Question regarding legal rights of showing my current apartment (apartments, rental)
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I am not renewing my lease that is set to expire then end of October. I rent from an owner in a co-op building. He sent me an email saying "manager will now be showing the apt. to prospective new tenant during regular hours (9am - 6 pm) Monday - Saturdays. Thanks in advance for your cooperation."
Is it they must give me 24 hour notice of when they will show the apt?
Can I request to be home for the showing?
You rent private market rate property, to which the rent laws do not (normally) apply.
Access to the apartment is governed by the lease agreement. If the there is no provision in the lease governing access, with the purpose of showing to prospective tenants, then you are not obligated to do so.
Can you set some ground rules, like X hours notice or X number of showings daily.
Usually a generic clause would have said "reasonable notice"
Thats vague but both sides should work with the other in reason (tenant should allow access, agent should respect set access guidelines). I would insist on being there myself.
I would find every way possible to deny access to my apartment while I am living there as a renter. I don't want a realtor and a bunch of strangers walking through my apartment with their dirty shoes with all of my personal belongings there....i.e.- tv, computers, pictures, and other personal/sensitive stuff out in the open, even if I'm there!!!!
In all the prospective apartments I have been to see in my prospective apartment search has always been vacated and for the most part cleaned out completely, repainted, floors refinished, bathrooms and kitchen wiped down and disinfected etc.
I've steered away from apartments that were presented to me messy and run down, especially with stuff left behind by the former tenant.
Back to the original topic, it looks like the landlord doesn't want to lose rental income with your apartment being vacant after you officially move out and vacate your apartment... which is unfortunate, but as the previous posters above have mentioned, read thru the terms of your lease. On the other hand if I owned the apartment and was looking to sell, I would definately be home for the showing as I will be the one selling the place!!!
"Reasonable notice" has often been held to be 24 hours. I doubt you can demand they come only when you are home, but I am SURE that you can BE home when they come but that might involve a lot of tedious schedule shuffling on your part.
If you work, why not try to have the agent schedule all appointments on Saturday when you can be there...WITH proper notice of timing. If he balks simply say IN WRITING that you don't want to risk theives casing your apartment without being present.
But someone had an interesting post a while back:
"Simply say NO if you don't want people disturbing your peace and quiet for 2 months. Your landlord can take you to Housing Court and a judge will order you to do what you have to do. But by that time the issue will likely have become moot since you will be long gone...these things don't move fast. If you ARE still there, just do what the judge says."
Personally, all the lease renewal notices I have ever read have been self terminating, i.e. "unless you do such and such by Oct. 31, you will deliver the apartment to landlord and vacate the apartment on that date." What that MEANS in plain English is that you must do something if you want to stay but you need do NOTHING to end a tenancy...it is automatic and clearly in writing drawn up by the landlord.
So this "60 day notice" nonsense to leave is fantasy to benefit landords and torment tenants with things like this "apartment showing schedule" 63 hours a week.
I mean really, does NOT telling a landlord you are leaving when a lease SAYS you are leaving mean you are imprisoned in the apartment and cannot leave. Really? Because that is the logical extension. It would mean that all leases are AUTOMATICALLY self renewing unless tenants take action to STOP their renewal. But all lease renewal statments say EXACTLY the opposite. Legal documents are written to say precisely what they MEAN to say.
Has anyone EVER gotten a lease renewal that said "Unless you notify landlord within 60 days the assumption will be made the tenant is NOT leaving this lease will automatically renew for another year." Anyone?
Last edited by Kefir King; 09-10-2012 at 07:53 PM..
Okay I just read something in a agreement page I signed. I missed it because half was on one page and half on another.
"Landlord or overtenant or its agent may be entering the apt at reasonable hours to repair, exterminate, or perform other work that landlord deems neccessary or desirable. At reasonable hours overtenant or landlord may show apt tp possible or new tenants durning the last 4 months of the term. Entry by landlord must be on a reasonable notice except in emergency."
so I take it overtenant means the manager of the building?
It doesn't say anything about time notice, like 24 hours?
My landlord basically has only dealt with me via email a handful of times my whole lease. He was a landlord all about money and no personal relationship, never even met him and only spoke to him on the phone when deciding to take the apt, should I just talk to the manager regarding this matter than?
But someone had an interesting post a while back:
"Simply say NO if you don't want people disturbing your peace and quiet for 2 months. Your landlord can take you to Housing Court and a judge will order you to do what you have to do. But by that time the issue will likely have become moot since you will be long gone...these things don't move fast. If you ARE still there, just do what the judge says."
I highly do not recommend this. At least 95% of the landlords I work with in Manhattan will automatically deny any application if you have housing court on your record. Even if: the tenant had to take the landlord to court and had a letter explaining this or the tenant offered to pay the full year up front. The only to rectify this is if you get it removed from your record.
To the OP: See if you can set certain hours in the evening when you will be home. This also makes sense because most clients have to work during the day and can't see apartments until the evening. On the other hand, at least it sounds like the manager will be with the prospective tenants and realtors. To many times I have just been handed keys to an apartment with the trust to "lock the door behind me" and there is at least two emails a month from different management companies reminding us brokers to respect occupant's items and lock doors and turn out lights. I would never want a broker that I did not hand pick to rent/sell my apartment to have access to it.
Okay I just read something in a agreement page I signed. I missed it because half was on one page and half on another.
"Landlord or overtenant or its agent may be entering the apt at reasonable hours to repair, exterminate, or perform other work that landlord deems neccessary or desirable. At reasonable hours overtenant or landlord may show apt tp possible or new tenants durning the last 4 months of the term. Entry by landlord must be on a reasonable notice except in emergency."
so I take it overtenant means the manager of the building?
It doesn't say anything about time notice, like 24 hours?
My landlord basically has only dealt with me via email a handful of times my whole lease. He was a landlord all about money and no personal relationship, never even met him and only spoke to him on the phone when deciding to take the apt, should I just talk to the manager regarding this matter than?
Well then there it is. The lease requires you to show the apt. Yet, unless they have a key to the apt, how can they make you? You could simply never be available. You could clutter the place with boxes and such, making it unshowable.
If I recall, the overtenant is the coop, and the manager is the coop's agent.
Note, YOU can set the parameters! The lease does not stipulate that the apt must be shown with or w/o our presence. Only that you are required to allow access with reasonable notice.
Screen your calls, don't pick up when brokers call. Don't pick up if the LL or manager calls. Its just a few weeks anyway.
Now, all that said, the LL could sue you for damages, claiming you broke the lease by not allowing the apt to be shown. In order to be successful, he would have to prove that by your actions he lost a concrete tenant, interested in renting. Somewhat difficult to prove, that any of the potential tenants, indeed, w/h rented, and were prevented from doing so, by your action.
He w/h have a better case, if, over the required 4 months, he had been attempting to show the apt, and you refused for the full 4 months. Yet, we are talking just a few weeks. The liklihood of find a replacement tenant over Four months of diligent effort by the LL is great. The likelihood over a few weeks is much less, and a court will see it that way.
Very difficult to prove and win, BUT the LL could withhold your security deposit on the same basis. You, then, w/h to sue. Again, the LL w/h the problem of 'proof'.
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