Walk It Through: The Spare Key
24 hours' notice between 8 and 8, a reasonable business purpose, and up to $500 a violation.
A tenant comes home from work to find the landlord inside the apartment, with no notice beforehand.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One apartment and one landlord. Emergencies, a vacated unit, and the other business purposes the section lists are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Damage depositThe deposit a landlord returns with interest, or explains in a written statement of the specific reason for keeping any part, within three weeks after the tenancy ends and the landlord receives the tenant's mailing address.
- MaintenanceSupport the court may order for a spouse who lacks enough property for reasonable needs or cannot provide adequate self-support. It may be transitional or indefinite.
- Reasonable business purposeThe only reason a landlord may enter, such as showing the unit, maintenance or a code inspection, and only after a good faith effort to give reasonable notice of at least 24 hours, between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
- RetaliationAn eviction, a raised obligation or a cut service imposed as a penalty for a tenant's good faith complaint of a violation or attempt to enforce rights.