Can Property Management Enter Your Apartment?

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The Unsettling Property Management Question

This week’s question is on every tenant’s mind. This investigation is such an unsettling one and could be a tenant’s worst nightmare. This week’s question is, can property management enter your apartment? However, it also has a very complex answer. The answer is yes, but only for legitimate and reasonable purposes.

The Unsettling Property Management Answer

According to Rocket Lawyer, there are four principal reasons why a resident must let a landlord enter their property. For example, a property manager can enter a tenant’s apartment if they check out the property, check for maintenance repairs, give the occupant a good or service, or show the property to a potential renter. They can also enter under a court order or if the tenant has been gone for a while or missing.

The Biggest Pain Points

These sound like good intentions for a landlord to enter a tenant’s apartment; however, there are many pain points when this happens. The first pain point, and arguably the most important, is the right to privacy. For example, if you had a long day at work or school, you’re going to want to relax when you get home. Getting a knock on the door from your landlord is the worst feeling even while you’re resting. Unfortunately, this will probably happen to every tenant while they’re renting a property. Don’t forget that a landlord can message a tenant in advance when entering their apartment through Estelle.

The second pain point is one of the reasons why a landlord can enter a tenant’s apartment. This reason is maintenance. As said in last week’s blog, maintenance alone is a pain point for both the landlord and the tenant. Depending on how big the problem is, a landlord can be in a tenant’s apartment for a long time, maybe even with a contractor, and you will have no privacy.

The third pain point is eviction. Eviction mainly happens when a tenant doesn’t pay the rent. However, a landlord has every right to evict a tenant if they don’t pay their rent so that this pain point could stand on both sides.

The fourth pain point is another realm of the property management industry we haven’t discussed yet and deserves another section.

The Fourth Pain Point: University

The last pain point is if the tenant is a university student. Most universities in the United States and Europe have someone called a residential advisor (RA) in the dormitories. These people are usually students but act as landlords and make sure the dormitory is in order. Sometimes, RA’s are super cool and rarely bother university students. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. Some RA’s will find every reason to get a student in trouble, especially first-year students. These random occurrences can be extremely painful and annoying for a student who wants to have some sort of privacy in their room or hang out with friends in their room. Of course, if a student is doing something against the rules or illegal, an RA has every right to enter their room and punish them. The same goes for a student living in an apartment or house because they will have some sort of landlord.

Conclusion

Every tenant will have their landlord enter their apartment at some point while they’re renting a property. This is a part of the living experience. So always make sure your landlord is entering your apartment with good reason and make sure they are following the laws of entry. A tenant’s rights in Europe are found here and a landlord can always tell a tenant when they are coming to their property in advance through Estelle. In fact, if a tenant’s landlord uses RoomMate Estelle, they have access to a bunch of communication features with their tenants including paying the rent, sharing and signing all necessary documents, creating maintenance requests, managing deposits, a much more!