Policies on who is allowed to have apartment keys .. (lease, tenant, documentation)
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We have lived in the same apartment for about two and a half years .. no real crazy problems , last week we were sitting in our living room watching tv when our door was opened with a key in which an older man kind of stuck his head in and said " oh , um im here to clean the carpets ? " and we were like um no, go check with the office .
You could then hear him yelling to his partner that our apartment was occupied and "roll it back up " , my boyfriend then watched him from the balcony in which he did not return his key and left . we were going to complain , but we do know that they have a deal with a company so we let it slide ... until today when we were cleaning and noticed a couple video games ( only the discs , cases empty ) were missing , now this may seem trivial, but my boyfriend is OCD with putting games back where they belong especially and does not leave things laying around ... and its only the PS3 games that are missing , and its all of them .
I also know a bug company has our key as well .. just wondering how to handle the situation ..
Read your state landlord tenant laws which are probably linked in the first "sticky" on this forum page. It's standard in almost every state that a landlord must give 24 hours notice of any entry into leased premises and the tenant can reasonably deny permission and negotiate if the time and date are inconvenient. This incident is totally unacceptable and illegal and you need to jump on it without any further delay in writing via return receipt certified mail to the landlord.
I agree that letting the police know (and filing a report/getting a copy of it) is crucial. Obviously you won't get your property back as you can't prove that someone "broke in" to your apartment but the documentation will be a record for you if the situation escalates.
...last week we were sitting in our living room watching tv when our door was opened with a key
in which an older man kind of stuck his head in and said " oh , um im here to clean the carpets ? "
and we were like um no, go check with the office .
They don't have a key to YOUR apartment. They have a MASTER key to every apartment.
The pest control and other common contractors will have them as well.
Quote:
today when we were cleaning and noticed a couple video games ( only the discs , cases empty ) were missing , now this may seem trivial... just wondering how to handle the situation.
Do you have ANY substantive reason to suspect that these two events are IN ANY WAY related?
The manager is going to tell you to file a police report.
They don't have a key to YOUR apartment. They have a MASTER key to every apartment.
The pest control and other common contractors will have them as well.
Do you have ANY substantive reason to suspect that these two events are IN ANY WAY related?
The manager is going to tell you to file a police report.
As far as who has keys (master or otherwise, pest control and "other common contractors" regardless) is concerned, this doesn't in any way negate the fact that a landlord has to give notice of entry to any leased apartment for any reason in accordance with state laws. You've been contributing to this forum long enough to know that and to know that master key/individual key makes not a whit of difference.
No, of course the OP doesn't have "substantive reason" (i.e. PROOF) where the missing belongings are concerned but a police report noting no physical break-in certainly does at least circumstantially confirm that the alleged loss came about because of a keyed entry - and I already addressed that very issue. Better late than never to document it.
Someone read the wrong number on a work order and opened the wrong door.
("yelling to his partner that our apartment was occupied and "roll it back up")
A simple error. No more. No less.
The rest is inference, supposition and paranoia.
Someone read the wrong number on a work order and opened the wrong door.
("yelling to his partner that our apartment was occupied and "roll it back up")
A simple error. No more. No less.
The rest is inference, supposition and paranoia.
It still warrants backing up by letter whether it's a "simple error" or not. If one is to go by the OP's account of the door being opened there was no knock beforehand and, while you may disagree, it would be a normal presumption for anyone to assume that even someone with a master key would take such a precaution before blundering in. I'll ignore the final sentence and its assumptive editorializing and allow that you just may have got out of bed on the wrong side this morning!
I'll ignore the final sentence and its assumptive editorializing and allow that you just may have got out of bed on the wrong side this morning!
Don't. That is the most important and instructive portion of the comment.
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