I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.

On 5/12/2013 12:37 PM, geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.

Making sure tenants aren't totally trashing the place, primarily
(including running meth labs, etc., etc., etc., ...). Serious other
maintenance issues, etc., observed secondarily.

--

geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.

HI,
Turning the table around, wouldn't you do the same to make sure all is
well and in order? Good time if tenant has any issues/concern to raise
as well.

On 5/12/2013 1:37 PM, geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.


Lets say you are the landlord and you have made an investment in
property. Would you check things out once in a while?

On 5/12/2013 1:37 PM, geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.


You should have asked 'them' who they were and why they were there,
especially since they were 'strangers'.


--
Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeros after @

Geo Pearl:

I'm a landlord, and I can tell you that it's just because the landlord wants to make sure the tenants aren't doing anything in their apartments that would damage his property or cause serious problems for him or the other tenants.

The meth lab is an extreme example, perhaps, but there are other more mundane situations. Some ethnic groups don't keep their food in a refrigerator like we do in the west. Instead, they lay the food out on a mat on the living room floor, and everyone takes from whatever's laid out. Then they just leave the food there for days, and family members just take something to eat if they're hungry. Obviously this kind of practice is conducive to pests infesting the apartment and the surrounding apartments in the building. So, the landlord simply wants to nip those kinds of situations in the bud before they become bug, mice or rat infestation problems. That's just one example, but there are many like it.

Tenants drying their washing indoors on clothes lines to save the cost of using the dryer provided is another. The humidity from the clothes can cause considerable condensation on windows in winter, which in turn can cause considerable plaster damage under the windows is another example.

On 5/12/2013 1:37 PM, geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

Simple explanation. We told him about you and now he does not trust
you. He feels it is necessary to spy on you. Consider having the
cameras and microphones removed too.

On Sun, 12 May 2013 10:37:11 -0700 (PDT), geo pearl
wrote:

I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.

Um, by law. They can inspect a tenant residence. My state requires
advance notification.

I would send the "three unhappy strangers" away at gun point.

Shoot them after they trespass, refuse to leave and need me to explain
things to them.

It really is simple.

On Sun, 12 May 2013 10:37:11 -0700 (PDT), geo pearl
wrote:

I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.

I agree with the others.

This year, he may be considering selling the building to them and they
want to see it first. Whether they buy it or not, they'll tell the
ll what they see that is bad.

I had a roommate and a leaking radiator in his room, but he was too
low-class to tell me, the lease-holder, that the radiator was leaking.
He let it ruin 3 or 4 square feet of parquet floor, plus he almost
ruined my blanket that he took from a closet to soak up the water. I
learned this after I kicked him out, for other reasons. I should
have done inspections of his room.

On Sun, 12 May 2013 18:02:32 -0400, micky wrote:

This year, he may be considering selling the building to them and they
want to see it first. Whether they buy it or not, they'll tell the ll
what they see that is bad.

Similar thing happened to me at an apartment I used to live in. A short
notice inspection, with several people walking through. They were decent
about it and gave me the option to refuse, so I let them walk through.
They turned out to be buyers.

Glad I didn't live there much longer as the new owners were real amateurs.

They (a married couple, he was a fancy dandy that looked like he had
never had dirty hands his entire adult life) thought they could upgrade
to three prong electric receptacles by attaching the ground to the
receptacle box! She insisted that since the box was metal, it was a
ground. It was very hard not to laugh at her when I told her that she may
find that there was substantially more to it than that.

--
Tony Sivori

"Tony Sivori" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 12 May 2013 18:02:32 -0400, micky wrote:

This year, he may be considering selling the building to them and they
want to see it first. Whether they buy it or not, they'll tell the ll
what they see that is bad.

Similar thing happened to me at an apartment I used to live in. A short
notice inspection, with several people walking through. They were decent
about it and gave me the option to refuse, so I let them walk through.
They turned out to be buyers.

Glad I didn't live there much longer as the new owners were real amateurs.

They (a married couple, he was a fancy dandy that looked like he had
never had dirty hands his entire adult life) thought they could upgrade
to three prong electric receptacles by attaching the ground to the
receptacle box! She insisted that since the box was metal, it was a
ground. It was very hard not to laugh at her when I told her that she may
find that there was substantially more to it than that.


If it was metal conduit to the box, then she was on the ball.

On May 12, 10:37*am, geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.

my understanding is not because of problem between you and landlord,
but rather, third party is involved, looking over landlord's shoulder
so to speak. each state's legal requirements and for insurance
reasons. Don't inspect, no insurance.

"Robert Macy" wrote in message
...
On May 12, 10:37 am, geo pearl wrote:
I've been living in the same apartment for
six years and every year I get a brief visit
from the landlord.

