Renting and landlords
 

My wife and I currently rent in a courtyard villa. Today as we are in the house my cats come in like something was wrong. I looked out the window and see the landlords in the courtyard weeding. We have been landlords for years and always gave 24 hrs notice when we were coming over. I can see if they are doing something out front without notice but coming into the rear courtyard. Don’t think this is right.

Well, what does your rental agreement say? They are not all the same.

Let me get this right
The land lords are pulling weeds and your upset
Guess my question is,
What if weekly landscape company was mowing and pulling weeds.
Would want 24 hour notice ?

Lease says 24 hrs notice. And it is concrete with a few weds coming through the cracks. Would you want you landlord just coming over. You pay rent to have privacy A call would have been sufficient.

As a landlord I never rent to anyone having a cat much less cats. They are very destructive in many ways: the scratching, urine and fecal odors, fur....

You are also fortunate your landlord weeds for you. It could be up to you and you apparently let the yard go.

Count your blessings!

You are correct the landlord should have given you notice, you have a right to privacy. You are also EXTREMELY fortunate to have found someone that would allow cats. My parents make their living with rentals. They have 12 rentals in NYC. They would rather have an apartment go empty for a year than allow cats. You are lucky.

Foolish landlord. That is one way to get hurt, people shoot you for less. Am I the only one who sees this?

"Officer, I saw this peeping Tom and felt threatened..."

His house, his rules. Read your lease before posting.


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I don’t see any difference from a lawn guy taking care of the lawn or the owner, it’s not like they wanted in the house. Our lawn guys don’t announce when they come and go.

I did read it. 24 hrs notice. And tenants do have rights. Just like my tenants did

There is no lawn. What are gates for. So anyone can just come into your gated area whenever they want.

Ok, you didn’t mention it. Did you call the landlord out ? If not, he’ll do it again.


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My wife wouldn’t let me. Lol. Next time I will if it happens.

Being a landlord and having a lease with my tenants, there is a 24 hours notice clause, but that is to enter the home, come inside.

If I had to give notice when my lawn guy goes to mow or pull weeds or trim shrubs, I can promise you it would never happen. And if you called him or me out for it, I would have you added to the renters blacklist we maintain for those undesirable tenants none of us want.

Then if it’s that upsetting you might have a conversation with them. After all posting here won’t get their attention, or give them an idea that you are this upset.

I wish someone would sneak into our yard and weed. Weeding is NO fun.

I agree...regardless... if the lease says 24 hr notice then that is what is expected! The landlord is collecting rent and should be polite to give notice!

You usually know when the lawn guy is coming. And like I said. There is no lawn. Coming through the gate is just like entering the home. There is a threshold. Once behind the gate you can see everything in the house. That’s why people put locks on them.

This is the normal situation, the standard clause in a residential lease all over the country. The 24 hour notice is for entering the home, not cleaning/weeding the yard.

I understand your point-but
 

We own our place. It seems to be acceptable by repair crews to just enter YOUR property and do repairs etc.

We certainly do not have the details. Who knows-perhaps you or the people around you complained about the weeds.

I would suggest you get over being angry AND THEN THINK HOW BIG OF DEAL YOU WANT TO MAKE OF THIS and is it worth it.

Nobody can see in and the tiny little weeds coming through the cracks in the concrete are not annoying. I pull them out when I go by. I am not angry just wanted to know if this was ok to do. States differ on these issues.

Does the lease allow you to have cats? Does your landlord know how many cats you have in the house? Are you keeping that or something else not allowed in the lease from him?

BTW, Entering the yard is not the same as entering a dwelling.

I doubt the owners saw their weeding as being any sort of an issue — whether there was a gate or not, yard maintenance is obviously their responsibility (and there were enough weeds in your backyard for them to have to be there a bit). Would you have been as upset had it been someone they hired just to do weeding? A person paid to pull weeds or trim frequently does not have a schedule when a job will be done — too many other factors involved such as weather, what else had to be done in a given week or day, etc. Be grateful they care enough to maintain the outside for you and let it go. If you don’t want them going behind your gate, do more than just pull a weed when you walk by — weed the courtyard and do whatever other outside maintenance is required yourself.

I love dogs and cats, but as a former rental CYV owner/landlord, I can't believe any landlord would allow even one cat, much less 2 or more.

As for entering the courtyard to weed without notice, there are service providers like monthly pest control, plant and shrub treatment and trimming, who go in and out all the time without 24 hours notice.

That landlord is probably doing the weeding so he can see what other damage is being done to plants, grass, trees, bushes....and to see whether the courtyard looks/stinks like a yard-sized cat box full of t*rds.

There is more to this story, I suspect.

