Just when you think you’ve heard about the craziest landlord story, another one manages to top it. And that prize goes to an unlucky New York tenant relaxing in their apartment at night after a long day. It was around 10:30 pm when they heard their front door open, followed by slow, soft footsteps coming from the hallway. “At first I thought it was the building making noise or maybe something outside because it was so out of place at that hour,” the renter recalled. But to their horror, it was their landlord snooping around inside the apartment in the middle of the night!
There was no knock, no text, and no call: the New York landlord just waltzed into the apartment like it was normal. “he legit just said he was ‘checking the place’ and that he ‘likes to make sure everything is in order,'” the tenant recalled in their post on r/legaladvice. Needless to say, there was no emergency nor any notice about maintenance.
The owner just quietly scanned the living room and kitchen “like he was doing his own private inspection.” Not only was this a frightening experience, but an extremely embarrassing one at that, as the tenant claims, “I wasn’t even fully dressed for someone to suddenly be standing in my space like that.”
The apartment’s lease does state that there should be a 24-hour written notice before the landlord can enter without the renter’s permission. Seeing how the owner literally just snuck into the home like a robber, the tenant wonders whether they should take legal action or just ask their landlord not to do it again.
The post’s comment section overwhelmingly agreed that the owner was in the wrong and that serious precautions, if not action, should be taken. “Yeah that’s completely inappropriate. In New York State that would actually be criminal trespassing if you wanted to push the issue,” says a commenter. “If there was evidence he entered with the intent to commit a crime it would rise to the level of burglary in the second degree.”
Hopefully, the tenant files a complaint with the authorities, as any unlawful entry into someone’s home is wrong and dangerous, especially after dark.
