State Specific Question About: WASHINGTON (WA)

Has your daughter or either of the roommates spoken with the Landlord to:

A) confirm this is what happened

And

B) Inquire as to why if so...

in WA, landlord must give 2 days notice to enter rental unit for general reasons, or 1 day for showing rental unit to prospects

but, for emergencies, no notice is needed.

Sounds like this landlord is looking out for their tenant. Would you rather be faced with a thousand dollar plumbing bill and all possessions ruined by water leaks?

The landlord can enter to protect their property from freezing pipes. What the landlord places the heating temperature on should be addressed in the lease otherwise, the landlord is not in default of the terms of the lease.

Nancy,

Fair warning, this is a LL site so don't necessarily expect a lot of tenant sympathy.

That being said...

What's the actual problem?

Is it that your daughter feels like her privacy was violated?

Does she suspect the LL stole something?

Is she concerned about the increase in the utility bill because of the bump up in temperature?

Moots,

So, since they've been there 2 yrs, I take it this is the first time he's done this.

Why don't they just talk to him and find out why? Prepare what they want to say (e.g. pls don't enter without notice. And, 65 degrees was fine last year. Why not this year? Please tell us proactively of any changes.).

sdf,

My statement has nothing to do with the "information that is above" and I neither suggested or implied the landlord did anything wrong.

I made two general statements about this forum:

1) This is a Landlord site (FACT!)

2) One won't find a lot of sympathy for tenants here (Maybe not a scientifically, verifiable fact...but pretty close!)

Thanks so much for all the replys!

While I wouldn't do this, I can give an argument to turn the heat up to 75. If the heat were to go out, the unit will not fall to freezing instantly. The warmer it is, the longer it takes to drop below freezing. If the landlord knows the tenants are gone, they may want the heat a little higher, thus giving them more of a buffer before the unit gets to freezing. Hopefully someone will check in and notice it's a bit colder than normal before it does drop to freezing.

Sorry, but I never bought this story from the get go. I simply do not believe the thermostat was at 65 and the LL sneaked in to turn it to 75. It makes no sense to do that and it just doesn't ring true...especially after 2 years of a problem-free relationship.

My guess is that: (A) The temp was actually much lower than 65, (B) The LL did not raise it as high as 75, or (C) Your daughter SUSPECTS that her privacy has been violated somehow, but has no way to know for sure, so she has come up with this particular theory.

I really must be getting hard hearted. My first thought was the same as Paulio.

Fact 1-Girls are students. They need to save money.

Fact 2- They were gone.

Fact 3- The Landlord entered and admitted to entering.

Fact 4- which is an unknown. If the girls were gone, how could the landlord contact them? Did the LL have a number to reach them by?

I have plenty of rentals and have had plenty of broken pipes over the years. The last real problem was with students I had. They had several broken pipes one winter in a sfh I had never had problems with before and since they moved. WHY? They didn't keep the temp at 65 --they kept it at 45 when they were gone. HELLO> When it's -2 out and the house is only 45 degrees inside those pipes inside the cabinets on the outside walls are going to freeze. These same students moved out in the middle of the night when for the second time in a month their pipes burst and I told them they were paying. And btw, they had been good tenants for 2 years. But they were struggling financially and trying to save money on heat.

So though I sympathize with you, mom, you just can't understand until you own the place your daughter leaves unattended. The simplicity is if they don't like it, move. You are only getting your daughters side of the story and as we all know every story has two sides and I suspect your girls were keeping the place colder than the poor pipes could take.

Maybe the landlord just went in there to see what it was set at and the tenants got offended and thus the far fetched story.

Whether the story is true or not, if it is, the LL had no business going in and changign the thermostat. Unless there was an emergency situation, the LL going in without proper notice is illegal. Period. End of story.

If the LL legitimately felt that there was an emergency, so his entry was legal, he had no business setting the thermostat at 75. If the tenants had it at 65, that is reasonable and enough to keep the pipes from bursting. 75 is too hot for a place while no one is home. In fact, didn't President Clinto tell us to lower our thermostats to 68 to save energy?

If the OP's facts are correct, this LL acted improperly.

I rent to students, and after 2 years we both have a good feeling of trust.

When they leave for break we tell them we change the fur filters, and ask them if anything else needs to be done,

Nancy, since it seems your daughter and room-mates have a good relationship(?) with the LL..maybe they should just have a talk with the LL and aire their concerns. Nicely,calmly, let the LL know, they know their rights and isnt 48 hrs notice to be given if she needs to enter the apartment? And isnt 75 a bit high for a temp in the apt.? Do they need to update their contact sheet since no one got a call or email?

They can do this without being snotty about it. And hopefully the LL will be cordial in return.

I can see they are probably wondering now, if she has entered before, and they never noticed it.

I dont think having the temp at 75 for 2 days will break the bank on the bill tho.

Tenants have CUSTODY, CARE and CONTROL of the property and if the pipes were frozen and broken WHILE YOUR DAUGHTER WAS GONE, her stuff would be RUINED.

It takes a LONGER time for the house to cool IF starting heat is HIGHER....

Tenants rent the property, Land Lord own the property,

This is not a violation.

It is landlord law in Washington that the landlord can enter anytime they want.

The Landlord is actually required to enter and check the heat, then the landlord can adjust the thermostat as they see fit.

Sounds to me like the landlord has done the right thing. I hope he learned the lesson though--he has a family member with keys to tenants' property and that family member does not know the basic rules of property management! (like not entering tenants' property any time you want to take a measurement; changing their thermostat settings because you are cold, etc.)

I'm staying at my all electric farm house in Germany over the holidays. All heat is turned off (hope you understand at $ 0.31 per kw/h).

You said in your original post the LANDLORD entered the house. You did not say the landlord's daughter entered the house.

When you do not give the whole truth/story do not expect to recieve answers that are in line with your theory.

The landlord's daughter entered to take measurements for a refrigerator that the 90 year old landlord did not replace. The landlord is offering $75 in rebate to your daughter and her roomate.

The source of your original question has no basis to the truth you decided to reveal in the course of this thread. AND you are offended...go figure.

Before entering a landlord site, any tenant asking a question about their landlord prior to speaking to their landlord is asking for trouble.

You posted on Jan 4, 2010 your original question. Your daughter spoke to the landlord on the 4th or 5th after your second posting?

What do you expect? You don't even know the whole story yourself and you're asking questions about an LL issue on an LL site wanting to know if it's legal. You don't actually think that your questions justify you not even knowing what is actually going on in your daughter's unit and then posting what you think is reality.

When did your daughter ask for a replacement on the refrigerator that wasn't working? Do you mean the frige wasn't capable of cooling or freezing food at all? They lived without a refrigerator for a year? When you ask and receive answers on a true LL site as the mother of a daughter/tenant, as an adult the first thing you should do is tell your daughter she needs to speak to her LL prior to asking about what is legal and what is not legal.

Your daughter is getting a reduction in rent and a new refrigerator. Geeze louise grow up.

Nancy,

If you would go back and reread my response which was the very first response you received on this post. Along with my second post on this thread giving you a heads up about this being a LL forum...

Two Points are apparent:

A) a lot of this confusion could have been avoided involving the entire situation had your daughter immediately done what I suggested and speak with the LL directly about it.

and

B) You shouldn't be offended that some Landlords here have an issue with your making assumptions, relaying stories, and reaching opinions based on half facts.