Megusic

The illegal or immoral acts line has been on every lease (mine or friends) that I have seen since starting college, it's not something I've never worried about - it also says no holes in the walls (college housing w/ nothing on the walls, yeah right) and that kegs aren't allowed in the apartment (ha) and that we are allowed to have no more people in the place at one time than twice the number of tenants (meaning in my apartment the maximum number of people here at one time can be 6, big HA).

The thing w/ the dickhead walking in all the time is crap for sure though. In WI landlords have to give 24 hour notice or we don't have to let them in.

Loren Pechtel

My impression is that they need to give notice if it's a non-emergency situation. I've only had a landlord (actually, the maintainence staff) in once when it wasn't a requested repair and it was part of some work on the AC system that had been announced well in advance.

Never

I left my first apartment because the landlord kept spying on me. I had started dating my (future) husband and she confronted me when my parents were visiting to announce that she wanted me out because we were sleeping together outside of wedlock. Funny thing is we were NOT. She couldn't believe that because - I later learned - her daughter was an unwed mother. If only I had known that for ammo at the time.
My parents and I were so mad we coudln't see straight at her invading my privacy.
So yeah, if it was me, I'd get out of there (and maybe flash him once before then).

RufusAtticus

faust,

You should also look into peeping tom laws.

trekbette

I have a vague memory of a couple with 3 kids trying to rent an apartment and they were turned down because they were not married. They sued the building owner and lost. Something to the effect that the state could not force a property owner to house people they did not want to. I personally think that opens the door to denying leases based on color, sex, handicap and other illegal acts.

ZiprHead

You really need to get some solid information on what your rights as a tenant are. Right now you're working blind.

Also, stick a chair under the door handle. It'll be interesting to see what he does when he can't get in.

Rhea

That is infuriating and immoral. It's WRONG even if it's legal. If I were you, I would wish for an opportunity for him to walk in on me doing something that he doesn't want to see, even if you have to be doing it yourself, if you know what I mean.

That's wrong wrong wrong. I'd be seriously tempted to have some things going on that would not be wise to walk in on. Opening the door into someone holding a pot of hot coffee (oops!) comes to mind.

Boy, I'm pissed FOR you!

I would certainly! start a log. Whenever he comes in, ask him what is his reason. Write it down with the date and time right in front of him. Ask him, "again"? and remark on how you need to log it in.

People will tend to evaluate their actions when they know they are being documented.

Catseye

That could get annoying. Still, there's a big difference between him coming round without warning and him letting himself in, without even knocking to see if you're home!

My last landlords had a similar type of attitude - 'we own the place, we can come round whenever we want'. They would frequently let themselves in when they knew we'd be out, claiming they were 'legally required for health and safety reasons' to change lightbulbs, check the water was running correctly, and check smoke alarms once every two weeks. They also demanded to come round weekly to collect the rent.

We wanted to stay on good terms with them, so we put up with this until they told us we were facing eviction for keeping the place in an 'unreasonable state' - the furniture wasn't being polished, there was a stack of newspapers on the table, and there were tissues under the bed. (They'd searched the place while we were away.) I told them they weren't to come round again unless we were there, and started making plans to move.

A couple of weeks later, we were away on the Friday (the day my landlords usually collected the rent), and phoned them to let them know. They were out, so we left a message on their answerphone saying that we'd be in any other day that week to give them the rent, and could they phone in advance to let us know which day they'd be coming round? They didn't phone, and arrived without warning the next Monday. They began screaming at me (literally) that we were completely unreasonable to expect them to arrange another day to collect the rent, and we should have left the money in the flat on Friday for them to let themselves in and collect. I said I wasn't happy with them coming in when we were out. One of my landlords shouted in my face "I own this place and I can come round whenever I want!"

He then said that he'd be 'bringing heavies' next time he came to pick up the rent. I shut the door in his face and called the police, who warned him off. We moved out.

Hopefully, you won't end up in this type of situation with your manager. If no other tenant has told him that he can't do what he's been doing, though, he might not take too kindly to you pointing it out. I second the advice to find out what your rights are as a tenant on this one. He might just be acting like this because you're new there, but if it continues, you'll want to make it pretty damn clear he doesn't have any legal right to do it.

Catseye

Ouch! I've been in a similar situation - the evil landlord from hell of the above post phoned me when I was staying with my parents (over Christmas) and complained to my mother, not me, that there were used condoms under the bed. There weren't. When I finally found out what he'd told my mother, I confronted him about it, and he said that he knew there must be used condoms there because he'd seen tissues. I said something like "Whatthearaeeeffwargle?" (being not the most coherent of people when somebody comes out with something like that), and he explained his reasoning.

He had friends who rented out a flat to students. When the students moved out, his friends saw tissues under the bed. When they moved the tissues, they saw used condoms. Therefore, because he'd seen tissues under our bed, and we were students, there must also be used condoms.

(He backed down eventually, and claimed it was just tissues after all. Still, though, to say it to my mother in the first place.... aaaagh...)

Godless Dave

Faust, if you haven't already, I suggest you start the practice of leaving he bathroom door open whenever you do #2. That'll teach him to walk in on you!

I personally feel that using a gun to scare someone is a bad idea. Guns are designed for killing people, not scaring them. Of course you have the right to defend yourself against an intruder, but I was always taught not to point a gun at someone unless I was prepared to kill them.