Did I handle this right? (LONG!)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Ok, so far my landlord and I have had a good relationship. He fixes things as soon as they’re broken, my rent is fairly low for the are, and he basically leaves me alone. However, lately I’ve had a couple problems.

First off, I live in Southern Louisiana, and it gets hot down here - especially to me, since I’m from NY. However, since my utilities are included with my rent, my landlord feels that he can tell me when it’s hot enough for me to turn on my air conditioner or not. He actually came by one day when it was in the mid 70’s and asked me to “have enough respect” for him to turn it off. Well, I let that go and things were fine.

Just this past week, things got ugly. He dropped by late Tuesday night without warning and came into my house to measure the bathroom ceiling and to inform me that he was tearing it down. He has to build a staircase in the back of the building which requires my ceiling to be slightly lower. He says that Thursday (just two days later) he’s going to have construction workers there at 830AM to do the work. I had class at 130 that day and was assured they would be done by then. He also told me to move my stuff out of the way, but I could leave it in the room as the workers would put in the new ceiling before the older one. All the soot and sawdust should fall on the new ceiling and not into my apartment.

Thursday, I get up at 730AM (I hadn’t gotten home till 3AM and was very tired) to move my stuff and get ready. The workers didn’t show up till after 10. At about 12, my landlord tells me they won’t be done before my class, so he’ll stay around and make sure they don’t steal anything. I had to go to class with people I didn’t know all over my apartment!

That night, they didn’t finish the work and left me with only a few boards on the ceiling - anyone could have pushed them off to get into my apartment. In case y’all haven’t heard, there’s a serial killer stalking young women in Baton Rouge. I was slightly worried and couldn’t sleep that night. I was told they would return the next day at 9.

At 8AM, they show up and I’m not up or dressed. For the second day, I go to class while these people are in my house. For the second day I get a terrible headache from the racket. They finally finish around 6 that night.

Now, this whole time I couldn’t use my bathroom or shower. When I just HAD to pee, I had to ask the men to get off my roof, and keep looking up to make sure they weren’t watching. I’m also a very private person and couldn’t stand having all those people around. I got NONE of my homework done. My boyfriend and I spent 3 hours cleaning up his mess, and I had to buy new things cause the workers broke some of my stuff.

Finally, as my landlord is preparing to leave, I ask him (in exactly these words, and with no sarcasm in my voice) “I was just wondering if there would be any sort of compensation?” He got livid, telling me how insulted he was. “After all I do for you people. I keep rent low, and everything’s always fixed. Then I ask for a little understanding ONE time and someone wants to be compensated.” He bitched on and on and made me cry.

Did I handle that right? Should I have mentioned something earlier? Should I have just sucked it up and understood? I just can’t feel anything but anger and hate right now - but that’s not the type of person I am. Any ideas on how to act next time I see him - he has to come by next week to paint his new ceiling.

2

Were you asking about the things that were broken or the inconvenience?

3

IMHO, he should compensate you for the things that were broken. Look into your Legal Aid clinic on campus, or your State department of housing or whatever branch exists in your state to find the relevent laws or for advice from a lawyer.

If everything else is fine, though, and this wasn’t expensive replacements, and you’re pretty sure this is only a one-time thing, I might just leave it alone personally. It depends on how much you feel you were inconvenienced, and how far you want to push it. I have a friend whose landlord screwed her over last year, and it STILL isn’t settled in court (though her compensation is about 2200$ CDN, so its worth it).

Weigh out the pros and cons, but at the least talk to a legal aid person and see what your options are, if not for this time, you’ll be prepared if he tries anything else like this.

Good luck

4

I worked for a realtor for several years. There typically is a clause in the lease which allows the landlord to do reasonable repairs during reasonable hours, with reasonable notice, which it sounds like this was.

Work crews are notorious for being early/late and it sounds like he did his best to give you good info and was pretty accurate. And while they may have inconvenienced you, they were there at reasonable hours.

What kinds of things were broken and needed to be replaced? Did you tell him about the items that were broken and the costs?

It sounds like this guy treated you pretty fairly and that the bigger issue here was that you just didn’t like folks interfering with your privacy and your routine.

If these were inconsequential items and you like where you’re living, then I’d definitely suck it up. You can always say, “I’m sorry you misunderstood me, I was inquiring whether the items that were broken xxx replacement costs would be compensated or could be deducted from my rent.”

When utilities are included the landlord does not have the right to tell you your comfort level. However, it is nice to be considerate of costs if you don’t wish your next lease to be jacked up to account for the costs, or to have to pay for the utilities separately. Do the usual things Mom’s taught you–turn the lights out when you’re leaving a room for a length of time, don’t let air exchange take place by talking to folks with your door open, wear appropriate clothes for the season.

5

You should have said, “They broke X, Y, and Z while they were here; I’ve replaced them and you need to talk to them about compensation. Here’s the receipts.” The way you phrased it, I would have interpreted it as a request for compensation because these guys were in there disturbing your living habits. As for their work hours, they may have been off here or there, but it sounds like they were trying to get the job done quickly rather than stretching it out over multiple days.

As for the unboarded ceiling thing, I don’t think a serial killer is going to break into your apartment by breaking into an upstairs apartment and then climbing down through the hole in your bathroom ceiling. :slight_smile:

6

I would think the constuction company would be liable for replacing broken personal items, not the Landlord. They should be bonded. Note, IANALawyer but I’d take it up with them rather than ruin the relationship you have with that landlord.

$.02

7

Thanx for all the advice. To clarify, I was also upset that it took me half my saturday to clean up after them, and that I was forced to allow people I didn’t know access to my apartment when I wasn’t here. And Ferret, there’s no apartment above my bathroom - it was open to the outdoors. No one else was inconvenienced other than myself.

8

When you rent, there are situations where there will be strangers in your apartment. If you can’t be there, your landlord should make some arrangement so that they aren’t left alone with your stuff too long, and he should also make sure they clean up and lock up after themselves (it’s his building, after all). I’ve had things break down in apartments before, and it’s just a fact of life that repairmen come in to fix them sometimes, and you often do need to clean up after them. They shouldn’t break your things, though. Be on the safe side next time, and just remove anything that might get broken.

In Alberta, landlords are required to give 24 hours notice before they come into your apartment for anything except emergencies (measuring a bathroom doesn’t count as an emergency). That’s what I’d be pissed about; he may own the place, but the portion that you rent isn’t free for him to waltz into any time he pleases.