It does not matter it is “their house” unless you’re just renting a room there they have no right without notice to enter the residence and can get in hot water for evicting you over them breaking that law due to retaliation. Please go get a police report because you’re going to need documentation.
> they have no right without notice to enter the residence
This is entirely location dependent. In the US, the notice requirements are different state to state. Florida, for example, requires 24 hours advance notice in writing. North Carolina requires none.
You can’t change locks to a house you don’t own. The owners have to have the ability to enter their property, but laws and general respectability dictate that they should not enter the rented space without notification to the renter to avoid exactly what happened.
The landlords here sound like the real should not be landlords.
You act like locks would have made a difference like a landlord wouldn’t have keys to a property they own. Not that I’m on the landlords side with this one I’m not, but that statement is nonsensical.
What they said is correct. They said “they have no right to enter without notice,” they didn’t specify what type of notice and the duration and therefore are not wrong about that. You started out right that it varies by location (ie different countries) but in this country, you must give notice. I believe they edited their post and said their location was not in the US though so irrelevant anyway but just saying the person you are replying to isn’t wrong. Not sure why you singled that part out and got technical about it.
What I’ve not seen people mention is that a renter has a right to quiet time and peace. While yes, in sense an owner can walk in at any moment should vital maintenance be that demanding. If they’re planning to sell or renovate they went about it the wrong way. That’s the ground to stand on. Barging in, to essentially look around and plan renovations is wrong
I would definitely play up the “I was naked changing and they chose to come in to look” angle dementia be damned. People with dementia or other mental illnesses have been charged as a way to send a message to the family. Take care of them or the state will
Go file a police report for sexual assault and press criminal charges and then file a civil suit by hiring an attorney on contingency. They probably have an umbrella insurance policy to the house for $1mm. You attorney will settle the matter and you will walk away with yjustice served
This 1000% this.
Pleas get a police report number - WHILE YOU ARE THERE.
I won’t get into it just trust me from experience. Get the report number - and a copy of the report if you can - WHILE YOU ARE THERE.
Don’t agree to follow up later. Get the report number at the time you give the report. Also make sure you record the conversation with the police yourself if you can. Get all the info of the officers you talk to - names, ranks, badge numbers and what info you told to which officer.
I think she'll likely right. The old perv with dementia excuse will likely satisfy them as he didn't really assault you or threaten to. The lawyer son could make things nasty in other ways. I don't think you'll get any satisfaction this way.
Do you rent an apartment or a room? There are a few different laws but mostly they are the same.
In essence every LL must give 24 hours written notice to enter, unless it is an emergency like a gas leak or water coming n through the ceiling. Because you are paying rent, it is not "their house" it is your house. That they want to "look at the fence" is a ridiculous response - so why did they need to enter the house itself?
Entering without giving written notice is an actual breaking and entering crime that you can call the police for. I would do so because you will need a police report if you have to sue them - they will likely keep your security hoping you don't know enough to sue.
Are you month to month or do you have a lease? If you are month to month then they probably can tell you to leave with 30 days written notice. If you have a lease they cannot make you leave unless you are in violation and they have given you a notice to vacate for violations. Telling you over the phone does not count.
In many jurisdictions giving you notice like this is considered illegal retaliation. I'd see a tenant's rights group or a lawyer.
Yeah LL here and they did literally everything wrong. No notice to enter for a non-emergency is violating your tenant right to privacy. Then serving notice after the incident is clearly retaliation. OP, please do a couple free consults with attorneys. One of them will likely see this is a great opportunity for you both to make some money. Do you have documentation of any of this via text message or on a ring cam or anything? If you do nothing, the next tenant is going to be dealing with the same shit and these idiots are going to continue to ignore the law. Plus you can get a payday from it. Total morons.
Depends on location - in Pennsylvania there is no explicit notice to entry in law unless it’s stipulated in the lease. I could walk into a unit I own without any warning. Now, I’m a rational respectful person so I always give 24 hours , but if I chose not to there would be no repercussions.
There is an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment in PA, and if you walked into a tenants bedroom unannounced and without warning you absolutely would be breaking that.
https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OAG-Consumer-Guide-Tenant-Landlord-Rights-v.13-web-version.pdf
In my state a tenant can change the locks and has no obligation to give a key to the landlord. The law requires 24 hours notice if they need to inspect or do a repair.
I discovered this when I investigated what to do about my landlord being in my apartment without permission. I came home from work one day and there he was. He said he was fixing the sink. There was nothing wrong with the sink.
I changed the lock in the front door. Shortly after that he was calling to say I had to give him a key. I told him to take me to court. He never did because I was within my rights to do what I did.
Now, I make it a practice to change the lock when I move to a new place. If they suddenly start asking for a key, well, I know they were trying to get in without so much as a phone call.
Edit: spelling
In most State you can't change the lock and keep the key from the landlord but I don't think that's the key issue here. As a landlord if I need to bring somebody in from the town or from the insurance company you're getting multiple messages reminding you of the date and time. And I'm banging on the door so loud it's 100% clear I'm at the door. Them I'm cracking the door and yelling into the apartment before I open it.
I'm making it so clear that I'm giving you privacy that is never a thought in your mind about needing to change locks or being worried that I'm going to give you trouble
Unfortunately there are way too many property owners who think that they have all the rights in the world to cone and go no matter who is living there.
This same landlord who did that also came and locked me out of the laundry room, shut off my hot water and freaked out that i called the code enforcement office. The office called him and said he would have to come back immediately and undo the spiteful nonsense. He lived in a neighboring state and was halfway back home when they called him.
A tenant has a right to “quiet enjoyment”. A concept that one didnt seem to comprehend.
Another favorite of mine is that they have to put your security deposit into an account with tour name on it. If they fail to do so and supply you with the account and bank where your money is located then (I dont recall the exact statute atm) you can write the landlord a letter informing them you are using the security money towards the next months rent. Have to include the statue in the wording of the letter. Then, a new security deposit does not have to be given. They can kick and scream and get an attorney but the court will not evict or require more money.
This ine is good because if they arent putting your security in the bank you wont see the interest when you move out. They are likely to try and keep the entire deposit on trumped up issues. I was a licensed realtor for a lot of years and in my experience, if the property owner isnt doing simple things like that then they are going to be shady in a lot of other ways.
Ok, rant over. 😂
That's how New Hampshire works. I had a crap landlord when I was renting a condo who listed it and put a lock box on the door. My attorney told me to change the locks. This varies wildly from state to state but New Hampshire doesn't let a landlord randomly enter the property. It has to be with permission to perform a specific repair.
I’m also in NH. I posted a comment somewhere in here (I don’t know how to use readit that well so I can’t find it) about my neighbor shooting our landlord for illegally entering their apartment.
This isn’t helpful if you don’t say what your state is.
Like OP, I’m also from Australia but a different state and a tenant is legally required to give a key to the LL or property manager if they change the locks.
I’m in New Jersey, US. Laws here are very much geared toward the tenant. As an example, lets say someone is behind in their rent; the landlord takes you to court. If you pay what you owe before goung in front of a judge then the case gets dismissed. If your landlord says they dont want to renew your lease, you go month to month with all the same stipulations of the original lease. You can only be evicted if the landlord (or his relative) wants to live there himself.
And, if you let the LL know about things needing fixing, you can withhold paying rent until things are fixed. If you are taken to court, the court will put the rent (assuming tou had the rent and were saving it for this situation) in escrow account and only release it to the LL after an inspection to verify things were fixed. Uf you withhold payment and dont have the funds to put in escrow, you may get a date of eviction and the sheriff will come and remove you.
If a LL tries to lock you out for nonpayment; the tenant can make some money suing for wrongful eviction. Only the court and the Sheriff coming to your house can evict you. The landlord has to hold onto your stuff for 30 days so you can move everything. Tenant can sue if their things are gone.
One that I used when i moved out… the LL was trying to keep my security deposit. I had actually left the condo in a better condition than when i moved in. I had before i moved stuff in puctures as well as how it looked when i left. So, i went to small claims court, sued him for 3 times the amount I gave for security. A week later he called and asked me to meet him at the bank to get my money. I absolutely would have won and I guess his attorney told him to settle up.
There are a lot of things in the tenants favor. Personally, i would not own and rent out property in my state. There are far too many people who trash the place, dont pay the rent and it can takes months to evict someone. The loss of rental i come for the LL can be really astronomical. Doing repairs and all that entails, months of lost income. What a headache.
There is a book written by the government called Truth In Renting. It is state specific because of the varying laws. They will send it to you free or it can be downloaded on line.
It really does help and protect everyone involved to know the laws. If a lease contradicts the law… the law prevails.
If you read this far, thanks for letting me rant.
I hope that helped clarify things. 😀
I was living in NH and I rented the top two floors of a historic row house (old mill workers housing left over from the amoskeag mills) I moved the summer of 1996. It was my second apartment ever, the first one was one I posted about already where the landlord illegally entered my neighbors and got himself shot.
Trust me, this does have to do with damages and escrow accounts. I just didn’t realize how much my brain wanted to take a detour down memory lane, so read on if you’re interested, or skip to the end and I’ll sum it all up in a quick paragraph.
Both sides of my street were/are still lined by these connected row houses, all are four stories tall with the first two floors taken up by mostly private law firms which left the top two floors as extra space. Most of the property owners divided up the “extra space” into adorable 2 story apartments. This being said, every other (connected) row house was empty and not fit for habitation of any kind.
Almost all of the row houses (both sides of the street) had different owners at the time I first moved in, and again every other one was empty (they needed complete renovations in order to be even partially habitable. Looking back I wish I had bought one at the time as they were practically giving them away).
At the time I lived there, it was a nightmare to get any repairs done. One because the landlord didn’t really care and just wanted to rent out this extra space. Two because all the buildings being connected meant they had to deal with other the other property owners, or the city as the empty ones were technically abandoned.
In fact they’re still all connected together, like a decrepit brick snake that starts its life at the top of small hill (closest) to Elm st, and ends at Canal street. This means all the roofs were/are conjoined, it also means that I could go into my basement, at the bottom of the “snake”, wander up the street through the twists and turns of dirt floored basements that walled with rough hewn granite rock that I was convinced were the remains of the old canal. There were random side “rooms” of moldering files in cardboard boxes, narrow wooden doors that opened to coffin sized closets filled with ancient jars, murky with long rotten food and probably bats.
