I am very upset with my landlord

cat father

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Hello, this is my first post. I registered with this message board because I need to vent with people who understand what it is like to love a cat. This is an email that I just sent to my landlord:

My name is [redacted], and I have lived in [redacted] since [redacted]. I adopted a cat a few months after moving in, and since then, have paid extra money with every month's rent for her to live here. I have told the leasing office staff, several times, that I want 24 hour notice whenever maintenance needs to enter my unit. My cat is an indoor cat and she ran away once, for a day, when I took her to my parents' house soon after adopting her, so I go to great lengths to make sure that she does not go outside. Therefore, it is imperative that my wish, for 24 hour notice everytime someone must enter my unit, be honored so that I may move her, her litter box, food, and water to the bedroom and shut the bedroom door before I leave for work on the day that my unit is to be entered.

Yesterday, someone came here to change the blinds in my bedroom. Today, someone else came by to replace the knocker on my door with a plate displaying the letter of my unit. He needed to keep the door open for a few seconds in order to complete this task. Fortunately, I was here both yesterday and today when each worker came by. I was not given 24 hour notice for either visit. I asked the worker who came by today if he had a key for my unit, as well as permission from the leasing office to enter my unit, and he indicated that he did have both the key and permission to enter my unit. If I was not here for either maintenance job, my cat, whom I care about very much, could have escaped. I am extremely upset that I was not given 24 hour notice in either case, especially for today, since that job actually required the worker to keep the front door open for several seconds. I then went to the leasing office to discuss this matter, but a sign on the door indicated that the leasing office was closed for the rest of the day. Therefore, I am emailing you, the senior property manager, to inform you that I want my wish for 24 hour notice, for each required entry, to be respected. I do not want my unit to ever be entered without 24 hour notice for routine maintenance. I understand that there exists a small class of exceptions in which a unit may entered without any notice (such as emergencies). However, these incidents are routine maintenance, and certainly do not fall into that class. Please do what is necessary to ensure that my right to be provided 24 hour notice is respected.

[redacted]
I called the police, because according to the laws of the state that I live in, I am entitled to 24 hour notice for routine maintenance. I was informed that this is a civil matter. I then asked if I could be arrested if I changed the lock on my door, and was told no, that that would also be a civil matter, on the bright side. If I don't receive a satisfactory response, I don't know if I should just move out or simply change the lock and then let them make their move. I would be infuriated if I ended up losing her because of them.
 

emy4cats

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That is so irritating! They have to give us 48 hours before they can enter our apparent. We have a dog (black lab/ German Sheppard mix) so they know better then to just walk into are place. I hope they give you the response you are looking for.
 

xocats

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This is just my opinion,

Is the person you sent your letter to, the complex owner, or is there a manager who handles the day to day running of your place?
If your "landlord", is not the owner, I would call the owner right away about this.
If the manager is the owner....
you might have a difficult time resolving this.

I would not change the lock, there might be a legal problem with that.
Your letter is clear and respectful...
even though a move is expensive, for the safety of your cat, if you don't get this clarified asap, you might want to move to a more cat friendly place.

By the way, welcome to TheCatSite.
 

carolina

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By law, they need to give you 24 hours notice - there is no excuse to not do so... Any apartment will respect that, if they follow the law. You might want to remind them that they are breaking the law by not giving you notice, and that if anything happens to your property or cat, they will be held accountable for.
Nobody has the right to just open the door of your apartment to come in anytime - it is their building, but it is your house!
 

carolpetunia

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Originally Posted by xocats

Your letter is clear and respectful...

...By the way, welcome to TheCatSite.
What she said, on both counts. You might also consider a small, tasteful sign just above your doorknob that says, "Animals loose inside. Contact resident before entering."

Do you have a picture of yourself and your kitty? We love pictures!
 

gailc

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I feel for you and your frustration with the safety of your cat. I think your letter was have respectfull but I would follow up within a day or two to make sure it will be acted upon.
 

capt_jordi

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I agree that the letter was a good idea. However I would not change the lock because then if there were an emergency they could not get in to take care of it.
Follow up on it and if they do not take you seriously start looking for somewhere new!
 