Yes they know about the cats that’s why we didn’t want a furnished home. We always leave the place better than we received it. Have nothing to hide. When they do work in front of the house they usually knock and I invite them in. Nice people. Just felt a little strange having someone looking in at you when you don’t expect anyone to be there.

IMHO, you have a right to be concerned that anyone can come in the back yard of a CYV without prior notice...where you would otherwise expect privacy.

If it were me, I would read the lease again (and maybe state laws) with a magnifying glass...and see if there is something that allows the owner to come in the back yard at any time.

If not, I would put a combination lock on the gate...which you can unlock when not home in case of pest control/etc. :shrug:

I would also ignore those that are trying to make you feel guilty for expecting privacy...or questioning the legality of your pets.


I couldn't help but being reminded...of this recent post. :D

Now looking in the windows is a whole 'nother matter! You most certainly do have a right to privacy, especially within the curtilage of the home. There are landlords and there are landlords... For the sake of decency and common courtesy I would expect a planned schedule of some sort and a quick knock on the door.

Again, I do not know how the lease reads and whether the tenant or landlord is responsible for yard care.

By writing the original post, the person invited comments from others, and those comments aren't all going to be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.

There are two sides to every story, and the fact that the landlord was accommodating enough to allow cats says there is his side of the story, too.

Having 120,000 people here ALSO means the population is going to include at least .2% who think they are correct about landlord-tenant privacy expectations/laws, when they're not.

The OP's thread is NOT about cats!
His comment is about his right of privacy according to what his lease says.
The owner was wrong and I would have kicked his rear-end off the property.
In addition, you can't compare the owner entering the property unannounced versus a hired lawn service who would probably have to knock on your door to gain entry to the courtyard.
I am also assuming there is no lawn service employed to dig the weeds out of the cracks in the concrete.

Why would this landlord have to come into the courtyard to dig weeds out of the cracks in the concrete?
It would appear the landlord had an ulterior motive that made no sense.
I would be making plans to move; I wouldn't trust this landlord for a minute.

Waiting for our house to sell up north so we can purchase. Should be in contract to sell this week.

I am a landlord in The Villages. I would certainly give 24 hours notice , even for weeding. However, furnished or unfurnished, I would never allow renters to have any kind of pets, especially cats. Finding a landlord that accepts cats is truly special. I would have an honest and appropriate conversation with your landlord and iron things out... best of luck!

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YEP! :thumbup:



More yep. :agree:

The rental agreement say only professorial landscapers can pull weeds with out notice
All rental agreements I ever read were 24 hr right of entry not weed pulling

I bet land lord stops taking pets

I don't understand why you don't call your landlord and have a conversation with him. That is the path to resolution.

Surely u jest Mrs Robinson .. A tenant is going to attempt to kick the landlord off of his own property while he is in the process of maintaining it ? That would invoke an immediate acceleration / eviction process, with the tenants clearly being put on the DO NOT RENT TO list mentioned by another poster. No one will prevent me from walking on or maintaining my property.

Tenants DO Have Legal Rights
 

The real answer is knowing what the lease says and right now we only hear one side of that. My lease's clearly state that I must give 24 hours to enter the property.

It also clearly states that lawn, shrub, tree trimming and outside maintenance workers may enter the property to do required work between the hours of 7:30 AM and 5:30 PM, Monday through Saturday. It also states that work like pressure washing, garage doors, or any other outside/access work that requires working on the structure will be schedule with the tenant or after 24 hour notice. Any maintenance issues that involve any type of safety problem will be handle as quickly as possible with or without notice. Also states access with 24 hours notice to show prospective tenants the property within 7 days of lease termination. And a couple other items that involve access but are much less likely.

Now most landlords are reasonable people and we try to keep our tenants happy. 90% plus of my renters are repeats because of that. Most of the time when inside work is required they just tell me to come and do it weather they are there or not as I do 99% of that myself anyway. I do try to make it work that they are there, but if we really know each other well and have been working together for several years I do it either way.

So my guess is this tenant and landlord don't have a very good working relationship. Something else is going on. But as has been stated by others there are two sides to this story and we are only hearing one.

:BigApplause:...:BigApplause:...:BigApplause:

I agree. I think seeing someone unexpected in my yard would give me quite a scare. Just say, you frightened me and please knock next time. They would understand.

What would the owners' side be? Either they're suspicious of the OP and deliberately entered the property without notice to snoop under the guise of weeding, or they genuinely wanted to weed. Either way, if the lease agreement requires 24 hours notice to enter the property (which includes exterior space), they are in violation.

It would be a matter of minutes for the owners to email, text or call the tenant to provide notice. Why would they fail to do so?

If they have concerns about how the OP is caring for the property, they should have been the ones to reach out to him/her.