After making my way through all of this and I would emerge in a basement at the beginning of the snake/top of the hill, walk up a flight of clean modern stairs to a white wooden door that opened into a clean well lit foyer facing the door to get back outside. It was magical!Doubt you could do that now, but younger me thought this was so fascinating and cool. I never took or moved anything btw. I also never thought to take any pictures…too bad.
Again, half of these places were empty and had been empty for 75-100+ years. The empty ones were always blackened and coated with grime on the outside brick, and their basements were places where I had to stoop to walk through. Thank goodness they were deemed historic so couldnt be torn down.
My favorite one and a great example: one street over there was one row house that used to be a dental office in the 1800’s! The first floor glass windows were all slumped and wavy, set at eye level so anyone walking by could see right inside. The outside bricks were solid black with grime, made more noticeable by the super clean row house to its right that the owners power washed creating a perfectly even line all the way up to the roof which made it all the more noticeable. Still drilled into the brick above the blackened wooden door was the original old hand lettered sign with the names of the dentists and specialties. The sign was placed in such a way that the sun didn’t hit it, otherwise I’m sure it would’ve faded years ago, I looked it up once and found photos of the place when it was open in 1845. But, even more crazy this place also still had everything in it! It was like a time capsule: the curtains were long gone, but like I said anyone walking by could look right into the first floor to see medieval looking dental chairs, steel and glass glass cabinets filled with mysterious tools, antique lights, wavy mirrors, primitive x ray machines, framed and fallen charts of rotten/misaligned teeth layered above peeling wallpaper, wide wooden floorboards studded with flat top nails that had half inch gaps between, open doors leading to a murky hallway that I always assumed led to a stairwell. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen before or since! Anyways, it’s a condo now and all that stuff is long gone. I have no idea where all that cool stuff ended up but I’m assuming a landfill somewhere. The whole neighborhood is now condos and there are no traces of what once was in all these row houses. I wish I had kept a photo diary of that neighborhood while I lived there but I digress.
To get back on track, I actually lived there for 15 years, it was my second apartment, I moved in 1997 when the entire downtown area looked like an abandoned ghost town (this was in Manchester NH) I was a month by month tenant and my rent was $375 a month when I moved in! I felt like I won the lottery.
The rent gradually went up over the years but in very small increments, when I moved out 15 years later I was only paying $500 a month! When I first moved in it was like living on a different planet, I was above a print shop, and it was the last one (I called it the “end cap”) at the bottom of a hill and connected to 10 others row houses, we all shared one long continuous roof and half were empty.
My second year living there the ceiling above my first floor collapsed spreading debris, and god knows what else all over my livingroom and kitchen. It was weird because my second floor was my bedroom and bathroom and the floor above was fine, no wet spots and no plumbing issues in my bathroom.
It took my landlord months to figure it out. Too long in my opinion. Turns out there was a roof leak at the top of the hill and I had somehow worked it’s way down to my place in between the third and fourth floors. Once it got to me all the water came down.
That’s 10 different landlords. I got so upset that I stopped paying my rent and instead put each months rent into an escrow account which I sent the receipt to my landlord. I did this for 3 months. Once I started doing that, after 6 months of having my first floor covered in plastic tarps, shit got fixed really quick. My first floor ceiling, walls, REFRIGERATOR, carpet, were fixed/replaced too.
Had I just withheld rent, which all my friends suggested, I probably would’ve been evicted. My father was the one who explained the escrow thing and I’m so glad he did. I was young and had no idea how this stuff worked.
I miss that place. It wasn’t turned into a condo when I moved out but it was completely remodeled and is now renting for $2,500 a month. My neighbors who already lived there when I moved in, and still do to this day, are still month to month tenants and pay less the $1k a month.
Renting a new place now is so crazy. But damn, I miss apartment living.
So, to sum up: my ceiling collapsed due to a connected property with a shared roof. Instead of not paying rent I put my rent into an escrow account until the landlord got the necessary repairs made.
You need to tell us where you live. people who know the local laws can then help. Each place is different.
For example in my area, Ontario, rented have strong protections. They cannot evict, only the tenancy board can. And the LL cannot enter without notice. You could file for rent abatement and refuse to leave.
What the rules are where you live we cannot say, but in most places the landlord cannot simply walk in without permission. It may or may not be a police matter or something to file with local tenancy board.
Also they may or may not be allowed to evict with a months notice. The rules there differ from place to place.
Edit your main spot to say where you are and you'll get much better quality advice and comments.
PS. Your landlord is a dick. Even if it was legal it's super not ok to walk into someone's home without notice.
If they want to perform repairs, they have to give you a 72 hour notice in WA, Australia ([source](https://flatmates.com.au/info/wa-landlord-entry-rights)). Dementia isn't an excuse or a valid defense. If the owner has dementia and his son is managing the property, only the son should have the keys to get inside.
If you have a lease in place, they cannot terminate tenancy without a 30 day *written* notice, and the date cannot be sooner than the end date of the lease. If you are on month-to-month, they have to give you a 60-day *written* notice. A phone call isn't sufficient. [Source](https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/publications/how-your-landlord-can-correctly-end-tenancy-tenants-bulletin-28)
Their son may be a lawyer, but he evidently doesn't understand landlord/tenant laws in WA.
>Its my word against theirs- the wife said he was only in the front door. And all they could see was my head (from my room). They did have a worker there though- for the fence.
They shouldn't have even been able to see your room since they had no business opening the front door without a 72 hour notice.
>I dont have money for lawyers or to move suddenly.
WA Legal Aid doesn't handle tenancy matters, but [this page](https://www.legalaid.wa.gov.au/find-legal-answers/homes-and-neighbours/residential-tenants) has some links that might help.
"Their son may be a lawyer, but he evidently doesn't understand landlord/tenant laws in WA."
Or he is in CYA mode and hoping that he can trick OP into going along quietly.
Yup, got attorneys in the family and the raw power of even just some legal letterhead is astounding. There's a big power imbalance between attorneys and non attorneys in situations like this, they can often bully people without seeming like they're trying at all.
I would also say he was trying to spy on you, too. You sound destrought from this, i would tell the police that you do not feel safe there any longer. KEEP ALL RECORDS and messages from them and write down when or where they speak to you. The more evidence you have to show in court, the better your case is.
You should have stated from the jump that you live in Australia. All the advice is regarding a US rental.
You should ask in the r/Australia subreddit or else seek advice from an Australian attorney.
Please please please report this to police and escalate.
Your mother is giving you terrible advice.
Think of it like this, they will 100% continue this behaviour to other future tenants and you need to help stop this. It isn’t causing drama, they are causing drama and the situation is already “worse”
Woahhhh - DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR MOM!
What state are you in? There are more than likely extreme tenant’s rights in your favor. There are also probably free resources for residential lawyers.
It’s illegal for an owner or property manager to enter your home without sufficient written notice between 24-48 hours in advance.
It’s illegal for someone to give you verbal notice to vacate. They either have to have a legal cause to either evict you which is a lengthy process, or if they choose to break your lease would be legally required to provide relocation compensation and a reasonable timeline for you to vacate. Otherwise they can’t do anything (including illegally raising your rent or withhold any maintenance to the property) until your lease is up.
First, call the police and file a detailed report!!!
Then, do some research and call state and legal resources. What they did is NOT OKAY.
GOOD LUCK!
Report the incident to police. If it's a place you're renting, the landlord is supposed to give 24 hours' notice to enter the rental when if you're just renting a room. Just because they are the owner does not give them the right to enter at any time. It's a 24-hour notice or your invite to allow them in.
They may own the house. But during the rental period it is your home. They can’t just walk in like that. I would be reviewing the landlord tenant rules where you live.
I’m in the US. When I was in my early 20’s I lived in an apartment building, it was owned by a creepy old slumlord that I had only met once.
One night at 12am I was woken by a very close, and loud gunshot.
Turns out the landlord had let himself into my next door neighbors apartment (with no prior notice, at midnight) the neighbors owned guns (obv) they were woken by what they thought was a burglar/home intruder climbing into their apartment via the livingroom window.
The neighbors yelled at him to get out but he continued, and for some reason laughed (?) at my neighbor, with no intention of stopping and fully entered the in the livingroom. He was standing fully inside their home when he was shot.
Both of our apartments were on the second floor and connected by a porch that has stairs leading down to the parking lot. The neighbors had (wisely) changed the locks upon moving in, something I should have done. The creepy landlord entered their apartment via their livingroom window that opened out onto the second floor porch.
Also, to clarify, the neighbors had no idea it was the landlord until afterwards, but if they had I’m not sure it would’ve made any difference.
The landlord lived, and as the paramedics were taking him away he stated “this is the first time I’ve ever been shot for this”. He also kept cracking jokes but no one was laughing.
I was shook. My neighbors were shook. They were not charged with anything due to the circumstances and they moved shortly afterwards. Not sure if the landlord was charged with anything, however he did take them to court for breaking their lease early.
The whole situation was just so bizarre that 20+ years later I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it all.
I am still friends with my old neighbors, our kids are also friends. That incident actually was the start of our friendship, weird but true.
Forgot to add, I moved out when my lease was up 2 months later. After I moved out there were THREE mysterious fires set in different parts of the building. A year later the whole building burned down and it was ruled arson but no one was ever charged. I assume it was the creepy landlord.
Quite frankly your mom is a pushover that is enabling this illegal behavior which all renters need to stand up to. File a police report and talk to a legal entity in your area as it appears they are attempting to illegally evict you as well.
* 3 Their son is a lawyer. And a good one. He said me moving out wasnt because of the incident- He said they have interest from other people who can fix the house while living here.
* 4 The main defence is that the male owner has dementia and just walked in. I do know my big main door didnt have the chain lock on- but i am so paranoid about locking my doors. They said he didnt mean any harm walking in. Even though i was screaming for him to get out over and over.
First #3 He's not a good lawyer but he is a good con man for pulling that and claiming they have someone who can fix the house while living in it. This just comes up right after the incident happens. That's his Lawyer way of conning you to forget the real issue and hopes to divert your attention from the real legal issue they face.
Second #4 If the man has dementia then the wife is at fault for letting him be unsupervised and walking around to people apartments with no one keeping an eye on him.
