The next maintenence person who barges into my apt is getting hurt

This is more of a rant than anything.

These maintenance people at my Apt. think they can just barge in when something is wrong or they need to to some type of maintenance without consideration for me. They only knock once but give me little time to answer the door.

I was a hair away from pulling my knife on this new guy this morning because he barges his way in without revealing that he's with maintenance. If they keep doing this, I will get physical with somebody and I plan on getting into martial arts classes very soon to deal with assholes like this.

I'm sick of people who don't respect me. It should be a crime for these people to keep doing this. After all, I ****ING PAY RENT HERE SO GIVE ME THE RESPECT THAT I'M ENTITLED TO AS A RENTER YOU SUBHUMAN MAGGOT PIECES OF ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would annoy me / scare me, too. And it's a little thoughtless bordering on ignorantly disrespectful. Do you feel like you can say something to them? If not, I at least hope you feel better posting here. Are they coming in for a reason? like are you expecting them?

Put a menacing sign on the door?

Where I live the management has to give a minimum of 24-hour notice before entering an apartment, unless there is a true emergency. Does your management give you any notice?

The apartments I've lived in also had to give 24 hours notice. Can you talk to management about giving you more notice? They should not be barging in on you like that.

I lived in a chalet type duplex though and came walking out of the bathroom one day and there stood my landlord and perspective renters ...even though my car was parked outside. No notice, no nothing. I was scared and angry and they were embarrassed. Good luck getting your point across to management if you go that route. Best wishes.

one good thing about renting in america is we have tenant / landlord/ maintenance/ public housing/ renting laws. one of them being when a tenant reports a problem with something in the apartments need fixing, the repairing department or landlord or manager of the apartments .....must.... ask whether the tenant gives permission for the repair people to enter. (there are repair forms with this right on it that if the tenant at any time has stated yes, that box automatically gets checked )

my first suggestion is to check with your managers or landlords to find out whether at any time you stated it was ok for them to enter. even if it was back when you first moved in if you stated yes then they have that right to do do........until..... you put in writing you no longer give this permission to enter and give the form to the manager\landlord (your landlord or manager can look in your file they keep on tenants and let you know if and when you gave permission and how to rescind that permission.

if it turns out you did not give permission each managers/ landlord has to give the tenants in writing the complaint procedures and where with the nearest authority on renting laws to your location is. you can ten put in writing this violation of tenant landlord manager laws.

But you may also reread your lease, most renting leases in america contain a clause that states how many hours prior notice to enter is given and under what circumstances they do have a right to enter without notice... usually this is things like emergency repairs anywhere in the building including the stated apartment that would result in great damage if , suspicion of crimes being committed on the property, or if the complex/ apartment building is HUD/Section 8 they are required to do repairs with in a certain amount of time regardless.

my point there are many reasons here in america why a repair crew can enter an apartment with out notice. so before taking a knife to someone you might want to first check things out and make sure whats what in your lease, and laws in your area.

They do have the right to come into your apartment at any time. However, it is a common courtesy to let you know they're coming ahead of entering. They were rather rude.

In my state it's the law that unless it's an emergency, they have to give 24 hour notice before entering. And if you tell them they have to wait so that you can be there, they have to schedule a time with you because you have the right to be there while they are in your apartment.

I almost called the cops on management a couple months ago when they started to unlock my door and enter while I was sleeping.

That's a whole different story that I don't want to get into, but I would check the laws in your state and I would bet they are the same as in mine. So then I would send them a certified letter informing them of the laws and that they are in violation.

Seesaw

I would definitely put a sign indicating that they need to give me 3 minutes to answer the door due to PTSD.

Where I live they need to give you at least 24 hours notice before entering your apartment. I would look into the rules in your area because barging in does seem super annoying! You have the right to be able to prepare ahead of time.

Yes, 24 hour notice or in an absolute emergency. This is something to communicate with your property management company. You may have agreed to a different arrangement as part of your lease agreement.

Question: What are these emergencies requiring all this entering of your suite?

To answer your questions, they did give me a notice on Sat, however, what triggered me was the fact that when this guy came over, it was first thing in the morning and I had just gotten out of bed and was still in my underwear and without a shirt. When he came knocking I shouted give me a moment but he didn't listen to me nor did he reveal who he was until after he came in after not listening to me. Luckily I left a shirt and a pair of shorts in the bathroom and I instinctively ran to the bathroom to grab them. I seriously have never put clothes on that fast lol.

These people don't understand that it triggers my PTSD when people do that. I've been on my own with no outside support from family and friends for close to 8 months now and I'm rather scrawny computer/video game geek so if somebody comes in like that my first instinct is to grab my katana that I keep for self defense (I can't own a gun due to my MI and Japanese Katanas are freely available and cheap) and prepare to attack or run since I have no real way to defend myself or hold my own in a fight with most males without a weapon of some kind.

I will be having a talk with management about this issue. The Apt. where I live is supposed to be my safe place but I don't feel safe when people freely come and go out of the Apt. like they live here.

At least I feel better now than I did this morning.

I have a dull katana, more as symbolic and fantasy object.

But I do understand you. When someone barges into my room my instinct is to throw sharp objects at them. But I smile and say, "please wait outside".

