My landlord left a letter on my door informing me that there will be a "walk-through" the house this week. What are my rights, and what is some good advice? (I live in New Mexico, USA)
I have rented this place for just over 13 months, and this is the first time I've received notice of this rather random walk-through of my home by the owner and someone who works with him. I've never received such a "walk-through" in the 7 years of me renting in this town.
I've always paid my bills on time, except for last month when I was a day late. The landlord fined me $30 for being a day late, and I paid the fine promptly without complaining.
This puts a lot of excess anxiety on me, because I am not sure why there is all of a sudden sufficient concern with my landlord to warrant a "walk-through." This also is a huge inconvenience because they want to conduct the walk-through during my working hours. The note said that I do not need to be present. I am also in a panic to get the house cleaned up and am considering a shampooing of the living room.
I am fearful that their motive is to find something wrong with the place and evict me.
Now, after 13 months time these are the things that I have attributed to in the degradation of this house:
* Living room carpet has a few more spots then it did originally. That being said, in the lease I wrote in my initial inspection of the house that the living room carpet was already trashed and would need to be replaced and there wasn't really anything more I could do to it that could degrade its value. They agreed to this.
* I have installed doggy doors on the door to the laundry room and the door that lead to the back yard from the laundry room. The back door is very old, the wood is rotted and it has had reinforcements put in (and put in poorly I might add). The door that connects the kitchen to the laundry room is an extremely cheep door. I did not ask if it was ok for me to install these doggy doors, but I am willing to pay and see that they are replaced before I leave this place.
* The back door (which I commented on in the last point) has been scratched up very badly on the outside by my dog. I had a hard time with the dog when I first got her (I rescued her), but now she is well trained and well behaved. She has not torn up anything else and the land lord was notified that I got a pet and started charging me more per month.
I dunno... this may just be a routine of the land lords to check their rentals every year. I still feel like my privacy is somehow being violated and wish they would have given me a little more than a 2 day notice.
I do plan on being present when they do this walk-through, however inconvenient, and I will have a digital audio recorder recording the walk-through.
Questions (please answer to your best knowledge even if you do not live in the state of New Mexico):
1. How much can they search around? Can they look in my closets? Can they start going through my stuff?
2. Can the land lord come in my house whenever they want and without notifying me? In other words, is it perfectly legal for them to invade my privacy?
3. Where can I find out more about my state laws on such matters?
4. What ammunition/leverage can I use if they want to evict me?
5. What about if they want to raise my rent? Is there anything saying that they can't raise my rent by $1000 a month and force me out? I originally signed a 6 month lease, but was not asked to sign an additional 6 month lease and did not pursuit it personally.
Thanks for all your information!
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The landlord must provide a tenant with a 24-hour written notice before entering the premises. This does not apply if the tenant has requested repairs or services be performed or in the case of an emergency.
posted by ND¢ at 7:04 PM on August 27, 2007