Google auto-complete has once again helped me to create a great blog article! This time I entered the phrase "Why does my landlord need..." and let it suggest things that have made tenants curious or suspicious. Nearly everything on the list has a reasonable explanation, so today I'm here to clear up some of the confusion.
1. A key to your apartment
While it may not seem like it, your landlord does want to make sure that both you and the apartment remain intact while you're living there. Although some landlords break the law by coming and going from your apartment at will, in most cases the key is to be used in only a few cases:
- to make repairs that you've requested without you having to sit around and wait
- to make emergency repairs that may affect other renters or the whole building (i.e., gas leaks, water leaks, etc.)
- to check on your well-being if your loved ones raise reasonable levels of concern
- to show your apartment to new prospective tenants, after notifying you first
If they use your key for any other reason, you should probably be on the phone to your attorney or local legal aid provider.
2. To do an inspection
If you're a voucher holder then you know that the city must inspect your apartment before you move in and every time your lease expires. For the rest of you, it may be somewhat new and jarring to have a landlord that wants to make regular inspections. Not all of them call it an inspection - some of them will instead come in to change the furnace filters on a regular basis, but it's still a scheduled walk-through of your apartment. Continue reading 10 Weird Things Landlords Demand From Their Tenants (and why they want them)
