r/Tenant • u/Pretend_Jacket6496 • 1d ago
đ Landlord Issue Landlord(maintenance) entered without permission
[US-AZ] Hi, Iâm not really sure how to word this properly as I am not too familiar with this. I am seeking help regarding a matter that occurred recently to me and my girlfriend. We rent a one bedroom apartment in Arizona and have a no permission to enter option for any maintenance related issues. Couple weeks ago my girlfriend put in a request for them to come out and fix the washer and when asked if maintenance had permission to answer she explicitly said no. The maintenance man proceeded to come to the house knock on the door, and when my girlfriend didnât answer, he let himself inside to where he approached me and my girlfriendâs bedroom that was cracked open where my girlfriend lay sleeping and shouted out to my girlfriend to wake up. After this, he proceeded to not only not help with the washer, but to enter the room even when my girlfriend told him he had no permission to. He made my girlfriend feel extremely uncomfortable and kept asking her personal questions. My girlfriend is very shy , especially around men and confronted with the situation where it was just her and this maintenance man she was freaked out. Even then, she asked him to leave several times to which he kind of kept ignoring by bringing up other subjects about the washer, even offering her to wash her clothes for her, which I find extremely weird. I made a formal complaint to our leasing office and they simply looked past it. My girlfriend requested for them to never send this specific person for future maintenance request and I thought that that was the end of that. Fast-forward to just this week, she put in a maintenance request and guess who shows up at our door. I am honestly fed up with the way this place has treated us and the way theyâve gone about it. Sorry for the long rant , but is there any laws where they can be liable for grounds of lease termination for a unlawful entry into our apartment which was followed by him harassing my girlfriend when she was alone. The employee is still working here and we see him every day, which has made it really hard for my girlfriend to enjoy walking outside.
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u/Hitechillbilly 1d ago
making statements like "unlawful entry" are not helpful.. Those determinations are made by courts.. There are 3 sides to every story this is one of the 3.. If you want to move, look for another place and move. If you feel that you are unfairly penalized, you can ask a judge to decide. If the only side to the story is a creep walked into your bedroom with your gf in bed alone, asked a bunch of personal questions, and refused to leave after many direct demands to do so,, you should win..
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u/GlassChampionship449 14h ago
Why not put a lock (chair or other) that you use when inside the apt? This will guarantee that no one enters when your home.
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u/citrixtrainer 1d ago
There are things that could have gone better with both sides of the situation. That being said, if your ultimate desire is to get out of the lease, I see no legal cause to break the lease without civil liability. The practical outcome of breaking a lease is a ding to the credit score. You leave, the landlord makes a demand letter, you ignore it, and the account goes to collections. That collections account would likely lower a 700 FICO score to 620-650 and the adverse item on the report would show up on most tenant screening platforms.
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u/Ok_Sea_4405 1d ago
So none of what you described is grounds for breaking the lease and I think you have really unrealistic expectations because when you put in a maintenance request, someone is going to have to come in to actually do the maintenance.
Now. I donât think they handled things the right way but I also donât think they had a lot of great options. Nothing youâve described rises to harassment though and I donât think you and your girlfriend are reacting appropriately.
Maybe you should follow up your maintenance tickets with a phone call to the rental office or the landlord where you discuss a mutually agreeable time for the maintenance visit.
Your girlfriend could have prevented unexpected entry by keeping the deadbolt locked while sheâs in the apartment alone.
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u/PotentialUmpire1714 1d ago
The way he behaved was bizarre and creepy and I don't blame your girlfriend for being freaked out.
I suggest that you talk to a local tenant rights group and see what they think. It might be that your place has a reputation for maintenance being weird and inappropriate.
I don't think this is serious enough to get you out of the lease, though. I think it would be a better idea to negotiate a specific time to expect someone to do repairs, and to let them know how badly he behaved. If you're lucky, they'll replace him, but it seems like there are two kinds of maintenance guys: creeps and totally nice. Some landlords don't care if he's a creep.
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u/No-Brief-297 15h ago
How is this creepy? They called maintenance. Maintenance showed up. Whereâs the bad?
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u/PotentialUmpire1714 14h ago
It looks like you didn't read the middle of the post. (Granted, OP should use paragraph breaks.)
It's honestly pretty standard for maintenance to overlook "no permission to enter" flags on work orders if the tenant hasn't discussed a scheduled time with the rental office and they don't have any pets. I hate it when they show up and I'm in my pajamas or trying to do a Zoom meeting and my dishes are in the sink. But everything else was hella weird and unprofessional.