This year was a visit by three unhappy strangers
that spent three minutes looking around. Any idea
why they do it? Thanks.
#
# my understanding is not because of problem between you and landlord,
# but rather, third party is involved, looking over landlord's shoulder
# so to speak. each state's legal requirements and for insurance
# reasons. Don't inspect, no insurance.

Landlord inspections serve 2 purposes
1) Allow landlord to look for problems that need fixing
2) Allow landlord to check that facility is not being abused / dammed by
tenant

I require quarterly inspections in my leases
And every time I do a fix or upgrade allows me to do another as well.

I don't think it even needs to be metal conduit.

You'll find that there are different building codes for commercial buildings like apartment blocks and office buildings than there are for houses. At least that's the case here in Canada.

For example, in a house, you're only required to use Type M copper tube for the supply piping, whereas in an apartment block (in Canada at least), you need to use Type L, which is a bit thicker wall.

For commercial buildings in Canada, the wiring has to be done with armored cable:



Even though the armored cable in my building has an aluminum strip inside it (that I was told could be used as a ground wire), I've never seen that strip used as a ground. The electrical contractors that wired my building in 1960 simply ran a short green ground wire from each electrical outlet or switch to a grounding screw inside the electrical box. They were effectively relying on the steel armor of the cable to act as the ground wire.

In fact, that green ground wire was probably only required by code since the steel screws used to mount the receptacles and switches to the electrical boxes would have effectively grounded them to the electrical boxes as well. (It's just that using those screws as the grounding wire wouldn't pass an electrical inspection.)

So, I agree with Attila on this one. If it was an apartment block, it was most likely wired with armored cable, and upgrading to three prong polarized receptacles could have been done by simply installing the new receptacles and relying on the cable armour to act as the ground wire.

I'm not an electrician, and I expect an electrical inspector could want to see a dedicated ground wire, but that's what's commonly done here in Canada, and it hasn't caused any problems as a result.

On May 18, 8:34 am, "Attila Iskander"
wrote:


Landlord inspections serve 2 purposes
1) Allow landlord to look for problems that need fixing
2) Allow landlord to check that facility is not being abused / dammed by
tenant

I require quarterly inspections in my leases
And every time I do a fix or upgrade allows me to do another as well.

I was a landlord for 25 years and I wish I had followed your
post. It would need to be written into the lease, pointed out
to the prospective tenant and initialled separately by them
and the penalties for failing to comply spelled out....and
initialled.
If I had done that, I would be many dollars ahead right now...

"Robert" wrote in message
...
On May 18, 8:34 am, "Attila Iskander"
wrote:


Landlord inspections serve 2 purposes
1) Allow landlord to look for problems that need fixing
2) Allow landlord to check that facility is not being abused / dammed
by
tenant

I require quarterly inspections in my leases
And every time I do a fix or upgrade allows me to do another as well.

I was a landlord for 25 years and I wish I had followed your
post. It would need to be written into the lease, pointed out
to the prospective tenant and initialled separately by them
and the penalties for failing to comply spelled out....and
initialled.
If I had done that, I would be many dollars ahead right now...



Indeed, such clauses are standard in the lease.
I also found that if you are are quite prompt with a repair and then ask if
anything else is getting wonky, after a while the tenant gets used to you
being around to see what needs fixing.
Half the time, I don't even need to inspect.
They'll come to me and mention that a faucet is getting ready to drip
because it's getting harder to close.
Some of my tenants actually do some of the smaller repairs for me as long as
I supply the parts. Kind of nice to get a call that the bathroom sink hot
water is starting to drip, and do I have a replacement washer for it ?
I have tried to standardize all my fixtures over time, so that I have
basically the same parts for all the units.
That also allows me to keep a box full of spare parts with my master list of
what goes where.
It's always easier if you can look up what is needed where and the reach
into a box that has a couple of spares.

Landlords "inspect" apartments because his tenants cannot be trusted to notify of problems! Rent to better class tenants and inspections (invasion of privacy) won't be necessary. My landlords in New York City, Los Angeles & Vegas NEVER entered my apt "just to look around." It's the TENANT'S responsibility to REPORT PROBLEMS. If I DID NOT report a problem and that problem caused DAMAGE to my apartment, I WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR THE REPAIR! Tenants in fly-over country are a different breed. I've seen some of these apartments from which tenants were evicted and I was astonished at the damage, the thefts this class caused - with FEMALE tenants being far, far worse than male tenants. The fact that your landlord has inspections means YOU ARE NOT TRUSTED TO LIVE LIKE A DECENT HUMAN BEING AND REPORT PROBLEMS - all LIBERAL landlords. Japan is even worse as their police can come into YOUR apartments ANY TIME for ANY REASON - even just to count the number of people living there. If you DO NOT want "inspections" by yuor landlord, MOVE TO NYC, LA or VEGAS.