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A month after signing another year-long lease, my landlord decided he was selling the home we're living in. We weren't informed of any plans to sell the home prior to re-signing the lease, and we would not have stayed in the home if we had known they were going to be selling it.
I work from home and have a two-year-old child, and in the past two months they have had over 10 different people out giving different estimates for them, property inspections, and whatever else. They tried to sell the house to another investor first, but that investor didn't want to buy because there's too many issues with the home I guess, so now they're trying to sell to another investor. I know I'm lucky they aren't selling it to private parties as we'd have to deal with even more showings and such (but I can't really understand why they would sell a month into a year-long lease in the first place).
It's extremely inconveniencing for me, needless to say stressful to have all these strangers traipsing in and out of my home. It's stressful, they are waking my child up, they're waking me up as I work at night after he goes to sleep, and they are interrupting my daily schedule. We pay good money to live here, and our quiet enjoyment of the property is being ruined by the constant interruptions, phone calls, people just coming by and knocking on the door without us even being informed anyone is coming out and etc. (I know there's a "reasonable time" notification law in Texas, which I am going to speak with them about again. After today I am no longer allowing people on the property unless I've been informed directly by property management that someone will be coming out at a certain time, as it's honestly dangerous to have strangers on my property and in the home that we currently have legal rights to.).
They had a property inspector come out last week (this was the 2nd one) and this guy turned our heater on in the middle of 98-degree weather, and informed us we would have to leave it on for fifteen minutes. He also ran hot water in all of my tubs and showers, ran a full dishwasher load, and left every single light in the house on, and I was not compensated for any of that. That's something else I would like compensation for, really.
I emailed the manager of our property management company this morning to ask about a reduction in rent for the inconveniences, which would make it a lot less painful for me to be so disturbed all the time, but I was wondering if I am out of line for asking this, or does it seem like a reasonable request? I know I certainly wouldn't be quite as bothered and upset by paying so much money to live here and to not have the quiet enjoyment of my home if they would give us a reduction.
You need to enforce the legal statute which decrees that you are to be given 24 hours of any such visits (and that includes that of the "property inspector"). I have no idea how successful you'll be in getting a rent reduction but there certainly is a law in place to protect you from the interruption of unexpected potential buyers or anybody else unless in case of emergency.
You'll find the TX landlord tenant laws linked in the first "sticky" on this forum.
Thank you for replying. Hopefully they consider the rent reduction or other compensation to be reasonable, because I could certainly make this process less... peaceful for them if they aren't willing to accommodate me. We're wonderful tenants who keep the property clean, cared for, and pay rent on time every month. There's no reason to bother us.
You're making it too easy for them. I bet they knew it would go up for sale, and wanted that lease in place first. Weenies.
The good news is, you have a lot of leverage here, by being able to not answer the door, or demand 24 hours notice, etc. So, you can tell them they can let you break the lease, or they can give you a fat rent reduction for being cooperative. You decide what that's worth to you.
I feel like I am making it too easy on them as well. And you're right, I'm sure they did want to put it up for sale too so that they would have someone living here while they tried to sell it to a new investor.
After today, they had FOUR different people come in today just to do bids and such... they're wanting to do small-cosmetic repairs such a a toilet that has a crack in it, that they half-arse repaired before we moved in and has been cracked since before we lived here, they want to replace that... yeah, that's not happening. Not unless they pay me $40 for the day that I'll be disturbed by them interrupting my day and life (which is how much we pay per day to live here).
I'm about to comb through my lease, because I know there are statutes in place that I have to let them in for certain types of repairs, but I believe those are only the ones that are affecting our health and safety. None of these cosmetic crap repairs the new buyer wants done is anything that is required to be replaced under this lease from what I read.
I am probably going to call legal aid too. I am not having any more days of FOUR strangers from FOUR different companies coming into my home. I want my money I pay to live here and be left alone in my quiet enjoyment back. My quiet enjoyment went out the window yesterday when the guy came pounding the door down without anyone letting me know he was coming, and then he left my backyard gate wide open... and then my quiet enjoyment was even further gone this morning at 8 a.m. when some guy called my phone and then just showed up pounding at 9 a.m... grr!
[quote=lethal_lesal;31553917]
I'm about to comb through my lease, because I know there are statutes in place that I have to let them in for certain types of repairs, but I believe those are only the ones that are affecting our health and safety. None of these cosmetic crap repairs the new buyer wants done is anything that is required to be replaced under this lease from what I read./QUOTE]
Read those state landlord laws! Nothing in your lease can supersede state law - as I mentioned earlier, you'll find the link right in the first "sticky" on this forum and that's your "bible".
I disagree. State law is state law and if any clause of a lease contradicts state law it can't be legally upheld.
Actually, there was a poster recently from a state where the law said the lease rules, and if the lease wasn't specific on something, then here's a law to use. Forget which state it was. I was surprised, too, but there you have it. I'm thinking it was Louisiana, but not sure.
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