Since they gave a notice ahead of time and then knocked before coming in, they didn't do anything wrong legally. In the future you should try to be more prepared on the day (dressed and whatnot) so you aren't as surprised by them. These people probably have to work on many apartments each day and so they can only be expected to wait for so long especially if they gave you advanced warning.

Yes, mental illness sucks. But in this case, the onus is on you to be prepared so that you aren't affected by these triggers.

Sorry but I have a hard enough time as it is falling asleep at night and waking up in the morning without feeling tired all day and my sleep schedule has only become more screwed up after starting school. In the rare event that I am able to sleep in and recharge without having to be up at 5-6 AM and be out the door to catch the bus by 6:30 AM, I'm sleeping in.

As long as I pay rent, they should work around my schedule. Getting decent sleep and self care is more important to me than their maintenance.

This is especially true when they come in just to do something that I can easily take care of on my own.

In an ideal world everyone would work around our schedule...unfortunately that's just not how the world works. These maintenance people have their own schedules to follow and if they give the proper warning ahead of time, they have every right to enter your home and get on with their own work schedule. Paying rent does not give you any special privileges.

I find it rather amusing how you always seem to want to act like you're oh so superior to me in so many of my threads by telling me how things supposedly work.

Guess what? You're not better than me. You're not older and wiser than me because we're the same age. If anything, I have likely had it harder than you because you seem to have access to better services to get help with your mental health in Canada than I have had access to living in the southern US (which is ****** even by US standards for mental health care).

You might think me as an entitled selfish piece of work but your opinion means little more to me than the billions of other people alive in the world today.

So please refrain for telling me how "things are" in any of my future threads unless I specifically ask other user's opinions.

Thank you.

P.S I specified that this thread is more of a rant thread than anything. That reply you quoted was meant as such.

I'm definitely not trying to come across as superior by any means, and please don't assume what I think of you because it's just inaccurate. I think you have been through a lot and have some issues to work through, like most people on this forum.

But surely you can see how everyone has their own schedule to go through and that includes maintenance people...that's all I was trying to say. I apologize if what I said upset you, it was not meant to be rude but rather realistic. I like a more realistic approach to things in life, as well as planning for solutions which is why I mentioned how being ready ahead of time may be helpful in the future.

You told me that you find me to be entitled in my school thread last week and I've been upset with you ever since. Maybe I do value your opinion after all because I've been negatively affected by a couple of things that you said to me in the past.

I'm trying to be kind with you because you seem like you mean well, but as I've said before, I'm bad with people so it isn't uncommon for me to get defensive with people who may mean well but say something that I might find hurtful rather than talk to them about it.

I guess I'm sorry for over reacting. Maybe as things get more stable for me in my life I will stop being so aggressive towards people.

I don't think that is the point here. OP was not dressed. I can say, with no doubt whatsoever, I don't care how much warning ahead of time someone give me, if you knock on my door, and I say "Just a minutes, you need to stay out there until I answer. I am home, so you have no reason to use the key. The key is for when you need to enter when the tenant is not home.

I promise you, I know a lot of people who would have the same reaction as the OP, dressed or not, just waking up or not. Yes, they have a schedule. It takes one minute to put on clothes and answer the door. That is not messing with their schedule.

The maintenance person should not use his key to enter while you are in your apartment.

My manager will work with me as far as roughly scheduling a window of time that best works for me for maintenance to enter. For example, if I get notification that maintenance will be coming in 'Thursday', I can tell my manager that the ideal time for me would be between 2 and 4p.m. on Thursday and she will tell maintenance to knock on my door during that time only.

My property management will send out a written notice that they require to enter my suite a minimum of 24 hours in advance. They will advise me of a time frame for which they will do so. It is then my responsibility to be prepared for their entry during that window or vacate the premises at that time. Not providing you a time frame, if this is the case, is unprofessional and contrary to standard rental practices.

Your property management or caretaker should also be advising you of what the problem is in the building or suite that requires such frequent attention. They should be quite frank about the work involved and an estimate of the time involved that is required to be in your suite. This is the professional thing to do. In the event they don't do you feel up to the task of asking?

I would in the future, upon receipt of the notice, contact your property manager and work out a more suitable time period. Perhaps it would be better for you to not be present. If the maintenance persons are not observing this, going to your rental ombudsman is a good action on your part.

Again, communication is key.

I'm sorry this has happened to you. When I lived in an apartment once I was sound asleep on a Saturday morning and was awakened by someone opening the door. A new employee had mixed up my apartment with the show apartment next door and was bringing prospective renters in. My screaming in my pajamas probably scared them off..........then several months later the maintenance people came a few minutes before they were scheduled. I had my hair dryer going and didn't hear them knock so they let themselves in. For whatever reason they did not leave or yell that they were there when the hairdryer stopped. Again I screamed in terror at strangers in my home unexpectedly.

I don't know a solution (I moved but that was for a new job) but wanted to tell you that you are not alone.

You could ask for a chain or a dead bolt that you can keep locked when your home. They are not accessible from the outside. That would give you additional privacy and time to answer the door before they enter. I'm hearing impaired and the flashing door light was in the bedroom so if I was else where I didn't see it. The maintenance workers would knock extra loud but sometimes tried to open the door before I noticed them but the dead bolt would stop them. I always keep all locks on when I'm at home.

I think this suggestion is great! The chain is a wonderful idea, it would keep them out while you are there until you let them in.