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You need to check on tenancy laws in your location.
It might not be considered trespassing, but it could be something else.
Here in the UK tenants have a right to "quiet enjoyment" as it is phrased in law, which means your landlord is not allowed to bother you unannounced, and if they want to come to the property they must give reasonable advance notice (usually 24 hours)
You may have something similar.
The answer hinges on law, which hinges on location, location, location, so youβre asking the wrong people.
Location not specified; OP is presumed American until proven innocent.
Okay, then which state, county, and municipality should we presume?
I'm not a mind reader, it's just easy to spot Americans online.
I would guess a state bordering one of the Great Lakes though.
It's California. I guess it's alright to narrow it down to basically a country within a country
Probably not criminal trespassing, since they are the owner of the property. It may fall under tenant harassment, unauthorized entry, constructive eviction, or other laws that pertain specifically to landlord/tenant relations.
Check to see if there are any local tenant's rights or advocacy groups in your area that offer free legal consultations. They'd be able to advise you on the local tenant's rights laws and whether they apply to your situation.
I would physically beat the shit out of a landlord doing that. I am paying to use this property, it's not yours to do ANYTHING with.
I would physically beat the shit out of a landlord
If they remotely control the AC why wouldn't the landlord just turn off the AC when the window was open? Seems more logical, tbh. Maybe that's the escalation you mentioned youbwere worried about in another response.
I guess the escalation would come in a combination of becoming even more aggro, raising rent, and 'evicting' me aka not continuing my month to month lease.
Put a stick in the window on the inside to hold it open, and a camera watching everything
Nah, leave ketchup packets on the window sill with the outward facing end cut off.
Why do they remotely control your air conditioning?
In Australia that issue would fall under 'quiet comfort'. I don't think they'd be allowed to do that.
Why havenβt you put a piece of wood in the window track yet? If you physically block the window, he canβt do it from the outside
Because that would be an escalation they would without a doubt retaliate against, and it would be immediate rather than on my terms. I really do mean my landlord is a psycho. We have security cameras in the kitchen and written instructions on pieces of paper taped everywhere. When I first moved in they banged on my bedroom door to rant at me about other people having kitchen appliances they didn't approve and leaving a pan out. "You know what happens when I find something like this left out? It goes in the trash!"
You need to not live there anymore
I learned to put up with too much. But any kind of retaliation for any of this would probably just get me a 30 day notice to vacate so I'm envisioning it as more of a grenade I drop before I close the door behind me.
Idk where you live but if you are renting the entire unit it should be illegal to put a camera in the kitchen.
It's a house with multiple bedrooms, each of which have a letter taped to it as if the residential house were an apartment complex.
I highly encourage you to get a new place.
it's a fucking wasteland if you need to keep rent under 900 dollars and don't want to put your cats in a pound
If you find some good comrades you can find a house to rent between 3-4 people and get under that for your share. At least I'm my area cause I've been looking
Yeah that's the rub isn't it? I'm extremely atomized.
Kinda funny because some of the people in his house were planning something like that, but bad person.
So you're renting a room in a house? Who pays for the electricity? Regardless of if you're splitting the electricity amongst the tenants or the landlord is covering the electricity, I'd argue you're the one being inconsiderate as you're increasing the energy use and making others pay for it.
Not sure about the legality of the external shutting of the window though. You should have gotten a copy of the lease you signed and many places require that documentation to include a description of your and your landlords rights. You could start there.
But honestly that sounds like a terrible arrangement and I'd look for a different housing situation if you can.
You should definitely get a lawyer well versed in tenant rights. California has some of the most protective tenants rights in the US. From what you are describing I would not be surprised if a judge issues a temporary restraining order against the landlord to stay away from the property until things have been resolved.
alexa give me a recipe for rat poison cookies
It really depends on where you live and if the landlord lives in the same housebut: are there clearly written rules in the lease about the windows needing to stay closed? If not it is likely not justifiable for them to close them. Typically a landlord needs to provide 24-48 hours notice to enter the unit so if they are showing up on random days and entering that it likely illegal. Throwing away personal property is also illegal. The security cameras could also be illegal. The only way to know any of this would be to contact a local housing justice non profit (if it exists) or preferably a local tenant lawyer. You need to make sure you are documenting everything that seems like a violation, even just writing a note of when and what happened but photos and video could be preferable
Landlord-tenant laws should be online.
yeah but the average person doesn't know how to decipher legalese, won't know how city vs county vs state laws interplay with each other nor would they know the established legal precedents or the way courts typically rule on certain types of cases. unfortunately the law might say one thing but in practice enforcing it might not ever happen in certain municipalities. having a free consultation with a legal expert is a much faster way to get the correct answer than scrolling through dozens of pages of legal texts to think you might have a cursory grasp on the subject matter
Not everywhere offers that either. That's the pitfalls of asking online. One may get hundreds of replies that aren't helpful, to get one or a few that are. A lot of times I got zero useful replies in and of themselves, but useful in that they gave me another actionable idea.
Generally speaking all tenant lawyers work on contingency fees, they will give a free consultation to see if the case if potentially worth enough money for them to take it and then if so take a 40% cut of whatever the case makes. Tenant lawyers would not exist otherwise because virtually no tenants can hire a lawyer up front. So unless there are literally no tenant lawyers in an area, there will be someone willing to give a free consultation since that is how the business model is designed.
Okay
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I would guess that it isn't trespassing in the normal sense since they own the house/building. Since the contract sounds like it allows them access inside and outside based on the kitchen stuff. Still would be good to see what legal protections you have for privacy as a renter in your area. If they are closing the window from the outside, it might not be legally trespassing (again in the normal sense of the law) as they could argue it is a facilities issue or something.
I don't see anything about how the other people renting here feel, whether they would prefer windows or AC. The AC appears to be for the whole house, of which you only rent 1 room. Legally he might be in the wrong, but you're a terrible roommate.
I mean, if they've got AC running and you have a window open you're killing the efficiency for everyone, it's sort of a dick move.
But if they didn't have it running, they could just ask you nicely to close the window since they're turning the AC on.
It's a fire hazard. If you're running the ac the window should be closed, or cracked less than 2.5 cm
Lock it open?