Realtor Abuses/ARE

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

We are in the process of potentially ending our lease, and moving early. I received several emails from ARE over on College Ave today, requesting that the apartment be shown to prospective renters tonight/this week. I checked craigslist out of curiosity, and found many repeat ads for what was clearly our current apartment......WITH A JUNE MOVE-IN DATE, EVEN THOUGH THERE HAS BEEN NOTHING FINALIZED WITH OUR LANDLADY. I emailed the realtor and said absolutely not, the fact that this apartment is officially on the market for said street date was news to us, and said viewings this week would be out of the question. When I came home tonight, there was a...mess on the floor that wasn't there when I left COMPLETE WITH UNFAMILIAR FOOTPRINT, and I was the first person home!

So here's my question, and God knows I dug on the internet to find the answer, and came up blank: Is it legal for a realtor to solicit/show an apartment for an availability that doesn't exist, especially under protest from the tenants?

Comments

[nathanjw]

I don't think there's any law about the solicitation that applies to you, exactly; certainly, if they got someone else to sign a lease before you were leaving, that would be their problem (fraud? misrepresentation?) rather than yours.

Entry is trickier. Showing the apartment for prospective tenants is one of the usual reasons for access; see here, and check your lease. It's not arbitrarily OK, though.

[ron_newman]

Something here may be useful. You probably know the person who posted it ;-)

http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/961648.html

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Ah yes Ron, that person also MIGHT have some familiarity with this situation.....

...I checked pretty much every one of those links before, scoured the Tenants Rights handbook, and found nothing about solicition before a place was definitely on the market. And I understand about LANDLORDS showing a place with proper notice, but this is a realtor, and they certainly didn't give proper notice, and were told pretty unequivocally to KTFO until the matter was clarified some.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

notice on the door... with phone number... "absolutely no entry without written permission by tenants, call this number for appointment..."

good luck, this part of renting is where it sucks, but you have rights.

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[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Ha, that's actually pretty helpful, thanks.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i had a friend with a noisy landlord. he set up a webcam with motion tracking software, and he watched it from work. saw the landlord come in, "do stuff", touch things... and he had pictures. antics ensued.

you could augment the note with "failure to obtain permission will be deemed criminal trespass and charges will be filed".

you could also file a certified letter (notarized copy) with your landlord stating the you will grant permission to enter with sufficient notice on a case by case basis, but otherwise, nobody comes in, period, end of story. maybe.

if you feel you are "in danger" or perhaps your stuff could be damaged, you might get away with changing the locks... or perhaps deadbolting the front door, and using an alternate door they might not have keys for.

keep us informed. landlord antics entertain me like no other.

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[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

you're going to have to ask your landlady what the deal is first. tell her you have to call the police to report a break in ;)

you can insist on being present for all showings or else. period. end of story. afaik :) okay, iana(housing)lawyer, but that's plainly JUST WRONG for entry without notice.

and you can bill your landlady for the mess. unacceptable.

http://donahuegrolman.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=72437

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Check your lease...

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

The last one we had said that the landlord had to give 24 hours notice before entering the apartment, unless there was an emergency (water pipe broken, that kind of thing).

As for a remedy, the nasty lawyer letter solves as many problems as small claims. Tell them _in writing_ what you expect, mark it, date it, and make sure you keep a copy. Send it certified and they're bound to notice.

Again, IANAL.

Re: Check your lease...

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Oh, we're no strangers to checking the lease.....we had to strike a sunch of illegal clauses before we signed the last one.

The 24 hour thing is state AND federal law, IIRC, so that's really not negotiable whether or not it's mentioned on the lease.

Re: Check your lease...

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

24 hour is NOT state law.

[truered.livejournal.com]

As an agent of your landlord, the same rules that apply to your landlord apply to the realtor. See "Rights Against Unlawful Entry" at the following link:

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Housing+Information&L3=Tenant+%26+Landlord&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=tenants_rights_and_responsibilities&csid=Eoca

Further, considering the realtor was informed (by you) that he/she did not have authorization to enter the apartment, then doing so constitutes a trespass under MGL Ch. 266, section 120:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/266-120.htm

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Nothing by way of links to citations here, but I seem to recall that if a stranger is brought into your residence that stranger must be escorted by a person known to the residents at all times, to ensure that no theft or damage occurs.

