Right of Entry
We have 6 months left in our lease and our landlord has decided to sell. He is talking about having open houses and giving the listing agent access to our unit. We have a standard condo rental agreement, so we understand that he can come at reasonable hours to show the unit. Do we have…
We have 6 months left in our lease and our landlord has decided to sell. He is talking about having open houses and giving the listing agent access to our unit. We have a standard condo rental agreement, so we understand that he can come at reasonable hours to show the unit. Do we have the right to ask for/expect notice prior to people arriving? Do we have to allow our apartment to be available for multiple hours on multiple weekends for open houses for the next 6 months? I could understand if we didn’t resign our lease and this was going to happen for the 30 to 60 days prior to the end of our lease, but 6 months seems a bit much. The section in the lease that allowed 30 days notice for the sale of the unit was removed and agreed upon at the beginning of the lease, so we are able to stay in the unit until the end of the lease. What are our rights/expectations in this situation?
I went through this about a year and a half ago (as a tenant).
The bottom line is that almost all leases (and NYS law) indicate that you have to give reasonable access, but you also have a right to privacy. Courts are somewhat vague about what “reasonble” means, but in non-emergency situations typically it means more than 24 hours notice, and it can’t be a constant daily or near daily occurence.
In my case, I had to threaten the real estate agent’s license, because they wouldn’t back down otherwise. The owner wasn’t interested in discussing it and just referred us to the agent. After being threatened we settled on once a week showings.
We also insisted on being present, which is always your right (again, in non-emergency situations). Never trust a real estate agent to watch people, they almost never do – typically they want to give people space to poke around on their own, and there are many documented cases of people having stuff stolen during real estate walk throughs, open house or not.
raphael9: bottom line renter can stop paying rent (because LL entered apt without advance notice and something went missing). Renter can screw up apartment. He can make it extremely difficult to present apartment for prospective buyers. i.e. leave medical syringes or bedbug spray in the middle of the room. on the other side LL has little leverage here.
As a Realtor, former property manager and current renter I can see this situation from different perspectives. The lease is fairly vague on how often and in what circumstance your unit can be viewed (ie by appt or open house), as well as not requirement a specific notice period before entry. It does of course behoove your landlord to keep you happy as you can have a profoud impact on the “showability” of his condo. However, there is no point in being difficult just for the sake of it, for example insisting on being present for the open house when all that does is make it very difficult for the Realtor to do his/her job and get the unit sold quickly.
My suggestion is definitely to speak to the landlord and work out something that is reasonable for both of you. Personally as a renter I would prefer showings only by open house. And there is such a thing as open house by appt, where you don’t simply have people walking in off the street. If he/she is unwilling to accept your right to enjoy the unit then, again as a renter, I would probably go ahead and make their life as a seller a bit more difficult 😉
FYI – Blumberg not Bloomberg
It’s actually this one. It’s the standard condo lease. See section 11.
http://www.tregny.com/pdf/condo_lease.pdf
http://www.tregny.com/pdf/standard_rental.pdf
standard form Bloomberg lease form(not that Bloomberg another one)
There is nothing in the lease about open houses. That is not to show to specific person but anyone who walks in and you have to lock down your apartment—as it is a time when things walk off.
I didn’t say unlimited right of access. Go and read the first page of every lease…it’s right there. Tenant must provide access at reasonable time for apartment to be shown to prospective buyers, etc. including repair people, insurance agents, etc.
raphael9, the standard form lease does not give the landlord an unlimited right of entry to show the apartment. please look at a copy of the standard form lease.
Also it seems to me that this tenant negotiated a lease in their favor(removing the right to end the lease upon 30 days notice of sale) so I assume they knew what they are doing.
The tenant has possession and is entitled to enjoy that peaceably. the landlord can’t force their way in and does so at their peril. NY Juries have given apartments to the tenant when landlords abuse their limited rights.
Definitely sit down and discuss some reasonable parameters with your landlord. Bottom line: your landlord has the legal right to show your apartment to prospective buyers, and that includes open houses. The right of entry is guaranteed to the owner in any standard lease, and most likely the one you signed. The advice here to make it difficult for the landlord is stupid b/c it is a two way street and nastiness will get you nowhere.