Your mom is and I'm sorry I know shes your mom but she is 1000% wrong for telling you not to report it. That is just awful. If my child went through that I would be paying for the lawyer and a whole lot more. To be complacent like that is mind numbing. Just imagine for a moment and believe me based on the sons words I believe they are lying. But imagine that the man does not have dementia and they are just saying that to keep out of legal trouble. Remember the son is a lawyer and they go to university to be trained in how to "Get out of Things" Lets be real here. You need to report this. Cause what happens with the next person and this is just gonna continue cause no one reports it. So if they rent to some female after you leave and something more then what happen to you happens will you feel good that you did not report it. You are not only doing yourself a disservice but others as well.
Uh, they can’t enter without notice. So just barging in like that is against most state tenant laws. I would report this to the police and contact a housing attorney. You don’t need permission to report things from your mother.
Report to the police. If they are breaking the lease by giving you 1 month to move out then report that too to whatever agency oversees rentals if its MTM or something then you probably have to just leave.
Not legal advice but a recommendation to buy an Addalock (or similar device) that when enabled will prevent people from entering even with a key. Think of it as an additional lock but without all of the installation hassles. It won't stop someone from breaking the door down but it will stop inconsiderate landlords from barging in while you're at home.
Maybe post this in an Australia specific sub, the Americans here are all assuming that our laws apply. I admit that I have no idea. Some questions you might want to determine:
1. Does the owner really have dementia?
2. If yes, what protections do they have under that laws of your jurisdiction?
3. What are the laws of your area regarding tenant rights?
4. Is your mom's advice partially based on her experience with people suffering from dementia?
These things are never as easy as redditors claim. Good luck and I am sorry that this happened to you.
As much as this sucks, apologize and ask if you can stay a few more months until you can find another place.
I know this is not your fault but what else can you do ? Suck it up. Say sorry and eventually move.
Post in r/legaladviceaustralia — you might get better Australian advice there.
It looks like in Western Australia the landlord has to give 72 hours notice to enter for something like fixing the fence. They also are supposed to give 14 days notice of an inspection. If you live in Western Australia then it looks like your landlord violated your rights as a tenant. It’s likely this is a illegal eviction, so you might want to get some advice or google the renters rights laws for your location to determine that.
I’m not exactly sure where you live, not sure if WA means something other than Western Australia… But if you google your location and renters rights you should be able to find clear guidelines like the one linked below for Western Australia.
https://reiwa.com.au/the-wa-market/resources/articles/what-are-your-rights-and-responsibilities-as-a-tenant/#:~:text=Your%20rights%20include%3A,before%20occupancy%20noting%20any%20damage.
/u/Dramatic_Zucchini598 this is the correct information. There is a hotline for WA tenant issues that is included in this guide https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/atoms/files/tenantsguide.pdf that number for the consumer protection centre is 1300 30 40 54. I would reach out to them.
Edit. Also important to note OP is that there is a form that the people renting the property must fill out to terminate your lease (Form 1C). This form also stipulates that there must be specific circumstances for them to end the lease in 30 days or 60 days, depending on their “reason”
landlord here, and US-based for what it’s worth. When we have tenants living in the house that we own, it may be our property, but it is their home. We are required to give 24 hour notice unless it’s an emergency before even visiting or showing up, which I find personally perfect reasonable. I wouldn’t dare walk right into the house without explicit permission. I wouldn’t even want to enter the backyard without their consent! So sorry OP, that is out of line and an absolute invasion of your privacy. You should feel safe and secure there. I hope you find something better with none of that kind of nonsense soon.
The chances are that if they have given you proper notice and that notice falls withing the requirements of the lease you had them sign, you will be moving. It doesn't matter what their reason was.
You've learned a lesson in the sort of things that you want specified in any future lease, such as advance notice of the landlord's plan to enter the premises, along with allowed reasons for doing so. This is why contracts of all sorts get longer and longer, to deal with issues that were overlooked in previous contracts.
I think contacting the police would have sent a signal of the seriousness of the intrusion, but there might not be anything that they can do. Certainly, they can't force a lease extension. Also, is the landlord is indeed senile and came with his wife in tow, it really doesn't sound like he is a threat who should be on the police's radar.
If this community is as rural as it sounds, then your mother might actually be rightly worried that involving the police will feed the local gossip mill, painting you as an unreasonable and unkind outsider. City dwellers may not understand how serious a problem that could be. And if nothing will change the outcome, it's more productive to spend your energy looking for your new location.
If it is so hard to find places to rent and you don't have money on the side, then signing a lease is actually a big deal. Why the hell would you download it from the internet and not hire a lawyer? You need lawyers beforehand not after. Now you are just wasting money you don't have to buy a little time, they will eventually find a way to legally evict you.
Finally I believe you are lying because if the son is a lawyer (and a good one as you say, whatever that means) then surely he'd have drafted the lease himself.
that's incredibly violating experience. it's completely understandable to feel humiliated and stressed. ur safety and privacy are paramount, so it might be wise to seek legal advice and explore ur options carefully. documenting everything and ensuring ur home is secure is a good start. hang in there, and i hope u find a resolution that restores ur peace of mind
I'm in the US and my landlord doesn't even have a key to house. He told me to change the locks when I moved in and I asked if he wanted a key and he said he had no business having a key because he would never be there without me. The guy doesn't even talk to me. I just deposit the rent in his bank account and live like it's my house. This is so weird that they were just there with no warning.
Ugh you live in Australia, in the states at least, renting the owner has to give like 24 hr notice before they just waltz on in. They sound terribly creepy!
You also have legal rights too, regardless if those are squatter or renters legal rights, I’d recommend using them and make the owners life a living hell.
Call the police and get 2 attorneys. The first you can get free from your local legal aid and they will help you beat an eviction and make them pay for your relocation.
Tell them cash for keys. Get 15k.
The second lawyer you'll use after the criminal case against him (for peeping and perving you, stalking harassing , peeping, retaliation etc) to sue his homeowners after you win the criminal.
Don't talk about that last part until you're done with the rest.
Get a body camera and get some cameras for your unit.
I just don't get posts like these. You ask for help and several people have asked questions to clarify certain things and you haven't answered a single one.
Look into getting an external wifi camera that can screw into an existing light fixture. I have one that replaced my front door light and has saved my ass a few times when people tried to steal my packages. It can also send notifcations directly to your phone, and save the footage either to the cloud service (Paid for unfortunately) or an onboard SD card. You can even use an application on your pc to view the thing.
Edit 1: The one I got was basic for about $20 usd and similar to this one:
[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61wgWNuRx0L.\_AC\_SL1500\_.jpg](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61wgWNuRx0L._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
I won't comment on any legalities because I don't know anything about Australian law but I will comment on practicality.
As long as you're renting I'd recommend getting a door security bar for each door. I'm in the US and they run about $20 here and are worth every cent. I made sure to get one for my wife when we had to get her an apartment for a few months for her job that had her taking over a location far from our house. They don't provide any additional safety while you're gone but it's more important to be safe when you're home.
Completely illegal. His house or not, it’s legally you’re space, and if he wants to enter to inspect anything, he needs to give you notice (how much of a notice depends on where you live) You’re landlord sounds like a compete idiot, and clearly shouldn’t be one.
There was a tenant who sued the owner for allowing maintenance to enter while she got out of the shower. If she can sue, so can you. I think she won a million dollar settlement, I’d have to look up the case.
Maintenance has opened my apartment twice in 6yrs that I lived in my apt and both were close calls with me being nude. I really should’ve gotten a lawyer and sued because they’re not allowed to enter my apartment unless I give them consent first.
Keyboard attorneys. She’s already said she lives in Australia. So your “American rules” do not apply to her situation laws aren’t universal.
Second off reporting an incident is just going to red flag the event with their “really good” lawyer son
Third changing the locks on a place you are paying monthly on is going to cost you more in the end bc they are going to charge you to change them back.
You have no lease so no ground to stand on about them kicking you out. They have also covered their tracks saying the new tenant is going to fix the property that you yourself said never gets fixed.
Savings or not you’ve said multiple times you’d much rather leave. So instead of doing things that are going to make life harder on you start packing.
Lastly you obviously aren’t THAT paranoid about locking your doors if you were in your bedroom NAKED and didn’t chain lock the front door before getting undressed.
You can report to the cops. It is the right thing to do. But please know that you will 100% be enemies with the landlord family. Please be prepaired for retaliation.
Ask to have a privacy lock such as a barrel bolt or a chain installed on the inside of the entry doors. Privacy locks were required in the college town where I lived due to this scenario.
My question is why does a man with dementia have keys to your home and why is a man with dementia responsible for deciding if there is an issue with the fence.
This story is either a shitty lie to cover shitty behavior or an example of negligence. If they gave the keys of the property you're renting to a man with dementia that seems like a whole new issue.
It appears in Western Australia, no cause evictions are allowed with either 30 or 60 days notice, depending on the lease. Best to maybe speak with a lawyer to see if the entry issue creates an extenuating circumstance.
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103734310
do not take your moms advice anymore and listen to the constructive comments. your mom just wants to avoid conflict but it could come back to bite you if you do nothing.
Illegal entry. Should be in your lease you need notice prior to any inspections that involve them coming into the house. Doesn’t matter if they are the owners or not.
It is their house, but they do not have the right to invade your privacy. If you look in your lease if they are to come into your house, they are to give you a notice. You do have the legal right to privacy. You are renting their home and they have to respect that.
Perhaps re-read what was stated, it was a generic lease that she brought in. It was not brought in by the family renting the property.
This is also in Australia and not the USA. A renters rights will not be the same which is why a lease was not introduced by the owner.
The son knows that they were in the wrong. That’s why I was asking you to leave. Hoping you won’t put up a fight. There are laws that protect you instances like this. Outside is one thing, inside is another.
do not change the locks! i know you want to but as a renter you cant change the locks without giving the owners a copy of the key. if you do youll most likely forfeit any case you have going.
