So, you feel that tenants shouldnt be able to leave for seven hours while they paint? I dont see any reason that some options werent given to accomodate tenants being able to leave or get into their own home. Do the painting in blicks of time, paint half or put a long strip of butcher paper, paint late at night or middle of the night, or just simply request that tenants try to limit their trips in and out that day. But to write what basically is an order that no tenants can leave or come back all day?
Maintaining property is sometimes inconvenient. They gave plenty of notice, seems this gets done once every few years. They gave plenty of time for residents to make accommodations if needed. People have to leave for a day or more when bug bombing has to be done, and it’s certainly a pain if the water needs to be turned off for a day, too. Sometimes inconvenient things happen. They try to do these things in a way that inconveniences the fewest people, and in a way that’s not so expensive they need to raise rent to fund it regularly.
If those few people left who are inconvenienced the most make a big stink about it, I suppose the management might try to come up with a different idea. I’m sure doing it at night in the dark isn’t an option, nor will that be tolerated by the majority whose sleep and perception of security will be disturbed by strange workers making noise and talking to each other outside their windows with bright work lights in the middle of the night. So, come up with something else.
You won’t get kicked out for venturing outside your apartment. They may even be able to accommodate you. Do you even know how something like this really goes down? I would do something crazy, like call my building manager, and tell her what my day is like and whether that would really be such a problem if I need to leave and come back. Likely they designed the notice so as to have the fewest possible tenants in the way, but are perfectly prepared for that to happen. This isn’t their first rodeo, but it appears to be yours. Ask questions. It’s funny you’re calling others “sheeple” when all you’re doing is speculating and doing a lot of hand waving. Try talking to someone who can actually give you a factual answer.
Most apartments I’ve seen around the US have only 1 entrance. Most apartment managers don’t care about their residents. They could have found a better way of doing it but they just don’t care to put that much thought into it.
-as mentioned - painting half at a time
-faster prep (like sand or soda blasting) and faster drying primer and paint
-giving more concise work times (3-4 hour window) per building
-laying down a laminate / vinyl covering which required no drying time
Apartment managers – especially corporate apartment management companies – are renowned for their attitude that tenants are nothing but cattle, or chattel, or baggage to be tossed around like the baggage handlers do at the airport. Your sole meaningful, useful, relevant purpose in the existence of your life is to pay them the rent. Most of them are especially famous for the habit of waiting until the very last possible minute to notify tenants of anything that might adversely affect them like this.
Most states have laws granting and protecting certain rights for tenants (varies from state to state). If you take a look at your rental agreement or lease, you will find a list of rights, prerogatives, privileges, etc., that your landlords magnanimously grant to you. These rights are just exactly what your state law says they must grant you anyway, not a whit more nor less. Then there are the pages of “house rules” and other terms and conditions that the landlords impose upon you. The local manager may or may not be someone you can work with, but to the corporate managers at headquarters you are nothing but troublesome vermin, in between making rent payments.
Note, though, that they do have to maintain the property, and that might require occasional inconveniences for tenants. There’s room to argue whether it’s really necessary work or just cosmetic, as OP suggests.
My large apartment complex, just last month, resurfaced the entire parking lot, doing half on one day and half two days later. We all had to move our cars, with maybe two days advance notice. (There were apparently enough unreserved guest spaces in each half to accommodate all the cars from the other half.) They announced that cars had to be out by 08:00 a.m. or they would be towed – and then the towing company started towing cars at 07:45 a.m.! If they had towed my car before 08:00, they’d have heard from me about it fer sure. (I was one of the very few who actually moved my car out the evening before.)
They also have “annual” apartment inspections – about three or four times a year, for one lame reason after another. They usually give just exactly 24 hours notice, not a minute more nor less, as required by law.
Let us not even get started on the predatory towing that used to happen at apartments everywhere, for which the landlords were certainly getting kickbacks from the tow companies. That seems to be largely solved now, as there eventually rose sufficient stink about it that the Ca legislature passed some laws to control it a few years ago. You can google predatory towing to find all the message boards about that. There are most probably even some Pit threads here on that.
And BTW: All apartments that I’ve ever seen (which are plenty) only have one door. Some are inside buildings, where the buildings have multiple doors, but the individual apartments still have only one door. Is the OP living on the ground floor? Maybe he and climb in or out a window. Is he going to track paint all over his carpet?
Sitting at his PC bitching about “sheeple” is much safer than actually talking to a live person!
Kevinb and Senegoid, yea this is the crux of the problem, most of them view tenants as cattle…kevinb, you made my point best, that if they wanted to they could have just put a wee bit of thought into making the process less of a burden for the residents, but they dont care enough to sit down for ten minutes and put some thought into it, easier to issue a blanket proclamation order. Btw, Senegoid, as far as going out the window, the windows all open onto the landing, so if you climb out the bedroom or living room window you would just be on the landing.
Not only that, he’d take a big DUMP on the freshly-painted walkway, just so they know who’s boss! Any pussy who dares whine about it, he’s gonna flex his giant guns and make them kneel down and EAT it! That’s the kind of thing tough guys do, because they’re so tough!
This morning a note was on doors, adding a more balsy ‘order’…it says that at nine on friday, yellow tape will be placed there, and tenants will be ’ prohibited’ from coming or going until, yep, 4 pm. Like kevinb said, no effort whatsoever to thoughtfully do it in a way that tenants can have at least a little flexibility to access their own residence.
Note to self, plastic tape can be gently lifted up to walk by, with a polite "im sorry, but i have to go somewhere’
So…you don’t have any friends or relatives you could visit on that day?