I had a landlord once (the last one I had before I bought my home) who wanted to bring in prospective tenants without giving me appropriate warning, and gave the "landlord's key" to anyone to go in "whenever they wanted to". My roommate found someone working on the doorbell one early morning, for instance.

I suggest you take to lounging around your home in the nude, and have a pair of headphones at the ready, so if someone attempts to enter the house you can say you didn't hear them knock. Otherwise, if they don't knock, you can call the police when you hear the front door opening and tell the police that an unknown intruder is in the process of entering your home NOW, and the cops will arrive very quickly.

nude?

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

I like this whole idea -- especially calling the cops because an intruder is entering NOW, except am wondering about the nude thing. Just for kicks?

Re: nude?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

*shrug* some people just like to not wear clothing. Nothing illegal about it if it's in the privacy of your own home. But it would make people coming in - including the landlord- MIGHTY uncomfortable! What is the landlord going to say? Insist that you wear clothes? You're paying rent, you can wear whatever you want! And as for the prospective tenant, and you say "oh, if you had told me you were coming" or "I told you this was a bad time to come" the prospective tenant would realize that THEY might someday be caught naked, or worse (fooling around?) by the landlord, who didn't respect their rights as a tenant. Would you want to rent from a landlord who tells you what you can and cannot wear, AND ignores the tenant's right to privacy?

Re: nude?

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

And as for the prospective tenant, and you say "oh, if you had told me you were coming" or "I told you this was a bad time to come" the prospective tenant would realize that THEY might someday be caught naked, or worse (fooling around?) by the landlord, who didn't respect their rights as a tenant. Would you want to rent from a landlord who tells you what you can and cannot wear, AND ignores the tenant's right to privacy?

This is extremely devious, and I like it. :)

Sounds reasonable to me.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a reasonable request to show the apartment. I dont understand why you wouldnt let them, regardless of the accuracy of the move in date posted on CL.

It sounds like you have made reference to moving out early to your landlord, which if you do according to most leases, makes you responsible for any rent for the remainder of your term, unless your landlord can find new tenants. So really, they are helping your out, so you wont end up on the hook for a few months of rent at a place you no longer reside (assuming, you actually do move out early).

I think they do have the right to enter, because the request is reasonable regardless of the move in date in the ad, until they make a request like "move out by June 1" then they are being reasonable and therefore within their rights as owners of the property.

Re: Sounds reasonable to me.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

First of all, I think it's reasonable to want to be in your apartment when it's shown, or at least know about it before hand. For example, you might want to not leave a stack of $20 bills on your desk if you know strangers are going to be walking through the apartment. As the mass.gov website states in one of the links above, "The landlord should be reasonable and attempt to arrange a mutually convenient time to visit the apartment." It sounds like the landlord made no attempt to arrange a mutually convenient time to visit, so that's against the regulations.

Re: Sounds reasonable to me.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Right.....I don't want to obstruct them showing the place, I just need a certain amount of notice, and to be around.

Re: Sounds reasonable to me.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

I hear you, and as a renter totally understand where you are coming from on this, but in legal jargon "should" (as found in the Mass.gov site regarding this) doesnt mean much, if it said "shall" that would imply an actual rule or regulation. Its important to keep in mind that the landlord doesnt need to get permission to enter the apartment, the law states they just need to notify you that they will be and they did from the sounds of it.

Even though you dont want to hear it, I dont think this landlord or his agents have done anything illegal or against your rights as a tenant.

They are just not very accomodating.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that you refer to the landlord/realtor as abusive, when you have stated that you intend to break your lease. Perhaps the mean old landlord doesn't want to get stuck with an empty apartment and no rental 'income'. Perhaps he is being very clear on the ambiguity of the move-in date. And the comment about deadbolting the front door is beyond absurd......this tenant would be the first to sue if the landlord could not enter the apartment to fix a broken pipe! Sure, they could give you more notice before showing your apartment, but you could NOT break your lease. Try to look at this from both sides.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

"ven though you dont want to hear it, I dont think this landlord or his agents have done anything illegal or against your rights as a tenant."

Ohhhhh, yes she has. Just not this time.......

tt: You're reading between the lines of the original post too much. If we were breaking our lease without consent from our landlady, why would we tell her? Why would she have received notice from us? If we are released from our lease early, as I'm sure we will, it will be a mutual agreement. She's done many, many sketchy things and we could have broken the lease legally before several times, but she never "crossed the line" to the point where we felt like we had to move out ASAP until January.