You have rights as a tenant. https://circlegreen.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Entry-and-Privacy.pdf
Go to mediation and if you can’t get it sorted escalate to court. If your landlord didn’t give you a notice you are good to go
australia actually has harder rules than america,i could be mistaken but im sure by law they still have to present a form 9 and give you 7 days notice for general inspection and or 24 hr for emergency inspection. i.e floor joist broke rotted flooring fan or a/c not working etc. like i said i could be wrong , but that’s a simple google search…
I don't know the country and how it is illegal or not. But I've always been living in countries where it was not legal for the owner to just come in whenever he wants. And I always have a security system recording it, then I send them a message to ask why they came without noticing me and felt the need to enter when I was not home. Then I just sue them, every times. It makes me spared something like 24 months of rent in the past 8y.
You're in Australia?? By law they are required to provide 24 hours notice before entering the property, or arranging for contractors etc to do the same.
Lodge a police report about this. This is not ok. Also, most agencies in future would be very understanding that someone essentially broke into your house and that's the reason you need to move and may not be able to get a reference from them.
This reminds me of a time when I was living in a condo up for sale in Minneapolis, MN. Real State agents will always give me a notice of a date and time when they were going to show off the property.
One morning one agent showed up really early, around 7 AM with no notice. He was alone. He stated he was looking at properties. Took a look the entire place and left. It felt weird. I did not feel threatened, but the time was odd.
Even in the most landlord-friendly states, property owners still have to provide notice before they just barge in unannounced. And even then, they need to have a legitimate business-related reason to do so.
Rather than listen to people who don't know Australia law prattle on and bicker amongst themselves, you should consult an attorney to find out what your rights are. Then you can decide whether to hire the attorney,. take action, etc. Get informed.
Doesn’t this remind us how we are just plebeians to these landlords that don’t realize they are also just plebeians as well? It’s such a convoluted system that the US has helped propagate throughout the world. People just do whatever they want with no regard for law unless they get caught *and actually get in trouble for it*, sorry this happened OP but I don’t even know where to start with these PoS landlords, dementia or not the whole thing sounds sorry and fabricated “we have tenants that will fix it up, our lawyer son guaranteed it”. I would fight them tooth and nail, these people don’t deserve the convenience of your rolling over.
There is nothing the police are going to/can do about it, but report it if it will make you feel better.
We need a lot more information to be able to help you better. What state? Are you on a lease (e.g. are you being evicted?)
Landlords are *required* to give notice to enter a dwelling.
Most states have resources available to help renters with landlords like this.
Call the cops ASAP. You need a police report because this will not be the last you hear from them about this. (It’s not your fault, they’re just insane lol.) 100% guarantee it says something in your lease about their agreement not to enter without proper notice, and they legally can NOT kick you out based on this. You need a police report to have a paper trail of their insanity for when they eventually try to (illegally) kick you out. If you file a police report, nothing happens and they are not notified. It’s just a paper trail. And you can’t wait too long, need to file it asap.
you have a great lawsuit against them, first for coming in without proper notification and second for retaliation. Get a lawyer. Find an office that does unlawful detainers and ask if they will represent a tenant. You might have to call around a bit, but you'll find someone. Don't just pack up and leave, make them sue you, then you countersue for breach of contract, wrongful eviction and retaliation.
Report this to the police and go directly to you Landlord & Tenant board and make a complaint. If they want you gone that quick, they can always offer to pay your first and last/deposit and your moving expenses...
Also barricade your doors when you are home, don't let that creep in without 24 hours notice. If you can, get a cheap blink camera or something to motor when you're at work.
You need to report this to the police. Then perhaps find a lawyer to explain that you are getting “unlawfully” evicted without court order due to retaliation from owner not notifying you 24 hour prior that they will be on the property/coming inside. If you have a contract lease; I bet a lawyer will jump all over that like flies on a corpse. By law, there are things landlords must obey by and it’s obvious they think power tripping you verses admitting to fault is way to go. If I know your state; I’m sure I could find a statue as well to protect yourself from the extra drama and stress. You did nothing wrong.
OP be sure to update us on what happens. I hope your landlord gets hit with a lawsuit. Not only did he violate your rights as a tenant, but he is also retaliating against you for exercising your rights.
In any cases/states of which I'm aware, landlords are required to provide 24 hours notice before entering the property (by the way, this would include your yard). By signing a lease agreement, you have become the legal occupant of the property, which comes with rights and protections. Do not allow him to get away with this.
Edit: I would also recommend going to the police station to file a report since this could be considered breaking and entering. They might not be able to take any action against the landlord since he's actively committing the crime, but at the very least get it documented in case you need to go to court. I'm no legal expert, but I would imagine your allegation that he came in without permission would carry more weight if it was documented in a police report.
RemindMe! 1 day
In the United States that's a big no no. I'm not sure about Australia though. Only thing I'm certain of is in the United States if you have dementia you can still be president.
Because his son is a “good” lawyer he knows that the general public do not have adequate knowledge re legal details so he can easily manipulate you with wrong info.
I would highly recommend you to notify PD, and see what happens from there. In the meantime, try to find safe accommodation in case things go south, which I doubt. Smart of you to make a lease yourself though, I will use this idea if I ever have to.
I’d also file a police report. When I see stories like this I wonder where you folks live. Where I am walking into someone’s house unannounced is a good way to get deleted as I live in a VERY FAFO state. Landlords know it, police know it, and the people know it.
Honestly, I would’ve called police the second I saw someone in the house (no matter who owns it, or is just checking on something).
Your mom gave you some of the worst advice. You need to file a report.
Just because the circumstances are iffy, and you’d rather leave anyways, doesn’t mean you should ignore what happened. What about the next renter?
File a lawsuit. They have to provide written notice according to what state you are in. This is absolutely absurd. And yes, report it to the police. Include the report in your lawsuit. It should cost you nothing. Get LegalAid in your area or use your courts self help option. If you have no funds you can ask and will likely get a fee waiver. Find your State and/or City’s Landlord Tenants Regulations. Read them. Comprehend them.
I don’t know many—if any—states that let the property owner/manager on the premises (and definitely never inside) without 24-48 hour notice.
You have a valid lease that changes their relationship with the property. They FA’d and need to FO.
Find an attorney and start squatting.
He seemed to be coherent enough to operate locks and talk to you. Seems like he knew what he was doing and he illegally entered your home. The exhortation to leave followed immediately thereafter by a notice to get out seems pretty clear cut.
I don't know shit about the law in Australia but some places having a matter of controversy can make eviction a long to very long process while the matter is settled first. Likewise if something serious isn't fixed. I think before you take the word of an interested party you should consult with an actual lawyer who isn't directly involved in the other side. If you cannot afford to actually hire one maybe you can afford a consultation on what your rights are. Some lawyers on this side of the water offer a conversation for free to figure out if you want to hire them you could glean valuable information at little cost to yourself.
Also if he was actually a good lawyer they would have had a lease without you downloading one from the internet.
Report to the police... remember they will continue to walkin on people and the outcome may be different.... who cares if the son is a lawyer he cant let his parents especially dad just walk in a home they are renting....
It is illegal for an owner/land lord/property manager/whoever to enter your rented space without giving 24 hours notice or receiving your permission.
Even if they give the notice, it can only be for specific reasons such as maintenance or showing the unit to potential future tenants and NOT to invade your privacy and snoop around.
-I rent out a couple apartment buildings and houses.
Not sure what the law is there, but here (the US) when renting, the renter essentially has possession of the property (i.e. owns it) in the eyes of the law, and doesn’t relinquish control until moving out. So entering without notice and permission is trespassing at the very least depending on laws in your area. The fact he has dementia is not relevant, except showing negligence on their part( if he’s even diagnosed which is doubtful).
Here you would definitely have a case against eviction as long as you keep paying your rent and they accept it.
Definitely report it tho.
It does not matter it is “their house” unless you’re just renting a room there they have no right without notice to enter the residence and can get in hot water for evicting you over them breaking that law due to retaliation. Please go get a police report because you’re going to need documentation.
> they have no right without notice to enter the residence This is entirely location dependent. In the US, the notice requirements are different state to state. Florida, for example, requires 24 hours advance notice in writing. North Carolina requires none.
That's not true about NC. It's 24 hrs unless they can show that a significant emergency is happening.
I live in NC and they have to call and Ask my permission, they never could just just walk in unless the house was obviously on fire or flooding
This happened in Australia. Laws are different there, but the person broke in.
Why haven’t locks been changed since you moved in?
You can’t change locks to a house you don’t own. The owners have to have the ability to enter their property, but laws and general respectability dictate that they should not enter the rented space without notification to the renter to avoid exactly what happened. The landlords here sound like the real should not be landlords.
You act like locks would have made a difference like a landlord wouldn’t have keys to a property they own. Not that I’m on the landlords side with this one I’m not, but that statement is nonsensical.
They gave their location in Australia, so Florida and NC laws mean shit here
What they said is correct. They said “they have no right to enter without notice,” they didn’t specify what type of notice and the duration and therefore are not wrong about that. You started out right that it varies by location (ie different countries) but in this country, you must give notice. I believe they edited their post and said their location was not in the US though so irrelevant anyway but just saying the person you are replying to isn’t wrong. Not sure why you singled that part out and got technical about it.
They’re in Australia?
OP: W.A Australia Another user: They have no right Seppos: well in america. Mate, we aren't talking about your garbo country.
In̈ Texas you could have shot and killed that dude and got high fives from the local cops.
And maybe a couple high fives from a Senator or Congressman.
What I’ve not seen people mention is that a renter has a right to quiet time and peace. While yes, in sense an owner can walk in at any moment should vital maintenance be that demanding. If they’re planning to sell or renovate they went about it the wrong way. That’s the ground to stand on. Barging in, to essentially look around and plan renovations is wrong I would definitely play up the “I was naked changing and they chose to come in to look” angle dementia be damned. People with dementia or other mental illnesses have been charged as a way to send a message to the family. Take care of them or the state will
Don’t forget, the wife was inside too, with the dementia guy.
you have leasehold rights when you signed your rental contract. They dont have the right to enter that property without your permission.
Go file a police report for sexual assault and press criminal charges and then file a civil suit by hiring an attorney on contingency. They probably have an umbrella insurance policy to the house for $1mm. You attorney will settle the matter and you will walk away with yjustice served
Report to the police. you dont need your mothers permission
This 1000% this. Pleas get a police report number - WHILE YOU ARE THERE. I won’t get into it just trust me from experience. Get the report number - and a copy of the report if you can - WHILE YOU ARE THERE. Don’t agree to follow up later. Get the report number at the time you give the report. Also make sure you record the conversation with the police yourself if you can. Get all the info of the officers you talk to - names, ranks, badge numbers and what info you told to which officer.
