apartment manager so Im sure she will explain to her that they are allowed to do that.

they were there to fix the AC so Im assuming she told them it was not working so Im not really sure why she would be upset if she requested the work to be done. Ill have to talk to her more later.

Yep, sounds normal to me!

Definitely sounds normal to me also!

ditto the other girls.. if she had a scheduled maintenance appt.. they can go in- clearly she was "notified" as she made the appt ^_^ it's not their fault that she wasnt there you know? time is money.

Tell her to get a dog. :)

Even though our apt place has the right to come in whenever they please per our lease, they never do since we have a dog. The dog would just lick them to death and pee on their shoes in excitement, but still. I understand her feeling 'icky' to have someone else creeping around in her apt, though.

I know that when we signed any rental agreement it was pretty standard. However, here they must give you at least 24 hours notice. Not sure what the laws are like there?!

oh gosh getting a dog where she lives in pretty expensive. There are two additional deposits required and they go according to the size of the dog. I know one is for the dog not sure what the other is for though. Her boyfriends sister was planning on moving there and she has a really small dog and I think her deposits would be 500 more then my daughters was without pets!!

to be honest when I lived in an apartment I was more worried the maintenance people would come in when I was in the shower, getting dressed or in bed or something then I was worried they would come while I was gone LOL

I have found that most apartment complexes do give you notice and then it's up to you whether you are home or not. It used to tick me off when I worked until 1am and my daughter was a baby; they use to come in the morning and wake us up! Back then, though, I was lucky because we had a huge dog and all the maintenance guys were afraid of him so they would ALWAYS make sure we would be home before they "stopped" by. LOL

Currently I rent a townhouse from a private owner however he has his own maintenance crew that works for him. They will normally call and set up an appointment however they do have a key and I have okay'd them to come in while I was at work. Normally I don't do that but we had a leak that had to be fixed asap.

Yep, totally normal.

the good thing is, apartment complexes typically hire maintenance people who are bonded. But still, it's good to have renters insurance, that way if anything is stolen you can be reimbursed, but I used to live in apartments and never really had a problem. I usually ended up being frustrated cause the maintenance people wouldn't come! LOL

I know that in the state of Florida if anyone enters your rental the land lord/rental angency/ect has to give you 24 hours notice that someone will be in your apartment. They are not allowed to just show up and let themselves in without giving notice (this even includes the land lord coming to the property).

We know this because our land lord would come and let himself in once a month and we caught him & he got fined and in some serious trouble because he did not give the proper notice.

I would say to look up your states laws/rights for renting and see what it says.

we live in florida too. I talked to her and she was upset because they already had a scheduled time for tomorrow. So I guess I can understand that. I told her though they have like 100 apartments in her complex I seriously doubt the guy would steal something and chance losing his job over it. She said that is the main thing she is worried about is something turning up missing.

Well that's kind of one of the "risks" of living in an apt complex. That's what renters insurance is for too. In all the random apartments I lived in through college and after, I never had a single thing go missing.

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We live on a military installation so I imagine it's different. When we signed our lease we either allowed them entry without us home, or declined having them come when we aren't home.

However with that said, Chain of Command and show up at our door and inspect the premises - inside and out, without any prior notice.

I worked at an apartment complex when we were first married, it is legally their property so they are allowed to enter whenever. Our maintanence men had us contact the owners 1st to let them know they were coming. Some tenants wanted to set up a time appointment, and we usually tried to work with that.

As far as pet deposit, they are high because usually when a tenant that had a pet moves out, they have to fully redo the carpet on that unit. WE would have people looking at apartments saying they had pet allergies and wanting a guarantee no pet lived in that apartment. While we did have lists of those apartments legally having pets, others "snuck them in". So there was no guarantee. We would told them, one way to get as close to no pets as possible, look for an apartment with new carpet. The rent went up some, but it was usually a guarantee the past tenants had pets and they redid most of the apartment.

If something were to come up missing, the front office keeps tabs of which maintanence person was in that apartment (they have paper work they have to file saying what apartment they were in, what they did in said apartment, time it took etc). So if something came up missing, she could contact the office about it.

Just saying this is a super old thread brought back by a suspicious comment above...

Good eyes!!!! I noticed the odd comment but never looked at the dates!

I saw that too and had reported the comment above when I made my post.