Hi everyone, I could really use some advice or insight on my rights as a tenant.
I rent the first floor of a high ranch, and I resigned my lease in August. They even raised my rent by $100, fully knowing they were planning to sell the property.
Here’s the timeline:
• October 6: They told me they were planning to sell.
• October 8: The house was listed on Zillow.
• October 9: They texted me saying there would be an open house that Saturday.
Everything has been extremely rushed — no formal written notice, no proper heads-up, just “hey, we’re showing the place.”
I work overnight shifts as a nurse, so I sleep during the day and need some peace and privacy. I also have two cats (one is very timid), and I don’t feel comfortable with strangers coming in and out while I’m not home or sleeping. I asked the realtor not to have anyone in the apartment alone unless they’re personally accompanying them, and to keep my bedroom closed since I have personal items in there. Their response was basically, “we’ll try, but people need to see the room.”
I feel like I’m being completely disregarded as a tenant. I’ve paid rent on time, kept the place spotless, and respected the property — and now I’m being forced to accommodate constant disruptions and strangers in my living space with less than a week’s notice.
Is this even allowed? Do I have the right to limit when they can show the apartment (like certain hours or days)? And was it even legal for them to renew my lease and increase my rent knowing they were about to sell?
Any advice from anyone familiar with tenant rights in New York or similar situations would be really appreciated. I’m exhausted, frustrated, and just trying to feel safe in my own home.
Tenant rights when owner selling house
byu/Cheap-Union-6163 inRealEstate
Posted by Cheap-Union-6163
3 Comments
Do you have a copy of your lease? It should spell out the landlord’s right of access
Provided they give you the legally mandated notice, which may be 24 hours unless otherwise specified in your lease, technically speaking, they can do that. They have the right to show the house, but you also have right for it to be reasonable and with adequate notice.
The fact that you’re a shift worker makes it a little bit trickier, so what I would recommend is coming up with a window of time for open house that is either very early or very late in the day and send that to them and say due to your sleep schedule you cannot accommodate x-x hours and that if they want to do an open house during that time they need to give you at least 48 hours notice and book you a hotel room for the day.
They can show the place, as long as they give you proper notice. Most states this is 24 hours, unless the lease says different.
I would install a travel lock on the door when I’m in there sleeping. Put a sign on the door “Day sleeper do not enter.” I would take some good photos showing all areas of your room, print them out in color (like decent quality from kinkos or office max) and tape those to the door as well. Ideally, the realtor would do this, but they sound kinda lame so I’d be proactive.
I would tell the realtor that if someone makes an offer and goes under contract, you’ll of course accommodate that person doing an in-person inspection of your unit, but random people during your sleep hours will have to make due with pictures.
You can also see if they’ll agree to certain windows of time when you agree the place can be shown with no notice, times that are convenient with you. It’s in agents’ best interest to have a cooperative tenant when selling, so hopefully they’ll work with you.