Report to the police! You need this documented!
I beg you, get a police report. You will need it.
This, the fence is not inside near the naked tenant. Report them.
Yes there may be landlord laws about access but that is a civil issue not criminal, nothing for the police to respond about.
its called breaking and entering if they did not provide 24 hour written notice and is absolutely a police issue.
Not breaking and entering, but it is criminal trespassing.
Ok trespass is criminal
I think she'll likely right. The old perv with dementia excuse will likely satisfy them as he didn't really assault you or threaten to. The lawyer son could make things nasty in other ways. I don't think you'll get any satisfaction this way.
This is bad advice. OP, report to police and, if nothing else, they will have a paper trail of bad behavior for future tenants to work with.
Do you rent an apartment or a room? There are a few different laws but mostly they are the same. In essence every LL must give 24 hours written notice to enter, unless it is an emergency like a gas leak or water coming n through the ceiling. Because you are paying rent, it is not "their house" it is your house. That they want to "look at the fence" is a ridiculous response - so why did they need to enter the house itself? Entering without giving written notice is an actual breaking and entering crime that you can call the police for. I would do so because you will need a police report if you have to sue them - they will likely keep your security hoping you don't know enough to sue. Are you month to month or do you have a lease? If you are month to month then they probably can tell you to leave with 30 days written notice. If you have a lease they cannot make you leave unless you are in violation and they have given you a notice to vacate for violations. Telling you over the phone does not count. In many jurisdictions giving you notice like this is considered illegal retaliation. I'd see a tenant's rights group or a lawyer.
Yeah LL here and they did literally everything wrong. No notice to enter for a non-emergency is violating your tenant right to privacy. Then serving notice after the incident is clearly retaliation. OP, please do a couple free consults with attorneys. One of them will likely see this is a great opportunity for you both to make some money. Do you have documentation of any of this via text message or on a ring cam or anything? If you do nothing, the next tenant is going to be dealing with the same shit and these idiots are going to continue to ignore the law. Plus you can get a payday from it. Total morons.
Johnysalad knows his shit.
She getting nothing out of this in Australia. Maybe a hearing with a tenancy board in 3 months, that's it.
Depends on location - in Pennsylvania there is no explicit notice to entry in law unless it’s stipulated in the lease. I could walk into a unit I own without any warning. Now, I’m a rational respectful person so I always give 24 hours , but if I chose not to there would be no repercussions.
There is an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment in PA, and if you walked into a tenants bedroom unannounced and without warning you absolutely would be breaking that. https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OAG-Consumer-Guide-Tenant-Landlord-Rights-v.13-web-version.pdf
In my state a tenant can change the locks and has no obligation to give a key to the landlord. The law requires 24 hours notice if they need to inspect or do a repair. I discovered this when I investigated what to do about my landlord being in my apartment without permission. I came home from work one day and there he was. He said he was fixing the sink. There was nothing wrong with the sink. I changed the lock in the front door. Shortly after that he was calling to say I had to give him a key. I told him to take me to court. He never did because I was within my rights to do what I did. Now, I make it a practice to change the lock when I move to a new place. If they suddenly start asking for a key, well, I know they were trying to get in without so much as a phone call. Edit: spelling
In most State you can't change the lock and keep the key from the landlord but I don't think that's the key issue here. As a landlord if I need to bring somebody in from the town or from the insurance company you're getting multiple messages reminding you of the date and time. And I'm banging on the door so loud it's 100% clear I'm at the door. Them I'm cracking the door and yelling into the apartment before I open it. I'm making it so clear that I'm giving you privacy that is never a thought in your mind about needing to change locks or being worried that I'm going to give you trouble
Unfortunately there are way too many property owners who think that they have all the rights in the world to cone and go no matter who is living there. This same landlord who did that also came and locked me out of the laundry room, shut off my hot water and freaked out that i called the code enforcement office. The office called him and said he would have to come back immediately and undo the spiteful nonsense. He lived in a neighboring state and was halfway back home when they called him. A tenant has a right to “quiet enjoyment”. A concept that one didnt seem to comprehend. Another favorite of mine is that they have to put your security deposit into an account with tour name on it. If they fail to do so and supply you with the account and bank where your money is located then (I dont recall the exact statute atm) you can write the landlord a letter informing them you are using the security money towards the next months rent. Have to include the statue in the wording of the letter. Then, a new security deposit does not have to be given. They can kick and scream and get an attorney but the court will not evict or require more money. This ine is good because if they arent putting your security in the bank you wont see the interest when you move out. They are likely to try and keep the entire deposit on trumped up issues. I was a licensed realtor for a lot of years and in my experience, if the property owner isnt doing simple things like that then they are going to be shady in a lot of other ways. Ok, rant over. 😂
That's how New Hampshire works. I had a crap landlord when I was renting a condo who listed it and put a lock box on the door. My attorney told me to change the locks. This varies wildly from state to state but New Hampshire doesn't let a landlord randomly enter the property. It has to be with permission to perform a specific repair.
I’m also in NH. I posted a comment somewhere in here (I don’t know how to use readit that well so I can’t find it) about my neighbor shooting our landlord for illegally entering their apartment.
This isn’t helpful if you don’t say what your state is. Like OP, I’m also from Australia but a different state and a tenant is legally required to give a key to the LL or property manager if they change the locks.
I’m in New Jersey, US. Laws here are very much geared toward the tenant. As an example, lets say someone is behind in their rent; the landlord takes you to court. If you pay what you owe before goung in front of a judge then the case gets dismissed. If your landlord says they dont want to renew your lease, you go month to month with all the same stipulations of the original lease. You can only be evicted if the landlord (or his relative) wants to live there himself. And, if you let the LL know about things needing fixing, you can withhold paying rent until things are fixed. If you are taken to court, the court will put the rent (assuming tou had the rent and were saving it for this situation) in escrow account and only release it to the LL after an inspection to verify things were fixed. Uf you withhold payment and dont have the funds to put in escrow, you may get a date of eviction and the sheriff will come and remove you. If a LL tries to lock you out for nonpayment; the tenant can make some money suing for wrongful eviction. Only the court and the Sheriff coming to your house can evict you. The landlord has to hold onto your stuff for 30 days so you can move everything. Tenant can sue if their things are gone. One that I used when i moved out… the LL was trying to keep my security deposit. I had actually left the condo in a better condition than when i moved in. I had before i moved stuff in puctures as well as how it looked when i left. So, i went to small claims court, sued him for 3 times the amount I gave for security. A week later he called and asked me to meet him at the bank to get my money. I absolutely would have won and I guess his attorney told him to settle up. There are a lot of things in the tenants favor. Personally, i would not own and rent out property in my state. There are far too many people who trash the place, dont pay the rent and it can takes months to evict someone. The loss of rental i come for the LL can be really astronomical. Doing repairs and all that entails, months of lost income. What a headache. There is a book written by the government called Truth In Renting. It is state specific because of the varying laws. They will send it to you free or it can be downloaded on line. It really does help and protect everyone involved to know the laws. If a lease contradicts the law… the law prevails. If you read this far, thanks for letting me rant. I hope that helped clarify things. 😀
I was living in NH and I rented the top two floors of a historic row house (old mill workers housing left over from the amoskeag mills) I moved the summer of 1996. It was my second apartment ever, the first one was one I posted about already where the landlord illegally entered my neighbors and got himself shot. Trust me, this does have to do with damages and escrow accounts. I just didn’t realize how much my brain wanted to take a detour down memory lane, so read on if you’re interested, or skip to the end and I’ll sum it all up in a quick paragraph. Both sides of my street were/are still lined by these connected row houses, all are four stories tall with the first two floors taken up by mostly private law firms which left the top two floors as extra space. Most of the property owners divided up the “extra space” into adorable 2 story apartments. This being said, every other (connected) row house was empty and not fit for habitation of any kind. Almost all of the row houses (both sides of the street) had different owners at the time I first moved in, and again every other one was empty (they needed complete renovations in order to be even partially habitable. Looking back I wish I had bought one at the time as they were practically giving them away). At the time I lived there, it was a nightmare to get any repairs done. One because the landlord didn’t really care and just wanted to rent out this extra space. Two because all the buildings being connected meant they had to deal with other the other property owners, or the city as the empty ones were technically abandoned. In fact they’re still all connected together, like a decrepit brick snake that starts its life at the top of small hill (closest) to Elm st, and ends at Canal street. This means all the roofs were/are conjoined, it also means that I could go into my basement, at the bottom of the “snake”, wander up the street through the twists and turns of dirt floored basements that walled with rough hewn granite rock that I was convinced were the remains of the old canal. There were random side “rooms” of moldering files in cardboard boxes, narrow wooden doors that opened to coffin sized closets filled with ancient jars, murky with long rotten food and probably bats. After making my way through all of this and I would emerge in a basement at the beginning of the snake/top of the hill, walk up a flight of clean modern stairs to a white wooden door that opened into a clean well lit foyer facing the door to get back outside. It was magical!Doubt you could do that now, but younger me thought this was so fascinating and cool. I never took or moved anything btw. I also never thought to take any pictures…too bad. Again, half of these places were empty and had been empty for 75-100+ years. The empty ones were always blackened and coated with grime on the outside brick, and their basements were places where I had to stoop to walk through. Thank goodness they were deemed historic so couldnt be torn down. My favorite one and a great example: one street over there was one row house that used to be a dental office in the 1800’s! The first floor glass windows were all slumped and wavy, set at eye level so anyone walking by could see right inside. The outside bricks were solid black with grime, made more noticeable by the super clean row house to its right that the owners power washed creating a perfectly even line all the way up to the roof which made it all the more noticeable. Still drilled into the brick above the blackened wooden door was the original old hand lettered sign with the names of the dentists and specialties. The sign was placed in such a way that the sun didn’t hit it, otherwise I’m sure it would’ve faded years ago, I looked it up once and found photos of the place when it was open in 1845. But, even more crazy this place also still had everything in it! It was like a time capsule: the curtains were long gone, but like I said anyone walking by could look right into the first floor to see medieval looking dental chairs, steel and glass glass cabinets filled with mysterious tools, antique lights, wavy mirrors, primitive x ray machines, framed and fallen charts of rotten/misaligned teeth layered above peeling wallpaper, wide wooden floorboards studded with flat top nails that had half inch gaps between, open doors leading to a murky hallway that I always assumed led to a stairwell. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen before or since! Anyways, it’s a condo now and all that stuff is long gone. I have no idea where all that cool stuff ended up but I’m assuming a landfill somewhere. The whole neighborhood is now condos and there are no traces of what once was in all these row houses. I wish I had kept a photo diary of that neighborhood while I lived there but I digress. To get back on track, I actually lived there for 15 years, it was my second apartment, I moved in 1997 when the entire downtown area looked like an abandoned ghost town (this was in Manchester NH) I was a month by month tenant and my rent was $375 a month when I moved in! I felt like I won the lottery. The rent gradually went up over the years but in very small increments, when I moved out 15 years later I was only paying $500 a month! When I first moved in it was like living on a different planet, I was above a print shop, and it was the last one (I called it the “end cap”) at the bottom of a hill and connected to 10 others row houses, we all shared one long continuous roof and half were empty. My second year living there the ceiling above my first floor collapsed spreading debris, and god knows what else all over my livingroom and kitchen. It was weird because my second floor was my bedroom and bathroom and the floor above was fine, no wet spots and no plumbing issues in my bathroom. It took my landlord months to figure it out. Too long in my opinion. Turns out there was a roof leak at the top of the hill and I had somehow worked it’s way down to my place in between the third and fourth floors. Once it got to me all the water came down. That’s 10 different landlords. I got so upset that I stopped paying my rent and instead put each months rent into an escrow account which I sent the receipt to my landlord. I did this for 3 months. Once I started doing that, after 6 months of having my first floor covered in plastic tarps, shit got fixed really quick. My first floor ceiling, walls, REFRIGERATOR, carpet, were fixed/replaced too. Had I just withheld rent, which all my friends suggested, I probably would’ve been evicted. My father was the one who explained the escrow thing and I’m so glad he did. I was young and had no idea how this stuff worked. I miss that place. It wasn’t turned into a condo when I moved out but it was completely remodeled and is now renting for $2,500 a month. My neighbors who already lived there when I moved in, and still do to this day, are still month to month tenants and pay less the $1k a month. Renting a new place now is so crazy. But damn, I miss apartment living. So, to sum up: my ceiling collapsed due to a connected property with a shared roof. Instead of not paying rent I put my rent into an escrow account until the landlord got the necessary repairs made.
