my landlord wants to enter my apartment 6 months before the lease ends!!!! (Pittsburgh: real estate, apartments)

[maroonorange]

Hi everyone,

I am living in Pittsburgh for 1.5 year. In this half year, I moved from my previous apartment. My new lease is for 1 year and I had a notice recently from my landlord that states: He will show the apartment to new potential tenants beginning with the date of 02/01/2010. My lease ends in August 1, 2010. Does he has a right to enter into my house and show it to people before 6 months to my lease to end? This really disturbs me a lot as I am not familiar with these kind of laws, can someone please take me serious and answer me? It would be very very helpful.

Thank you very much

[Drover]

He has the right to enter it for any reason he wants, with sufficient notice. Do you happen to live in an area with a high concentration of student housing? It's common practice to start showing apartments to students in February or early March so that their housing is lined up well in advance of the next school year. that way they're not running around looking for housing right as school starts. In many university towns (or their functional equivalents within a larger city -- i.e. Oakland), if you don't have housing lined up for the next school year by April, the pickins' get real slim. And think of it this way, he'll probably already have a tenant lined up by March or April, so from April through July you won't have to worry about people traipsing in and out of your apartment any more.

[badguykc]

Originally Posted by maroonorange

Hi everyone,

I am living in Pittsburgh for 1.5 year. In this half year, I moved from my previous apartment. My new lease is for 1 year and I had a notice recently from my landlord that states: He will show the apartment to new potential tenants beginning with the date of 02/01/2010. My lease ends in August 1, 2010. Does he has a right to enter into my house and show it to people before 6 months to my lease to end? This really disturbs me a lot as I am not familiar with these kind of laws, can someone please take me serious and answer me? It would be very very helpful.

Thank you very much

Read your lease. Read it good. As Drover stated, the landlord has the legal right to enter your unit, for any reason, with sufficient notice.

If you're still unsure of your rights, then I would suggest maybe contacting an attorney.

[hnsq]

What is the big deal? Just let him show the apartment. He gave you sufficient notice...so why is this a problem?

Are you renting from Mozart by any chance?

[Faer]

He has the right to do this, but what doesn't make sense is why he would. It is generally more profitable, as well as easier, for a landlord to renew a lease rather than re-rent, as there won't be any in-between maintenance expenses or any gaps in unrented time that way.

I could be way off, but the only reasons I can think of that a landlord would be showing this early would be: he knows for certain you will not be staying, he wants to fix up the place and rent it for significantly more, he wants to recoup your deposit or you are just not a good tenant.

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by Faer

He has the right to do this, but what doesn't make sense is why he would. It is generally more profitable, as well as easier, for a landlord to renew a lease rather than re-rent, as there won't be any in-between maintenance expenses or any gaps in unrented time that way.

I could be way off, but the only reasons I can think of that a landlord would be showing this early would be: he knows for certain you will not be staying, he wants to fix up the place and rent it for significantly more, he wants to recoup your deposit or you are just not a good tenant.

My girlfriend had a landlord that started renting 6 months before the lease was up. He owned a building with around 100 units. He would rent half of them 6 months ahead of time and then dramatically raise the rent on the other half and tell people his apartements were so good that they rent out early. Enough people would get scared they would miss out on a great apartment that they would pay a higher price. After all - they must be good, half of the apartments are gone and it was 6 months before the lease was up!

Very shady, buy it gives some landlords a lot of extra cash...

[stevej64]

Don't let him in let him take you to court

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by stevej64

Don't let him in let him take you to court

Go to court for what?

What is the big deal? The landlord will have to rent the place out eventually...not letting the landlord in seems like you are just trying to pick a fight where there isn't an issue.

[Burghgirl17]

Originally Posted by stevej64

Don't let him in let him take you to court

On what basis?

It's an unfortunate fact of life when you're renting.

[greg42]

I don't think there's a big deal here either. If you're looking to stay and haven't expressed that, and he's going to start showing it, now would be the time to discuss that with him.

When I lived on Mt Washington I had to let a real estate agent in to show the house to a potential buyer (it was a house turned into two apartments). The landlord did alert me to this beforehand. It wasn't sold but even if it was it wouldn't have affected my existing lease a bit, at least not without a fair bit of notice.