We all know you don’t have to be best friends with your landlord. I mean, you don’t even have to get along with them, it’s enough if you tolerate each other and let that bare-minimum kind of communication do its own job.
This is not what happened to Taylor (@trashy_taylor on TikTok), a tenant at an unspecified apartment. Recently she shared a TikTok video of “preparing” her home for the landlord’s visit. The video starts with a screenshot of a message that reads: “Looks like I may stop by tomorrow around 9-9.30am, we had a guy ask for a quick showing of your place. See you later!” As you can see, the landlord made no effort to coordinate the viewer with Taylor, nor did they bother to ask her if that was fine with her.
But Taylor had her own kind of revenge on the property manager for doing tours without permission like it was open to public like the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and not her personal space. Below is the full video of what she came up with, and let me just tell you it’s full of ‘surprises.’
In preparation for a tour of her apartment done without her permission, Taylor arranged some ‘surprises’
If you’re renting out a unit, it’s always a good idea to know your rights as a tenant. To see what they’re like, we look at legal advice provided by Justia, a source that provides open and free access to the law, and a platform for the legal community to share their knowledge.
According to information provided by Justia, while a landlord has right of entry, this is balanced against your right to privacy as a tenant. Landlords are not entitled to go through your unit and belongings at will. When it comes to landlords coming into the rented unit, they generally must have a valid reason to do so and give tenants proper notice, unless the tenant gave them permission in advance. Sometimes other parties may need to enter your unit, such as health inspectors, and tenants have rights in those situations as well.
Here is the whole video that Taylor posted on her TikTok amassing 233.8k views and counting
The common situation in which a landlord has right of entry is when they are showing the apartment to prospective tenants or purchasers. Again, tenants need to have reasonable notice, such as a 24-hour warning. If the landlord wants to show the apartment on shorter notice, the tenant may be able to negotiate a reduction in rent.
However, while some states require 24 or 48 hours of notice, other states simply require that notice must be reasonable. Tenants can consult recent cases in their state to find out how this has been interpreted. Written notice is sometimes but not always required. If you as a tenant have particular needs or preferences for when the landlord can access the unit, you can reach a specific agreement with the landlord or include it as a clause in your lease.
And this is how people reacted to Taylor’s sweet revenge
Others shared some more ingenious ideas of more surprises to welcome the landlord and his tour group coming to Taylor’s apartment
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