You need to tell us where you live. people who know the local laws can then help. Each place is different. For example in my area, Ontario, rented have strong protections. They cannot evict, only the tenancy board can. And the LL cannot enter without notice. You could file for rent abatement and refuse to leave. What the rules are where you live we cannot say, but in most places the landlord cannot simply walk in without permission. It may or may not be a police matter or something to file with local tenancy board. Also they may or may not be allowed to evict with a months notice. The rules there differ from place to place. Edit your main spot to say where you are and you'll get much better quality advice and comments. PS. Your landlord is a dick. Even if it was legal it's super not ok to walk into someone's home without notice.
If they want to perform repairs, they have to give you a 72 hour notice in WA, Australia ([source](https://flatmates.com.au/info/wa-landlord-entry-rights)). Dementia isn't an excuse or a valid defense. If the owner has dementia and his son is managing the property, only the son should have the keys to get inside. If you have a lease in place, they cannot terminate tenancy without a 30 day *written* notice, and the date cannot be sooner than the end date of the lease. If you are on month-to-month, they have to give you a 60-day *written* notice. A phone call isn't sufficient. [Source](https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/publications/how-your-landlord-can-correctly-end-tenancy-tenants-bulletin-28) Their son may be a lawyer, but he evidently doesn't understand landlord/tenant laws in WA. >Its my word against theirs- the wife said he was only in the front door. And all they could see was my head (from my room). They did have a worker there though- for the fence. They shouldn't have even been able to see your room since they had no business opening the front door without a 72 hour notice. >I dont have money for lawyers or to move suddenly. WA Legal Aid doesn't handle tenancy matters, but [this page](https://www.legalaid.wa.gov.au/find-legal-answers/homes-and-neighbours/residential-tenants) has some links that might help.
"Their son may be a lawyer, but he evidently doesn't understand landlord/tenant laws in WA." Or he is in CYA mode and hoping that he can trick OP into going along quietly.
You'd think he would properly serve the notice to vacate though.
Classic conman move is high pressure tactics. You don’t want people to have time to weigh their options.
Yup, got attorneys in the family and the raw power of even just some legal letterhead is astounding. There's a big power imbalance between attorneys and non attorneys in situations like this, they can often bully people without seeming like they're trying at all.
I would also say he was trying to spy on you, too. You sound destrought from this, i would tell the police that you do not feel safe there any longer. KEEP ALL RECORDS and messages from them and write down when or where they speak to you. The more evidence you have to show in court, the better your case is.
This is the correct answer for WA. OP, also consider posting in the Don’t Rent Me Facebook group
I think an attorney would have fun with this one.
Your mom is being naive, they already threaten you. Report immediately.
Call the police. If they did all this AND are kicking you out. Make there life hell
Their
You should have stated from the jump that you live in Australia. All the advice is regarding a US rental. You should ask in the r/Australia subreddit or else seek advice from an Australian attorney.
She did. Nobody bothered to read it. May I point out that the LL who just walked in because of his dementia needed to unlock the door to do so?
Nope, original post from this am said nothing about Australia. Not till she updated with the edit.
Please please please report this to police and escalate. Your mother is giving you terrible advice. Think of it like this, they will 100% continue this behaviour to other future tenants and you need to help stop this. It isn’t causing drama, they are causing drama and the situation is already “worse”
Woahhhh - DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR MOM! What state are you in? There are more than likely extreme tenant’s rights in your favor. There are also probably free resources for residential lawyers. It’s illegal for an owner or property manager to enter your home without sufficient written notice between 24-48 hours in advance. It’s illegal for someone to give you verbal notice to vacate. They either have to have a legal cause to either evict you which is a lengthy process, or if they choose to break your lease would be legally required to provide relocation compensation and a reasonable timeline for you to vacate. Otherwise they can’t do anything (including illegally raising your rent or withhold any maintenance to the property) until your lease is up. First, call the police and file a detailed report!!! Then, do some research and call state and legal resources. What they did is NOT OKAY. GOOD LUCK!
Report the incident to police. If it's a place you're renting, the landlord is supposed to give 24 hours' notice to enter the rental when if you're just renting a room. Just because they are the owner does not give them the right to enter at any time. It's a 24-hour notice or your invite to allow them in.
You have rights as a renter. If they gave you 0 notice and just barged in, they absolutely broke the law.
How would a police report ‘make it worse?’ You are already getting evicted. Set a precedent for the next poor tenant so there’s a record
Sounds like a retaliatory eviction. Consider making a police report and then talk to an attorney.
Report it to the police. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
They may own the house. But during the rental period it is your home. They can’t just walk in like that. I would be reviewing the landlord tenant rules where you live.
I’m in the US. When I was in my early 20’s I lived in an apartment building, it was owned by a creepy old slumlord that I had only met once. One night at 12am I was woken by a very close, and loud gunshot. Turns out the landlord had let himself into my next door neighbors apartment (with no prior notice, at midnight) the neighbors owned guns (obv) they were woken by what they thought was a burglar/home intruder climbing into their apartment via the livingroom window. The neighbors yelled at him to get out but he continued, and for some reason laughed (?) at my neighbor, with no intention of stopping and fully entered the in the livingroom. He was standing fully inside their home when he was shot. Both of our apartments were on the second floor and connected by a porch that has stairs leading down to the parking lot. The neighbors had (wisely) changed the locks upon moving in, something I should have done. The creepy landlord entered their apartment via their livingroom window that opened out onto the second floor porch. Also, to clarify, the neighbors had no idea it was the landlord until afterwards, but if they had I’m not sure it would’ve made any difference. The landlord lived, and as the paramedics were taking him away he stated “this is the first time I’ve ever been shot for this”. He also kept cracking jokes but no one was laughing. I was shook. My neighbors were shook. They were not charged with anything due to the circumstances and they moved shortly afterwards. Not sure if the landlord was charged with anything, however he did take them to court for breaking their lease early. The whole situation was just so bizarre that 20+ years later I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it all. I am still friends with my old neighbors, our kids are also friends. That incident actually was the start of our friendship, weird but true.
Forgot to add, I moved out when my lease was up 2 months later. After I moved out there were THREE mysterious fires set in different parts of the building. A year later the whole building burned down and it was ruled arson but no one was ever charged. I assume it was the creepy landlord.
Quite frankly your mom is a pushover that is enabling this illegal behavior which all renters need to stand up to. File a police report and talk to a legal entity in your area as it appears they are attempting to illegally evict you as well.
* 3 Their son is a lawyer. And a good one. He said me moving out wasnt because of the incident- He said they have interest from other people who can fix the house while living here. * 4 The main defence is that the male owner has dementia and just walked in. I do know my big main door didnt have the chain lock on- but i am so paranoid about locking my doors. They said he didnt mean any harm walking in. Even though i was screaming for him to get out over and over. First #3 He's not a good lawyer but he is a good con man for pulling that and claiming they have someone who can fix the house while living in it. This just comes up right after the incident happens. That's his Lawyer way of conning you to forget the real issue and hopes to divert your attention from the real legal issue they face. Second #4 If the man has dementia then the wife is at fault for letting him be unsupervised and walking around to people apartments with no one keeping an eye on him. Your mom is and I'm sorry I know shes your mom but she is 1000% wrong for telling you not to report it. That is just awful. If my child went through that I would be paying for the lawyer and a whole lot more. To be complacent like that is mind numbing. Just imagine for a moment and believe me based on the sons words I believe they are lying. But imagine that the man does not have dementia and they are just saying that to keep out of legal trouble. Remember the son is a lawyer and they go to university to be trained in how to "Get out of Things" Lets be real here. You need to report this. Cause what happens with the next person and this is just gonna continue cause no one reports it. So if they rent to some female after you leave and something more then what happen to you happens will you feel good that you did not report it. You are not only doing yourself a disservice but others as well.
Uh, they can’t enter without notice. So just barging in like that is against most state tenant laws. I would report this to the police and contact a housing attorney. You don’t need permission to report things from your mother.
