Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I thought that the notice was required when the tenant was NOT home.
Since you ARE home, I don't feel that the landlord necessarily needs to give you notice. It would be nice, but I don't feel its required.
Its no different than the post-man ringing your bell to make a delivery that requires a signature. Or some door-to-door salesman doing his rounds.
Or soliciting to buy mormon bibles or whatnot.
You can always choose to simply ignore the knock at the door. If that call was THAT important.. why are you jeopardizing it by answering an announced stranger at your door??? Get your priorities in order man!
If they come in right away, THEN its a major problem.
Nonsense. Maybe you should work on getting your priorities in order by researching landlord tenant laws about entry before expressing the "feelings" you have which are irrelevant.
I thought that the notice was required when the tenant was NOT home.
Since you ARE home, I don't feel that the landlord necessarily needs to give you notice. It would be nice, but I don't feel its required.
Its no different than the post-man ringing your bell to make a delivery that requires a signature. Or some door-to-door salesman doing his rounds.
Or soliciting to buy mormon bibles or whatnot.
You can always choose to simply ignore the knock at the door. If that call was THAT important.. why are you jeopardizing it by answering an announced stranger at your door??? Get your priorities in order man!
If they come in right away, THEN its a major problem.
I don't think that's true - I think the notice applies whether or not a tenant is home - how would the landlord know unless they have GPS on the tenant ?
I answered the door (I'm female, btw) because they might have come in regardless.
What a lot of daft comments and particularly when the information is easy enough to find on a quick google. North Carolina landlord tenant laws require that unless in the case of emergency, landlords are required to give tenants minimum 24 hours written notice of intention to enter the premises.
I don't blame the OP for being ticked off as this wasn't an emergency but a call to make a repair which could very easily have been scheduled and of which she could have been advised even if a definite time might not have been able to have been given. I very much doubt that she would have been ticked off if the LL had even called her the night before and said, "I'll be coming by with the repairman some time tomorrow between 10 and 2 if that's OK", but a mere unannounced arrival of course is both rude, intrusive and certainly cause for reminding the LL of the laws.
Thank you! That's what I thought, it's usually 24 hours anywhere. I would have been grateful for the repairman to come had I gotten a call - I might have been able to reschedule other things, or negotiate a better time.
It could be worse. Once when I lived in my first apartment many years ago, I walked out the bathroom wearing only an untied robe, having just gotten out of the shower, to find my landlord sitting at my kitchen table. Good times!
I answered the door (I'm female, btw) because they might have come in regardless.
I've been both landlord and tenant and as a tenant who recently moved into a new place, one of the first things I did was install a simple chain on the entrance door so that, although my landlord has a key to the place, nobody can enter when I'm home.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NorasMom
Thank you! That's what I thought, it's usually 24 hours anywhere. I would have been grateful for the repairman to come had I gotten a call - I might have been able to reschedule other things, or negotiate a better time.
It could be worse. Once when I lived in my first apartment many years ago, I walked out the bathroom wearing only an untied robe, having just gotten out of the shower, to find my landlord sitting at my kitchen table. Good times!
My point exactly. Most of us are very reasonable when it comes to accommodating schedules when repairs are to be performed. As far as your untied robe entrance into the kitchen to find your LL sitting at the kitchen table, if that had happened to me years ago I would have stumbled through the experience somehow (which I'm guessing you did). Now that I'm much older and wiser I'd venture to guess that the incoming officials would find it quite understandable that the kitchen drawer housing the very sharp knives was upended on the floor and that the spreading pool of blood (not mine) was perfectly normal given the circumstances!
North Carolina landlord tenant laws require that unless in the case of emergency, landlords are required to give tenants minimum 24 hours written notice of intention to enter the premises.
Would you be so kind as to post the URL for your reference?
Thanks.
Nora'smom, unfortunetly, your in a grey area of NC law. Notice to entry is required where the LL is intending to enter the unit. But that is known as the entry over objections which means they are telling you that at a certain time, they are going to enter the unit. If the notice is properly given in the p[roper timeframe, you have little rights to object. However, you have a entry by agreement situation which is when they ask if they can enter to take care of the problem and you have every right to say no. So long as they are not demanding entry as a right, you have absolutley no legal leg to stand on.
Lets say you called the LL and said that your window is stuck. Their contract repaiman is working on a unit down the hall and knocks on your unit to see if they can make the repairs. If not according to the law for notice, you can say no. Just like you can say yes. There is nothing in NC law that prohibits the LL or their staff from knocking on your door to ask permission to make a repair. The main point is that they ask and not demanded entry. There is also nothing in NC laws that indicate that you would prevail i9n any complain againt the LL or their staff because it wasn;t a demand. That is what I think some have confused. The required notice is when a demand action is happening, but this is clearly a request for permission.
As for the general issue of them knocking on your door while your working, absolutely meaningless since there are no real laws (special exceptions may apply to certain specifics) that prohibits anyone from knocking on a door. This is clearly more a case of you being upset because of the call you were on and the resulting disconnect and fear for your job. That appears to be why your frustration is being taken out on a extreme stretch of the "notice" requirment aimed at the LL and staff even when all common sense says otherwise.
If I had any notice I wouldn't be angry, so though I would have little right to object, I wouldn't have objected (even if I had to hold the stupid meeting with me on my cell phone in the car) (extreme example). I have no intention of making any sort of complaint against them, I just want them to leave me alone when I'm working. This is a really interesting issue, though. I think this is not in the case in other states. I remember in NJ it was specially spelled out that notice must be given.
The issue isn't meaningless though (I guess you mean in a legal sense). Common sense to me means they know I work from home, and there is no reason why they couldn't have notified me in advance...in fact, she left a message for me this morning and said she'd call me this afternoon - not that she'd show up!
I think many are confused because although almost all states have something about notice to enter, its specific to a demand of entry which is they are comming in. But if they are asking permission, they made no demand or using their right of entry, they are simply asking permission. So long as it occurs at reasonable times, under reasonable reasons, for reasonable actions, you have no right to expect that people won't knock on your door. Who the people are does not matter since your door is your units entry point and thats the proper way to annouce their presence. had they knocked on your window while ona ladder asking of they can come in, you may have had a reason to be upset, but knocking on your door, its just unthinkable that that upsets a person. As for working from home, most laws don;t offer any special protections to work at home people so thats not even something you can cause a fuss over. It comes down to reasonable actions and knocking on a door to see if yuor home to ask permission to make a repair is well within reasonable under any circumstances.
I just want them to leave me alone when I'm working.
Maybe a real big "Do Not Disturb" door hanger thing...
that you can prop up by the curb?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