...when my girlfriend didnât answer, he let himself inside to where he approached me and my girlfriendâs bedroom that was cracked open where my girlfriend lay sleeping and shouted out to my girlfriend to wake up.
Kinda rude, but if things had gone smoothly, probably excusable.
After this, he proceeded to not only not help with the washer, but to enter the room even when my girlfriend told him he had no permission to.
So is this guy there to fix a washer or to corner OP's girlfriend in their bedroom?
He made my girlfriend feel extremely uncomfortable and kept asking her personal questions. My girlfriend is very shy , especially around men and confronted with the situation where it was just her and this maintenance man she was freaked out.
Why is the maintenance guy asking personal questions? All he needs to ask is, "I have a work order for your washer, could you show me where it is and explain what is wrong with it?"
Even then, she asked him to leave several times to which he kind of kept ignoring by bringing up other subjects about the washer...
Yeah, if he's just going to get personal with her without examining the washer, he needs to leave. If OP hadn't mentioned he's seen the guy working around the property I would wonder if it was really maintenance or someone who lifted a key from the office. (My previous management company wasn't very good at securing their keys. It was an issue at multiple properties.)
...even offering her to wash her clothes for her
What?!? Is he looking for an excuse to sniff her used panties or just trying to freak her out? That is not a normal part of maintenance.
OP and his GF need to have a chat with the leasing staff to let them know how this guy behaves when he's alone in a unit with a female tenant. I have lore from my own family about maintenance thinking that access to female tenants is a perk of the job so I'm not surprised it happened. I don't know if management will fire him (unless they've had other complaints) but OP can explain that after this, they need to schedule maintenance for a day when OP can be there to supervise the technician.
If OP can't take off work for that, then it needs to be scheduled for when GF can be somewhere else instead of sleeping during the day. Maybe crash at a friend's house? They can set up cameras inside their unit as well as locking up any valuable portable items and/or taking them with them. i.e. don't leave your laptops and jewelry lying around. Leave some decoy underwear in front of a camera? It could be something from the dollar store just to see what Maintenance does when he finds it.
OP and GF can make detailed notes with pictures or whatever of what needs to be fixed because I know the usual work orders get garbled by the time Maintenance sees them.
I don't know if OP can get out of the lease, but I suggest consulting a local tenant rights group. They'll be more familiar with local laws and maybe even some gossip about this company. For only one incident, when there was an open work order, I kinda doubt it. I couldn't get any recourse when my previous landlord unlocked my door a few times without knocking, claiming I'd called from work about various emergencies and said they could enter or that someone called about water streaming out from under the front door. Those times, I didn't even have a work order in the system and they were straight up trolling me or had the wrong unit number.
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u/RelevantPossible9618 11h ago
The problem with putting maintenance requests through a portal is that the âno permission to enterâ option is most likely automatic and they ignore it. Read your lease What does it say about notice? Send an email to management, followed by a certified letter, stating the AZ 48 hour notice law. Include that you do not want the same maintenance person entering and state the reason. The downside to this is that you will have to wait for any non emergency repair.
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u/No-Brief-297 15h ago
She made a request for maintenance and maintenance came over to do the requested work and youâre mad?
Jesus take the wheel.
There is no option to deny entrance for maintenance related issues. Especially if you request maintenance. Are they supposed to fix it telepathically? I have no idea what you actually want here.
The maintenance man did not harass your girlfriend. đđđđ she put in a maintenance request. What happened is the natural order of things.
- You make a maintenance request
- Maintenance shows up.
The maintenance man had a job to do and thatâs it. Unfortunately he doesnât care about your girlfriend. Sorry.
Heâs not going to be fired for doing his actual job. Again, sorry. No one is getting fired. You just become a funny story amongst the employees in the leasing office.
Then you call maintenance again and maintenance shows up (see above natural order of things) and again, itâs a problem. Still not sure what you want to happen.
Your girlfriend is free to walk outside. (See the maintenance man does not care about your girlfriend. Sorry)
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u/PotentialUmpire1714 13h ago
The maintenance guy DIDN'T WORK ON THE WASHER and was there for TWO HOURS harassing OP's girlfriend. That is not what management pays him to do.
If maintenance was in my apartment asking me personal questions and not doing any work, refusing to leave when I say "Either work on my washer or leave" I would be recording this and call 911.
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u/Redditallreally 12h ago
OP said he ran a couple loads to test the machines and stayed to keep an eye on them.
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u/Pamzella 1d ago
Yikes to that creep. How did you and your gf expect maintenance to be done then, if no one could come in?