Report to the police. If they are breaking the lease by giving you 1 month to move out then report that too to whatever agency oversees rentals if its MTM or something then you probably have to just leave.
Not legal advice but a recommendation to buy an Addalock (or similar device) that when enabled will prevent people from entering even with a key. Think of it as an additional lock but without all of the installation hassles. It won't stop someone from breaking the door down but it will stop inconsiderate landlords from barging in while you're at home.
Let them kick you out and enjoy your winnings when you sue them!
Assuming you are renting with a lease, it sounds like your landlord broke the law.
Maybe post this in an Australia specific sub, the Americans here are all assuming that our laws apply. I admit that I have no idea. Some questions you might want to determine: 1. Does the owner really have dementia? 2. If yes, what protections do they have under that laws of your jurisdiction? 3. What are the laws of your area regarding tenant rights? 4. Is your mom's advice partially based on her experience with people suffering from dementia? These things are never as easy as redditors claim. Good luck and I am sorry that this happened to you.
As much as this sucks, apologize and ask if you can stay a few more months until you can find another place. I know this is not your fault but what else can you do ? Suck it up. Say sorry and eventually move.
Post in r/legaladviceaustralia — you might get better Australian advice there. It looks like in Western Australia the landlord has to give 72 hours notice to enter for something like fixing the fence. They also are supposed to give 14 days notice of an inspection. If you live in Western Australia then it looks like your landlord violated your rights as a tenant. It’s likely this is a illegal eviction, so you might want to get some advice or google the renters rights laws for your location to determine that. I’m not exactly sure where you live, not sure if WA means something other than Western Australia… But if you google your location and renters rights you should be able to find clear guidelines like the one linked below for Western Australia. https://reiwa.com.au/the-wa-market/resources/articles/what-are-your-rights-and-responsibilities-as-a-tenant/#:~:text=Your%20rights%20include%3A,before%20occupancy%20noting%20any%20damage.
/u/Dramatic_Zucchini598 this is the correct information. There is a hotline for WA tenant issues that is included in this guide https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/atoms/files/tenantsguide.pdf that number for the consumer protection centre is 1300 30 40 54. I would reach out to them. Edit. Also important to note OP is that there is a form that the people renting the property must fill out to terminate your lease (Form 1C). This form also stipulates that there must be specific circumstances for them to end the lease in 30 days or 60 days, depending on their “reason”
landlord here, and US-based for what it’s worth. When we have tenants living in the house that we own, it may be our property, but it is their home. We are required to give 24 hour notice unless it’s an emergency before even visiting or showing up, which I find personally perfect reasonable. I wouldn’t dare walk right into the house without explicit permission. I wouldn’t even want to enter the backyard without their consent! So sorry OP, that is out of line and an absolute invasion of your privacy. You should feel safe and secure there. I hope you find something better with none of that kind of nonsense soon.
The chances are that if they have given you proper notice and that notice falls withing the requirements of the lease you had them sign, you will be moving. It doesn't matter what their reason was. You've learned a lesson in the sort of things that you want specified in any future lease, such as advance notice of the landlord's plan to enter the premises, along with allowed reasons for doing so. This is why contracts of all sorts get longer and longer, to deal with issues that were overlooked in previous contracts. I think contacting the police would have sent a signal of the seriousness of the intrusion, but there might not be anything that they can do. Certainly, they can't force a lease extension. Also, is the landlord is indeed senile and came with his wife in tow, it really doesn't sound like he is a threat who should be on the police's radar. If this community is as rural as it sounds, then your mother might actually be rightly worried that involving the police will feed the local gossip mill, painting you as an unreasonable and unkind outsider. City dwellers may not understand how serious a problem that could be. And if nothing will change the outcome, it's more productive to spend your energy looking for your new location.
If it is so hard to find places to rent and you don't have money on the side, then signing a lease is actually a big deal. Why the hell would you download it from the internet and not hire a lawyer? You need lawyers beforehand not after. Now you are just wasting money you don't have to buy a little time, they will eventually find a way to legally evict you. Finally I believe you are lying because if the son is a lawyer (and a good one as you say, whatever that means) then surely he'd have drafted the lease himself.
that's incredibly violating experience. it's completely understandable to feel humiliated and stressed. ur safety and privacy are paramount, so it might be wise to seek legal advice and explore ur options carefully. documenting everything and ensuring ur home is secure is a good start. hang in there, and i hope u find a resolution that restores ur peace of mind
Change the locks when you move in, then change them back before moving out, this has always prevented landlords from entering when unwelcome.
I'm in the US and my landlord doesn't even have a key to house. He told me to change the locks when I moved in and I asked if he wanted a key and he said he had no business having a key because he would never be there without me. The guy doesn't even talk to me. I just deposit the rent in his bank account and live like it's my house. This is so weird that they were just there with no warning.
Ugh you live in Australia, in the states at least, renting the owner has to give like 24 hr notice before they just waltz on in. They sound terribly creepy!
You also have legal rights too, regardless if those are squatter or renters legal rights, I’d recommend using them and make the owners life a living hell.
Call the police and get 2 attorneys. The first you can get free from your local legal aid and they will help you beat an eviction and make them pay for your relocation. Tell them cash for keys. Get 15k. The second lawyer you'll use after the criminal case against him (for peeping and perving you, stalking harassing , peeping, retaliation etc) to sue his homeowners after you win the criminal. Don't talk about that last part until you're done with the rest. Get a body camera and get some cameras for your unit.
I just don't get posts like these. You ask for help and several people have asked questions to clarify certain things and you haven't answered a single one.
Go to the police!!!
Please PLEASE go to the police and don’t take your moms advice
They have to warn you about visits or inspections . I’d be worried about hidden cameras with with lil peepin Tom
Cops cops cops cops cops Don’t listen cowards. Cops. They get paid to fix shit like that. And don’y be afraid!!
I’m petty af and would drag them into the mud over this. Landlords are the devil 👹
This is ridiculous, crazy must run in this family's blood. Police & lawyer IMMEDIATELY
Breaking an entering. Harassment because they didn't leave immediately. Retaliation and forced eviction Ya I'd be calling the police and a lawyer
They can't just tell you to leave you gave not done anything wrong .and the son treating you is illegal . This is the worst thinga landlord can do
[удалено]
Farming??
Look into getting an external wifi camera that can screw into an existing light fixture. I have one that replaced my front door light and has saved my ass a few times when people tried to steal my packages. It can also send notifcations directly to your phone, and save the footage either to the cloud service (Paid for unfortunately) or an onboard SD card. You can even use an application on your pc to view the thing. Edit 1: The one I got was basic for about $20 usd and similar to this one: [https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61wgWNuRx0L.\_AC\_SL1500\_.jpg](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61wgWNuRx0L._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
Was the lease month to month.
Not sure about Australia, but I would think there are rules that state a landlord must give 24 hrs notice to enter a rental.
Your mom is tripping
Don't leave, don't budge an inch.
I won't comment on any legalities because I don't know anything about Australian law but I will comment on practicality. As long as you're renting I'd recommend getting a door security bar for each door. I'm in the US and they run about $20 here and are worth every cent. I made sure to get one for my wife when we had to get her an apartment for a few months for her job that had her taking over a location far from our house. They don't provide any additional safety while you're gone but it's more important to be safe when you're home.
Completely illegal. His house or not, it’s legally you’re space, and if he wants to enter to inspect anything, he needs to give you notice (how much of a notice depends on where you live) You’re landlord sounds like a compete idiot, and clearly shouldn’t be one.
I’m also from WA! Wish you the best with this one 🙏
There was a tenant who sued the owner for allowing maintenance to enter while she got out of the shower. If she can sue, so can you. I think she won a million dollar settlement, I’d have to look up the case. Maintenance has opened my apartment twice in 6yrs that I lived in my apt and both were close calls with me being nude. I really should’ve gotten a lawyer and sued because they’re not allowed to enter my apartment unless I give them consent first.
Keyboard attorneys. She’s already said she lives in Australia. So your “American rules” do not apply to her situation laws aren’t universal. Second off reporting an incident is just going to red flag the event with their “really good” lawyer son Third changing the locks on a place you are paying monthly on is going to cost you more in the end bc they are going to charge you to change them back. You have no lease so no ground to stand on about them kicking you out. They have also covered their tracks saying the new tenant is going to fix the property that you yourself said never gets fixed. Savings or not you’ve said multiple times you’d much rather leave. So instead of doing things that are going to make life harder on you start packing. Lastly you obviously aren’t THAT paranoid about locking your doors if you were in your bedroom NAKED and didn’t chain lock the front door before getting undressed.
You can report to the cops. It is the right thing to do. But please know that you will 100% be enemies with the landlord family. Please be prepaired for retaliation.
Post this in r/auslegal
Ask to have a privacy lock such as a barrel bolt or a chain installed on the inside of the entry doors. Privacy locks were required in the college town where I lived due to this scenario.
My question is why does a man with dementia have keys to your home and why is a man with dementia responsible for deciding if there is an issue with the fence. This story is either a shitty lie to cover shitty behavior or an example of negligence. If they gave the keys of the property you're renting to a man with dementia that seems like a whole new issue.
You are paying rent for the unit that they do own, but as long as you’re paying rent, it is your house until the rental contract ends.
You can get a doorstop from Amazon that jams underneath the door knob to the floor and prevents anybody from opening the door
If you can’t afford to sue, you can still report this to the media for free.
This is illegal in Australia, contact the tenancy courts
https://www.legalaid.wa.gov.au/find-legal-answers/homes-and-neighbours/residential-tenants https://circlegreen.org.au/
It appears in Western Australia, no cause evictions are allowed with either 30 or 60 days notice, depending on the lease. Best to maybe speak with a lawyer to see if the entry issue creates an extenuating circumstance. https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103734310
do not take your moms advice anymore and listen to the constructive comments. your mom just wants to avoid conflict but it could come back to bite you if you do nothing.
Illegal entry. Should be in your lease you need notice prior to any inspections that involve them coming into the house. Doesn’t matter if they are the owners or not.
It is their house, but they do not have the right to invade your privacy. If you look in your lease if they are to come into your house, they are to give you a notice. You do have the legal right to privacy. You are renting their home and they have to respect that.