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cat father

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Thank you for the kind responses and for the advice. I will post a note on my door before leaving tomorrow morning. I may well move to a new place, as I have other issues with the landlord (one of them is that the leasing office staff are often not in the leasing office during posted hours, such as today when I wanted to speak to them about this). As for changing the lock, as a civil matter, all that they can do is evict me and take the cost of changing the lock back out of my deposit. Hopefully, the note and this email will remedy this for good.

I have only had her for a little more than a year, and she is my first cat (as well as my first personal, non-family-of-origin pet) so I am not an expert in feline behavior. She ran away last year, for a day, after I drove her ~ 900 miles from my apartment Fredericksburg, VA (roughly half-way between DC and Richmond) to my parents' house in Brookfield, WI (a suburb of Milwaukee). The drive lasted about 15 hours and she was stressed out by it. I had her litter box, food, and water in the back seat of my four door pickup truck. Soon after I took her inside, she ran out my parents' front door when it was opened, and we could not find her until she came back the following evening. I would like to think that she only did this because of the stress of the long ride and the move to an unfamiliar location, and that she would not do this here, at her home. She has never really shown any inclination to try to dart out the door of my apartment, nor has she done so again at my parents' place on subsequent visits, so I would like to think that that was an isolated incident, but I have to be safe and assume that she has the potential to want to go outside again. I keep her inside because of the uncertainty that comes with all of the dangers outside, and hated being uncertain if she was okay or not last year during those 24 hours.

Am I able to post pictures, as a non-premium member?
 

littleraven7726

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I think it's a good letter. I hope you have better luck contacting owners. When we had a bad place (see below) and tried to contact an owner, they couldn't be reached at all-- or found.

I had problems with a landlord who decided she didn't have to follow Wisconsin laws many years ago. She didn't like us (for some reason
) and decided to leave a blanket notice on our door (which was quite illegal) that she would be showing the apartment for a month (!!!) between the hours of (she specified all day) on every day but Sunday. And she considered that our notice. Then she flipped her lid when I called her and told her it was illegal (nicely of course) and I had contacted a lawyer.

We changed the locks for the last month we lived there. We knew we were on the way out, I didn't trust she wouldn't let out my cats (or worse), and she had people we knew who stole from friends of ours working as maintenance.

So, in extreme circumstances, I advocate changing locks.
 

alleygirl

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Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

What she said, on both counts. You might also consider a small, tasteful sign just above your doorknob that says, "Animals loose inside. Contact resident before entering."

Do you have a picture of yourself and your kitty? We love pictures!
I was going to suggest the same thing, putting a sign on your door, as well as contacting your leasing office in person.
 

darlili

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I thought your letter was terrific, and I like the idea of a small notice outside your door about pet inside (I have something like that posted on the windows for emergency personnel, just in case).

My two are indoor cats, but my boy in particular still likes to dash into the hallway - just out of curiosity, I think, but still, I never want him to get out. Both of mine were picked up as adult strays, and I never want that to happen to them again, if possible.

WOuld love to see your kitty!
 

xocats

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Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

I was going to suggest the same thing, putting a sign on your door, as well as contacting your leasing office in person.
I modified the sign below, by adding on the top part ...


No Entry Unless Tenant is Home
Keep Door Shut

2 cats inside
Call Office to make an appointment
.



I took it to Kinkos and had it laminated before I nailed it to my front door.
 

moonandstarkatz

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I am sorry you are going through this. Kudos to you for taking the initiative to defend your baby. I used to have a sign on my door, cats with behaviors inside, do not enter as I had a rescue (he passed from old age) that HATED men but loved me.
Daisy
 

rang_27

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What a pain and how scary. I have been lucky with my land lord so far, but I have always worried about someone accidently letting the cats out. I too keep them in a closed room if I know that someone is coming to work on the appartment.
 
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