Is a landlord/owner allowed to make changes or alterations to a tenant’s apartment, without consent and/or justifiable reason?
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Is a landlord/owner allowed to make changes or alterations to a tenant’s apartment, without consent and/or justifiable reason?
Such as removing a skylight from the bathroom area, of all tenants’ apartments. just because one unit,might be leaking but all the others are in good condition and, if so, are they not requires to ,repair /remodel, the given area,inside as well as the outside, not leaving a hole, exposing the rafters beams, etc, isn’t that a code violation? What course of action should be taken, if you have advised them not to remove it and they precede anyway? And can they retaliate or try to evict you if you report it to the local city codes department?
Asked on December 2, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Kentucky
Answers:
MD, Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
Landlords cannot retaliate; it is absolutely illegal and is not tolerated by any court. As for repairs, if repairs are not needed, then the issue becomes why has it been done. Repairs have to be fully completed and not simply left in disrepair. You need to contact your local building and safety department and fire department (may pose fire hazard) and then contact the state attorney general. These entities should be able to help you resolve this indirectly by having to deal with the landlord. If the landlord attempts to retaliate, you have a claim against him or her and will need to pursue that through landlord tenant court as a civil proceeding.
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