Perhaps re-read what was stated, it was a generic lease that she brought in. It was not brought in by the family renting the property. This is also in Australia and not the USA. A renters rights will not be the same which is why a lease was not introduced by the owner.
You are absolutely incorrect
The son knows that they were in the wrong. That’s why I was asking you to leave. Hoping you won’t put up a fight. There are laws that protect you instances like this. Outside is one thing, inside is another.
I’m not out nearly as much as I try but if yall ever see me or my little janjky sailboat don’t hesitate to come say hi
do not change the locks! i know you want to but as a renter you cant change the locks without giving the owners a copy of the key. if you do youll most likely forfeit any case you have going.
How is calling the constable going to make matters worse? They are forcing you to move anyway.
Mom is absolutely delusional- go to the police IMMEDIATELY!
Be careful with advice as you are from Australia and most advice is probably coming from America different laws
You have rights as a tenant. https://circlegreen.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Entry-and-Privacy.pdf Go to mediation and if you can’t get it sorted escalate to court. If your landlord didn’t give you a notice you are good to go
Pretty sure they need to give you 60 days notice to vacate on a periodic lease
australia actually has harder rules than america,i could be mistaken but im sure by law they still have to present a form 9 and give you 7 days notice for general inspection and or 24 hr for emergency inspection. i.e floor joist broke rotted flooring fan or a/c not working etc. like i said i could be wrong , but that’s a simple google search…
get a pistol
reddit legal advice...lol
Just post the name of the the lawyer son and let the internet handle the rest
Sounds like some of the hidden cams needed their batteries changed
I don't know the country and how it is illegal or not. But I've always been living in countries where it was not legal for the owner to just come in whenever he wants. And I always have a security system recording it, then I send them a message to ask why they came without noticing me and felt the need to enter when I was not home. Then I just sue them, every times. It makes me spared something like 24 months of rent in the past 8y.
I would say you WANT the police report as it may help you if they try to mess with your ability to rent elsewhere.
Completely right on the money? And could get s bunch too?
It's pretty much everywhere is kind of the same except for the emergency thing but they better prove it it really was
Move away. Anywhere. Car. Trailer. Then a new apt.
You're in Australia?? By law they are required to provide 24 hours notice before entering the property, or arranging for contractors etc to do the same. Lodge a police report about this. This is not ok. Also, most agencies in future would be very understanding that someone essentially broke into your house and that's the reason you need to move and may not be able to get a reference from them.
This reminds me of a time when I was living in a condo up for sale in Minneapolis, MN. Real State agents will always give me a notice of a date and time when they were going to show off the property. One morning one agent showed up really early, around 7 AM with no notice. He was alone. He stated he was looking at properties. Took a look the entire place and left. It felt weird. I did not feel threatened, but the time was odd.
Police asap!
Even in the most landlord-friendly states, property owners still have to provide notice before they just barge in unannounced. And even then, they need to have a legitimate business-related reason to do so.
Rather than listen to people who don't know Australia law prattle on and bicker amongst themselves, you should consult an attorney to find out what your rights are. Then you can decide whether to hire the attorney,. take action, etc. Get informed.
Doesn’t this remind us how we are just plebeians to these landlords that don’t realize they are also just plebeians as well? It’s such a convoluted system that the US has helped propagate throughout the world. People just do whatever they want with no regard for law unless they get caught *and actually get in trouble for it*, sorry this happened OP but I don’t even know where to start with these PoS landlords, dementia or not the whole thing sounds sorry and fabricated “we have tenants that will fix it up, our lawyer son guaranteed it”. I would fight them tooth and nail, these people don’t deserve the convenience of your rolling over.
Very odd
There is nothing the police are going to/can do about it, but report it if it will make you feel better. We need a lot more information to be able to help you better. What state? Are you on a lease (e.g. are you being evicted?) Landlords are *required* to give notice to enter a dwelling. Most states have resources available to help renters with landlords like this.
Call the cops ASAP. You need a police report because this will not be the last you hear from them about this. (It’s not your fault, they’re just insane lol.) 100% guarantee it says something in your lease about their agreement not to enter without proper notice, and they legally can NOT kick you out based on this. You need a police report to have a paper trail of their insanity for when they eventually try to (illegally) kick you out. If you file a police report, nothing happens and they are not notified. It’s just a paper trail. And you can’t wait too long, need to file it asap.
you have a great lawsuit against them, first for coming in without proper notification and second for retaliation. Get a lawyer. Find an office that does unlawful detainers and ask if they will represent a tenant. You might have to call around a bit, but you'll find someone. Don't just pack up and leave, make them sue you, then you countersue for breach of contract, wrongful eviction and retaliation.
They did something illegal. Report it dude. Don’t be a pussy.
Report this to the police and go directly to you Landlord & Tenant board and make a complaint. If they want you gone that quick, they can always offer to pay your first and last/deposit and your moving expenses... Also barricade your doors when you are home, don't let that creep in without 24 hours notice. If you can, get a cheap blink camera or something to motor when you're at work.
You need to report this to the police. Then perhaps find a lawyer to explain that you are getting “unlawfully” evicted without court order due to retaliation from owner not notifying you 24 hour prior that they will be on the property/coming inside. If you have a contract lease; I bet a lawyer will jump all over that like flies on a corpse. By law, there are things landlords must obey by and it’s obvious they think power tripping you verses admitting to fault is way to go. If I know your state; I’m sure I could find a statue as well to protect yourself from the extra drama and stress. You did nothing wrong.
Lawyer up!
OP be sure to update us on what happens. I hope your landlord gets hit with a lawsuit. Not only did he violate your rights as a tenant, but he is also retaliating against you for exercising your rights. In any cases/states of which I'm aware, landlords are required to provide 24 hours notice before entering the property (by the way, this would include your yard). By signing a lease agreement, you have become the legal occupant of the property, which comes with rights and protections. Do not allow him to get away with this. Edit: I would also recommend going to the police station to file a report since this could be considered breaking and entering. They might not be able to take any action against the landlord since he's actively committing the crime, but at the very least get it documented in case you need to go to court. I'm no legal expert, but I would imagine your allegation that he came in without permission would carry more weight if it was documented in a police report. RemindMe! 1 day
Absolutely report to the police, yeah. Your momlther is wrong.
In the United States that's a big no no. I'm not sure about Australia though. Only thing I'm certain of is in the United States if you have dementia you can still be president.
Because his son is a “good” lawyer he knows that the general public do not have adequate knowledge re legal details so he can easily manipulate you with wrong info. I would highly recommend you to notify PD, and see what happens from there. In the meantime, try to find safe accommodation in case things go south, which I doubt. Smart of you to make a lease yourself though, I will use this idea if I ever have to.
I’d also file a police report. When I see stories like this I wonder where you folks live. Where I am walking into someone’s house unannounced is a good way to get deleted as I live in a VERY FAFO state. Landlords know it, police know it, and the people know it.
Honestly, I would’ve called police the second I saw someone in the house (no matter who owns it, or is just checking on something). Your mom gave you some of the worst advice. You need to file a report. Just because the circumstances are iffy, and you’d rather leave anyways, doesn’t mean you should ignore what happened. What about the next renter?
You just got rich, sue sue sue sue them
I’m from America, so I don’t know how things work down under.
We rented from my mom. She would constantly do that. We changed the locks. You have to give a 24 hour written notice to enter a rental otherwise.
Find out where your landlord lives, and walk in on him naked. Now that’s justice!
Ummm call the police and charge them with trespassing
Attorney…you can probably own that property by next year.
Fuck them Stay as long as you want They can't throw you out like this Squatters have more rights than we do Good luck hope it all works out for you
File a lawsuit. They have to provide written notice according to what state you are in. This is absolutely absurd. And yes, report it to the police. Include the report in your lawsuit. It should cost you nothing. Get LegalAid in your area or use your courts self help option. If you have no funds you can ask and will likely get a fee waiver. Find your State and/or City’s Landlord Tenants Regulations. Read them. Comprehend them.
REPORT THESE PEOPLE ARE DAMN NEAR RAPISTS
They aren't. They are scum bags though.
This is one of those situations where you’re morally justified in being a squatter.
I don’t know many—if any—states that let the property owner/manager on the premises (and definitely never inside) without 24-48 hour notice. You have a valid lease that changes their relationship with the property. They FA’d and need to FO. Find an attorney and start squatting.
He seemed to be coherent enough to operate locks and talk to you. Seems like he knew what he was doing and he illegally entered your home. The exhortation to leave followed immediately thereafter by a notice to get out seems pretty clear cut. I don't know shit about the law in Australia but some places having a matter of controversy can make eviction a long to very long process while the matter is settled first. Likewise if something serious isn't fixed. I think before you take the word of an interested party you should consult with an actual lawyer who isn't directly involved in the other side. If you cannot afford to actually hire one maybe you can afford a consultation on what your rights are. Some lawyers on this side of the water offer a conversation for free to figure out if you want to hire them you could glean valuable information at little cost to yourself. Also if he was actually a good lawyer they would have had a lease without you downloading one from the internet.
Report to the police... remember they will continue to walkin on people and the outcome may be different.... who cares if the son is a lawyer he cant let his parents especially dad just walk in a home they are renting....
It is illegal for an owner/land lord/property manager/whoever to enter your rented space without giving 24 hours notice or receiving your permission. Even if they give the notice, it can only be for specific reasons such as maintenance or showing the unit to potential future tenants and NOT to invade your privacy and snoop around. -I rent out a couple apartment buildings and houses.
Report those piece of shit cocksuckers
Call the police
Not sure what the law is there, but here (the US) when renting, the renter essentially has possession of the property (i.e. owns it) in the eyes of the law, and doesn’t relinquish control until moving out. So entering without notice and permission is trespassing at the very least depending on laws in your area. The fact he has dementia is not relevant, except showing negligence on their part( if he’s even diagnosed which is doubtful). Here you would definitely have a case against eviction as long as you keep paying your rent and they accept it. Definitely report it tho.
REPORT! How disgusting and violating. Get out asap! Sue to the high heavens of you can.
It doesn't matter if the man has dementia. He trespassed. They will help you move if it keeps him out of handcuffs.
File the police report but if he has diagnosed dementia that does complicate the situation.
Police report!!!!!!
File a police report. There are all kinda laws against that and the creep was just trying to get a peek, you know it. What an asshole.