Keep an Apartment locked when not home?

[zeke79]

If you have no reason to hide, put your stuff away and supervise. Put lockpicks, etc in your vehicle and let them look for bugs. If it becomes a problem then work with your lawyer. I've been on both ends. I have rented in the past from a landlord. Granted this was really small town of 7000. Then i bought rentals and had to deal with it from the other side. I had to sell rentals off due to health concerns but I always enjoyed tenants who cooperated. I bugged them the least I had to for local health codes and always looked the other way no matter what I found if it was not causing a problem.

Just my $.02.

[dll932]

Property law is almost as old as the Bible. Check with your local tenant-landlord association. I ran an apartment building for years, in Ohio the law was basically 24 hour notice OR in case of emergency.

I like the idea of an internet-enabled camera you can check from your phone. I also have an "electronic dog" that barks if someone gets close to the door. You can also get a wireless alarm with a dialer that will call your phone if violated. If they know you have stuff like that, it should keep 'em honest.

[Evan]

The law varies so much between jurisdictions, it's not wise to make sweeping statements like that. Some jurisdictions lean crazily in favor of tenants, some are just as badly lopsided for landlords, most are somewhere in between. Not to mention other factors that can come into play (is there government housing assistance involved? Condo association(s)? HOAs? etc). You may be 100% right about your situation, but that doesn't mean it's true everywhere or applies to the original poster.

For example, I know for a fact that the authority in a nearby jurisdiction to me, where I used to have rental properties, cannot force landlords or tenants to let them in… but of course often they can play one off against the other since they only need permission from one party. (Likely if there is an issue, they can get permission from one or the other who will be unhappy.)

Say no to a fire or health inspection and you have no more rental unit, a notice of condemnation and padlock go on the door when the occupancy permit gets revoked...

AHJ: Authority Having Jurisdiction, could be the fire inspector, building inspector, health department -- all of those public officials have a right to enter, if you deny them access then your dwelling's occupancy permit can be revoked on the spot and they can get really nasty and have you forcibly removed to make a point if you want to take it that far...

~~ Evan

[lucysmith]

Hmmm. I think a surveillance camera is one big help. Because I haven't heard of a lock that will automatically locked inside when you're not at home unless you change the door locks without telling the landlord.