roommate gone need to show (locked) room

September 3, 2007 10:43 PM

I have a roommate moving out and I need to show the room to possible tenants. The problem is he left for a couple weeks and locked his door. Is there a law stating the room has be available for showing, or am I out of luck for two weeks? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
posted by debu to Law & Government (11 answers total)

can you break in? With your roommates permission of course. I have been able to break through crappy bedroom door locks with credit cards before.
posted by gavtaylor at 10:50 PM on September 3, 2007

Response by poster: yeah I'd try that but the roommate is moving out because of non-payment on utilities/ late rent and we are not on good terms.. I'd rather do things properly, am I entitled to show the room before the months up?? I've checked the SFtenant union site but it shows no info on this :?
posted by debu at 11:27 PM on September 3, 2007

Could he send a friend around to be there when you're showing the room, in lieu of him being there?
What kind of lease do you have?
Have you issued him with notice to leave, or is he just going?
Are you SURE he is coming back?!
Do you have any photos of the room?

If he's not leaving for a month, and he's back in two weeks, you may just have to wait it out... if you need someone ASAP, and really need to show a room, why don't you show your room, and then when bad-roomie moves out, move into his room?
posted by indienial at 12:11 AM on September 4, 2007 [2 favorites]

As a slight derail, be aware that a room that's been locked for two weeks is likely to smell a little musty and funky, so when showing it to new prospects, make sure it's been given a thorough airing, cleaning and vacuuming first. It might gall you to have to do this in someone else's room but I doubt your soon-to-be-ex-roommate will care about how it's presented as long as he doesn't have to clean it himself.
posted by essexjan at 12:34 AM on September 4, 2007

Unless you live in a palace with distinctly uniquely themed rooms, showing it shouldn't be that much of a necessity . . . "uh, it's like this, but the closet's on that wall" . . .
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:37 AM on September 4, 2007

Gee, a regular landlord has a right to show the place on some day or two of notice. However, I'm thinking you don't have a formal landlord/tenant relationship with him, but he is just a sublet. I don't know the law in your area, or mine for that matter, but I would just unlock that door and lock it up before he comes back. He didn't handle it properly, so you have to do what you can. You would be just showing the room so you can rent it. You would not be going to snoop through his stuff. You would be doing nothing wrong. PS if you can't do this because of the type of lock, in future make sure none of your roomies has the only key, if it's a keylock situation. If you are responsible for the place, if you're on the lease, you need to have access assured in case of emergency.
posted by Listener at 1:14 AM on September 4, 2007

You may wish to determine what your relationship is to this person under the law. If you are a landlord, then see the section entitled "WHEN CAN THE LANDLORD ENTER THE RENTAL UNIT?", located here. If you have some other relationship to this person, then there does not appear to be any guidance in the statutes and you may wish to consult one of the organizations listed here.
posted by ND¢ at 5:29 AM on September 4, 2007

From the second link posted by ND¢, "With a sublease, the agreement between the original tenant and the landlord remains in force. The original tenant is still responsible for paying the rent to the landlord, and functions as a landlord to the subtenant." This is not legal advice, but one could interpret this to mean that you have the the same rights to enter that a landlord would have, assuming your roommate is subleasing.

Another way to ask your question might be, "what legal remedies would my roommate have if I showed his room while he was out?"
posted by barelylegalrealist at 7:01 AM on September 4, 2007

Unless you live in a palace with distinctly uniquely themed rooms, showing it shouldn't be that much of a necessity . . .

I certainly wouldn't rent a place based on assurances that "the room you're renting, that we won't let you see, is the same as the other ones".
posted by smackfu at 7:09 AM on September 4, 2007

When we need to gt into each others rooms where i live we slide a butter knife between the frame of the door and the little edging. it is very similar to using a credit card except you dont have to worry about breaking the card.
posted by DJWeezy at 7:30 AM on September 4, 2007

Ask the landlord to conduct an inspection/show the room. He can legally do it, you probably can't.
posted by electroboy at 10:30 AM on September 4, 2007