is it legal for landlord to spy on us?
Posted: June 30th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Protect Or Eliminate | Tags: landlord, legal | 7 Comments »me and 2 of my friends are renting a house in orange county, california.
we are all young professionals in our 20s
we have friends over/ staying over and boyfriends staying over from time to time
but our landlord, keep bugging us.
he and she (they are old asian couple) will call one of us randomly and constantly about wanting to come over,
they’re saying they wanted to just look around..etc
yesterday (labor day)
the landlord called one of my roommate , and saying he/she was in the area, and would like to come check out the house.
because he claims that “he got a letter from the community saying that there are a lot of students living in this house”
when we know for a fact that its impossible for the HOA in this community to state such a thing, because i have another friend living in a 3 bed room in the same community with 6 students + friends hanging around. (ours is a 4 bed room.),
we also know that the landlord is friends with the family across from our place, because we’ve seen them chatting and the landlord lives about an hour away from us, so there is no way he’d see anything, unless his friends was spying on us. (the landlord has asked us things that he could only knew if he’s seen/ or heard.)
any how my roommate was in norcal, i was 2 states away from california. basically no one on the lease was home besides one of our friend who’s staying over at the time.
after the the landlord called my roommate, he just went to our place and knocked on our door , even after my roommate told him that no one is home.
our friend opened the door to the knock, and the landlord just came in and walked around the house. without any of us being there but our friend.
i mean, so we have people, friends over,
there is no clause on the lease saying that we cannot have friends over or anything
we’re not even loud, we dont even have parties.
is it legal for the landlord to spy on us like this ????
is there anyways or anything that we can do to protect us ?
i really dont feel safe, even though we live in one of the safest city in the states.
thank you ..
please help us .
thanks for all the inputs,
ill be reading the link by PS3 Fanboy.
we’ll see how this goes
because this is not the first time that the landlord has trying to look around the house, and we dont treat our house like a frat house,
It is illegal. Check your local landlord tenant laws.
Here in FL the landlord has to make an appointment 24 hours ahead of time and has to make it reasonable (before 6:00pm).
They are not allowed to pop by unannounced unless it is explicit in the lease.
This sounds very intrusive and a violation of the landlord tenant act. I live in FL so I don’t know California law.
Read over this source:
http://www.hud.gov/local/ca/renting/tenantrights.cfm
If it continues then contact an attorney.
EDIT:
There is a lot of misinformation going around here by people who are not professionals. I am a professional Realtor and property manager in FL. I know FL law but not California law. It is not a violation of the lease to have people stay at your house for an extended stay. The only people that are allowed to have that as their residence are the people on the lease. You can also add people to the lease after the fact.
The HOA may very well have laws governing the community. If a nosy neighbor feels those laws have been violated they can contact the Association and thus contact your landlord.
You can call the association and get a cop of the covenants and restrictions.
If the link I provided does not help I would consult a Real Estate attorney.
Do not believe the misinformation here from most of these people. They are not professionals.
The land lord must give you 24 hours notice before they enter the unit/house. They can put the house under all the surveillance that they want, but to enter, they must give you 24 hour notice.
Your landlord is not spying on you. He is verifying whether you have people living in the house that are not on the lease, which is a violation of the lease terms. It doesn’t matter how many people live in a house across the street or whatever. That is between that tenant and their landlord. The agreement you have is with your landlord.
I would imagine that someone (perhaps the neighbor who knows your landlord personally) called your landlord to report that there seems to be a lot of people coming and going at your house as though they live there. It’s then perfectly legal for the landlord to investigate this complaint. A landlord can come into the property whenever he wants, usually with 24-hours’ notice to the tenant. And, if they just stop by when no one is home, they have the right to enter their own property.
You had better take a look at your lease and see who’s on it as tenants. And, don’t let people come over to stay at your place for any length of time (more than a day or so) who are not on that lease. Otherwise, you are in violation of the lease and your landlord will then have the right to evict you with a 30-day notice.
Your landlord has a right and duty to know what is happening in his/her rental.
While you lease may not address visitors or over night guest (which I’m sure it does)…it also does not state that you can have who ever you want stay over whenever you want.
Why don’t you fee safe? Has your landlord threatened you with physical harm?
Simple answer to your problem is….STOP treating your apartment like a frat house and the landlord will leave you alone.
No, once it’s rented it becomes a private residence and he will have to make an appointment to visit, and he certainly can’t walk in uninvited. You can call the police and have him arrested. So long as you pay your rent on time he has nothing to say. You can call your local housing authority and file a grievance against them.
The first 2 above are correct, the others are morons – I will add an additional one – tell your landlord they CANNOT come over because they are harassing you and as a woman – you and your roomates feel violated.
Allow them to make a specific appointment, and to describe why they are coming over. “Just taking a look” is not a valid reason to enter your legal domicile, not theirs, regardless of who owns it. Once they rent, they must abide by California laws, of which are extremely sided with renters, not property owners.
Paul – you are an idiot.
The landlord is doing nothing illegal. We have neighbors calling us all the time, and even other tenants regarding the behavior of our tenants. Other people don’t want a lot of traffic in and out of other tenants apartments, because it disturbs them, and they worry about drugs being sold. Also, “one of your friends” shouldn’t even be answering your door when no one on the lease is home. He shouldn’t even be in their, he is not on the lease. Further, if a “guest” stays for an extended period of time, you will be violating your lease. As far as entering your apartment, they should give a 24-hour notice, but if they don’t, and they come to your door, you do not have to let them enter. Just tell them, by law, they have to give you notice. According to California law, advance notice is not required if tenant is present and consents to the entry.