That is im sure what some will do, those who can wake at 8 am and have relatives close by. Even if I did, it would mean I have to wake up super early on my day off, I get home late on thursday and need to sleep until about ten or eleven. All i would like to be able to do is to get some sleep friday morning, and then leave after i wake up to go out for a while to do what i need to do, and then come back home . i would not make more than one trip out, to leave, and one trip in, to come home, I feel like that is being very accomodating, but they also need to be reasonable, not just demand or expect tenants have the ability to be locked in or out all day
unless they want to hand out hotel vouchers to those who need it
the new notice says tenants will be prohibited entry or exit to their residents after nine am. This doesnt sound like a request, does the wording of that imply anyone who attempts to leave or enter their home will get in trouble. the onsite manager is someone most try to avoid because of how she treats tenants, so I really hesitate to talk to her about it, and the residents are not given any way to contact or reach the owner
Wow, how inconsiderate of the landlord.
Now, what would make sense, and what I’ve seen done in similar situations, would be to paint half of it (longwise) on one day and do the rest on the next day.
You can’t hold people hostage in their own home. But perhaps he didn’t want to pay for the crew for 2 days.
announcing to tenants they will be prohibited from leaving their home after 9am is completely obnoxious and shows what some here said, that the owner simply didnt care at all to put an iota of thought into the process…very simple to provide ways for tenants to access their homes, such as painting half one day half the next. The tenants were not asked to try and refrain from making trips, they were simply ordered not to, with the obnoxious suggestion to simply " plan your schedule around it". It isnt hard to think of a number of scenarios that would make it too burdensome to do so. They didnt give notice until late sat nite, so anyone who was out of town may not have gotten it until today or later. What if someone had planned their kids birthday party for that afternoon at one, with guests already invited. Simply cancel the party? An elderly person who sleeps until later, and then has a doctor appointment to go to? Someone is ok with being hostage in their home all day, but at ten am gets a call from a job, asking if they can come in for a interview at noon? Just tell the job sorry, they cant leave because the landlord isnt letting them due to some painting? I could write a whole list of things that for some make it a huge burden, i know its not for everyone, but to presumptiously take the liberty of thanking tenants for their cooperation without even knowing if they can do so is so obnoxious its hard to believe.
I’m sure the landlord is just issuing decrees in the full awareness that he has no real power to enforce them. He’s betting on the fact that most people will be mindless/polite/cooperatative enough (take your pick) to do their best to deal with it, and the stronger the wording, the fewer potential assholes/freedom lovers/working stiffs who won’t be held down by the man (take your pick) he’ll have to deal with. Further, I’d bet he’s fully expecting to have some people ignore the request and do whatever the hell they want anyway.
I would assume it’s a badly phrased request. The property owner doesn’t have the authority (unless you have a really bizarre lease) to exclude you from your apartment for eight hours, or force you to remain in it. Ask the painters when they’ll be doing your area and plan accordingly.
You could ask a friend/relative if you can arrive late on Thursday, crash there, do your own thing on Friday, and take the friend out to dinner Friday night as thanks.
That’s what I would do.
It would be nice to have an actual excuse to see a RL friend (maybe a woman friend?) and the friend would love to help you out. This Cracked article summed it up nicely (reason 7)
Spending the night at a friends isnt an option at this time, but even if it were, Its not something I would want to do, since I pay rent every month on time, I feel i should have the use of my home except for some type of urgent need like bombing for a termite infestation, but not just because the owner wants to paint the ground…I was just trying to find out if leaving is something a tenant could get into trouble for, since the notice says tenants will " be prohibited from leaving after 9 am" The main burden is friday but actually all week long they will be doing very noisy sandblasting, and only gave a days notice, telling us to keep our windows closed and move everything off our doorway and balconys. Why didnt they let us know at least a few weeks ahead of time, they waited until late sat night to put notices on the doors, for work starting early monday morning. Im sure they probably knew at least a month ago but for some reason waited until hours before to notify us
From what a few people said, it sounds like it is a hopefully worded notice, akin to the signs in some stores that say " if you break it, you bought it" when what they really mean is " we are hoping you dont know that we cannot make you pay for it, so that in the event you break something you will pay for it".
Seems like a petty thing to get worked up about. There are any number of workarounds, you’ve had notice, and, well, shit has to get done and you are never going to find a way that makes everyone happy. I wouldn’t want to pay hundreds or thousands of extra dollars for the crew to take an extra day just because on guy has decided he has a rigid schedule.
Life is mildly inconvenient at times. Fight against it if you like, but that seems like a tiring way to live.
You must be relatively new at being a tenant. Landlords – especially corporate management companies – are evil, vile, and infamously notorious for shit like that. Fortunately, however, these kinds of disturbances are usually irregular and infrequent. (With the possible exception of the gardening crew, who generally show up every week and make a whole lot of noise, and sometimes their leaf blowers in the parking lot shower a layer of dust over all the cars.)
Your choices may depend, in the final analysis, on just how much of a fight you feel like putting up. Yes, the managers are counting on having most or all of the “sheeple” just quietly deal with it, and I think that is in fact what generally happens most of the time.
How often do these managers lay this (or similar) shit on you? Once every six years? Three times every year? Your course of least resistance (if you choose that) is to just adjust your schedule that day. Wake up early; go out somewhere for the day where you think you might have some fun; if you’re sleepy and bleary-eyed, just cope with it. It’s only for one day?
Another option to consider: Take a motel room for the night, and deduct the cost of that from your rent next month. Spoiling for a fight? That’ll generally get you one, fer sure.