Im wondering if a landlord can legally demand this, or if what it really means is " please try not to". Last night tenants got notices telling us that on Friday, they will paint the stucco walkway. All day from 9-4. and so we may not walk into or out of our residence between those hours. This is fine for those who leave anyways for work and will be gone all day, but I cant believe this would be a legal demand. Im off Friday and enjoy sleeping in til ten, then I go out for a couple hours and come back home. I dont want to be seen as a difficult tenant, but should I really have to wake at the crack of dawn if I dont want to be stuck at home all day til four? (Yes, waking and leaving by 855 am is early for me on my day off). For those who dont work during those hours, we either have to leave early and stay out all day, or stay home the entire day. I find this an unreasonable burden. Does anyone know if this is really legal? painting the stucco sidewalk is not a necessary repair such as for safety, its just cosmetic, and do most people really care deeply enough about the sidewalk being a pristine white color, enough to be locked out of their house all day? It seems really obnoxious to write it this way. If they want to paint the ground, the notice shouod just let tenants know about the painting with perhaps a gracious request to try to limit foot traffic if possible. If someone needs to get in or out of their home, they could place a piece of paper, or just brush back over their footsteps after, or they could paint at night, it is brightly lit, seems like they didnt appreciate or care about what a burden this would be for some, and no effort to mitigate or arrange it to make it less inconvenient or burdensome
Go out the back door for that day.
Any building is legally required to have (at least) 2 exits.
I would pretty much ignore such a request if it came on my day off.
There’s only one way out of your apartment? Out of the building? No rear entrance/exit or fire escape? Maybe a little inconvenient, but just go around. Me, I would just run any errands the night before and stay in until 4. But I’m courteous like that, and it’s just not that big a deal.
By “residence” does he mean the building itself, or does he mean the individual apartments?
Ditto. They can’t legally deny you access to and from your apartment (at least, in Chicago), so this is really just a request. I personally would try to avoid a lot of back and forth that would disturb the process, but if I wanted to leave while they’re painting - tough.
That said, it looks to me like the landlord was trying to be accomodating here. The 9-4 time-frame avoids impacting people going to and returning from work, which would logically be the majority of people, while still getting the work done during normal business hours (weekday, between 9-5) which would be cheaper than having it done at night or on a weekend.
I encountered this a few times during my previous job, since I worked nights. All sorts of was scheduled during the hours most people were away, which meant all sorts of racket while I was home. Typically the few times it happened I’d hang out at a coffee shop with my laptop and/or Kindle (pretty much what I’d be doing at home) or catch a movie.
Couldn’t this problem be avoided if they painted half the walkway one day, and the other half the next day?
The apartment is not an enclosed building, in other words the notice is not referring to an outside exit to a building, it is referring to the residents private apartments. The painting is going to be on a walkway right outside the units, so there is no other way to exit or enter apartments. I dont understand why they dont just designate a strip people can walk on if they need to come and go. The wording of the letter is ’ Dear tenants, on Friday we will be painting the walkway outside the units between nine and four p.m. Tenants will not be able to exit or enter their units during these seven hours. Please adjust your schedule accordingly. Thank you for your cooperation"
Jeff Lichtman, Yea there are a number of things they could do to accomodate the right of tenants to enter or exit their homes. It would be one thing if it was only for a couple hours. But seven? Those who dont work, or have other work schedules, will be pretty burdened by it. The wording is obnoxious imo, " please adjust your schedules accordingly" as if not being allowed to leave all day or having to stay out somewhere all day is no big deal. The only way the notice should bew orded is to ask tenants to try to avoid alot of coming and going, but not as a rule that you arent allowed to leave all day. I dont want to get on the landlords bad side but dont feel I should have to stay home ( or stay out) all day.
Since the OP is asking for legal advice, this is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
If you were to approach a lawyer about this, I’m pretty sure they’d strongly suggest you talk to the apartment manager (or whomever) yourself, first. Odds are, that 7-hour window is for getting the whole building paint, and you can find a much smaller window when your particular apartment will be inaccessible. I’m sure a few (i.e. four or less) trips won’t present too much of a challenge to work around.
It’s a lot easier working things out between two reasonable people than to work things out according to the law. (That’s why government is so expensive: they have to do everything in total compliance with every law, ordinance or statute (even the ones that’re almost never enforced)).
Dude’s out there painting the walkway, what do you do?
Walk right through it, tell him it’s your day off?
Having to brush a couple paint strokes back over where he walked seems less burdensome than him having to be trapped at home for seven hours though
Doesn’t sound safe to live in, if there is only a single exit/entrance.
Its not that it only has " one exit". It is not an enclosed apartment building with a main door to enter through. Im not sure how to describe it, but the type of complex that is not enclosed, the individual units are on ‘the outside’ if that makes sense, there IS no building you enter through to get to your unit. The units are along a walkway, or a landing that is directly attached to the units. If you walk outside your door, your standing on the walkway, like an outdoor hallway, with a short staircase at either end. They are painting the whole landing where tenants have to walk along to go to their unit. There is no way to get in or out of your place without walking on the landing.
I ask them politely when they will be finished and/or working on my entrance and inform them that, instructions to the contrary, I will not abide being locked in or out of my home for the duration, so it is they who will have to accommodate my comings and goings and I hope we can work that out.
If they refuse, then they’re fucked, because I’m going to win that argument.
I agree that the landlord should be finding a way to accomodate tenants being able to simply get in or out of their home, rather than a cheerfully worded notice telling us to " plan our schedule around it" and thanking us for our anticipated cooperation. Shit. Seven hours all day is too unreasonably long a time to ask people to stay out of their own home. Many people have other type shifts where they work swing shift or late hours etc. What about an elderly person who needs to rest at home until 1 pm and then go to a doctor appointment. What I was wondering is can tenants who have to leave or come home during this time get in trouble with the landlord or be evicted? I dont want to be seen as uncooperative, but the idea of having to stay home all day on my day off, OR the alternative, wake up super early and then be stuck outside all day, is a completely unreasonable request.
Doesn’t sound reasonable to me. There are people with all different kinds of schedules for work. Not everybody works 9-5 or thereabouts. That’s just dumb. Not to mention people who don’t work or have the day off.
I’ve lived in two different apartments in my life, and both of them were as the OP described. All I had was a front door opening into the sidewalk. No other way to get out. The upstairs apartment dwellers would have to go out the front of their apartment, go down the stairs, and end up on that same sidewalk.
I think if there werent so many ’ sheeple’ who just go along with things like this, landlords would not dream of making such a ridiculous demand. I would hope that the landlord will get enough calls from tenants with a firm explanation that they are sorry but they are unable to stay out ( or home) all day. The problem is alot of people are sheeple, and go along mindlessly with things that shouldnt be, and that gives landlords more brazenness to act like dictators or slumlords. I still dont get why no effort towards accomodating tenants was made, such as placing a long strip of butcher paper to walk on off to the side for those who have business they need to take care of. Are we supposed to f off whatever we need ( or want) to do that day. Tenant gets a call at ten asking them to come in for a long hoped for job interview…" sorry, I cant make it, my landlord said we all have to stay indoors while he paints" . Tenant gets a call from their friend asking if they can take them to the pharmacy because their car is in the shop…and so on. People have things they need to attend to, cant just blow everything off because they want to paint. Paint around me, dont have me bend over backwards and cancel things so you can paint
You’re just going to walk through wet paint?
Man, I don’t know.
Sounds unlikely to me.
But,
whatever.
If that’s the kind of guy you are. best the neighbors all know it. Your footsteps will show it.