Landlord Entering Property Without Permission

lunamoon · 22-11-2019 11:57am

I prefer the passive agressive approach but that's just me

I'd probably ring him and let him know that you're changing the locks because you suspect someone has been in the house when you weren't there and see if he confesses.

sodafountain · 22-11-2019 12:03pm

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I wasn't expecting to get so many!

Ok so just to answer/clarify a few things I've seen mentioned a couple of times:

* We won't be changing the locks - it's specifically prohibited in our lease and we don't want to do anything that might give him grounds to evict us.

* He has been going in to the bedrooms, but not for long enough to be doing anything creepy like sniffing my underwear or anything - we have a camera in the landing and we can see him walking into the bedrooms but from the looks of it he walks in and turns around and comes straight back out again.

* I completely understand that he wants to keep an eye on the property (particularly seeing as how we're first time renters and we also have 3 kids and a dog) I have no problem with him wanting to carry out inspections, however he needs to notify us first. Also, he seems to have been accessing the property roughly once a fortnight, which would be an excessive amount of inspections. I would even feel once a month would be too much; looking at the RTB website, they recommend once per quarter and I would be happy with that.

* I'm not sure how he knows my routine - I've 3 young kids, so I suppose it wouldn't take a genius to work out that I'd be out in the mornings and afternoons doing the school run. However, I've noticed that he only comes into the house when I'm out in the morning and have the dog with me. I leave the dog in the house when I'm going to collect the kids from school, so I'm assuming he doesn't go in then because the dog would go ballistic. She's crated, so she couldn't attack him or anything, but the barking would be enough that neighbours would notice.

As far as I know, his house/office is about a 15 minute drive from us, so I suppose he could be driving by regularly to check on the place. It's in a cul-de-sac so he wouldn't be going past on his way to/from anywhere; you'd have to specifically drive down our road to see the house. A couple of people on here have mentioned that he might have hidden cameras in the house, which is frankly a terrifying prospect. The only thing that makes me think he probably hasn't is surely if he had done, he would have noticed us putting up our own cameras?

So anyway, to give you a bit of an update, my husband mentioned it to the solicitor yesterday and the solicitor said that while we'd have him "bang to rights" if we wanted to take a case to the RTB, my proposed scenario of email/letter from ourselves first is probably the best way to go because we can escalate from there if things continue. He said if it was a case that we were happy to move out and go elsewhere straight away, we'd be entitled to break the lease because he is in violation of it, but seeing as we want to stay in the place til the lease ends in the summer, the aim is to resolve it firmly but without aggro. He also mentioned the same thing I'd said previously - that it would give us the upper hand if there was a dispute over getting the deposit back when we move out; basically "we behaved reasonably towards you and didn't go straight to the RTB when we found out you were accessing the house, now we'd appreciate the prompt return of our deposit".

I also called in to my local Garda station and got chatting to a very helpful Garda; he said that in terms of him going in and out, it was a civil matter (which I already knew) but regarding him seeming to know my routine, if I could prove that he was following me or watching the house then that would be something they could possibly pursue because it could be considered harassment. He also mentioned hidden cameras and said that he could be prosecuted for that, particularly if they captured images of the kids. His recommended that we put a camera in an upstairs window, facing out on the street, and that way we might be able to see if he's sitting nearby in his car, watching the house. He also suggested to me that I try and vary my routine a bit.

To be honest, I think reporting him to the Gardai would be an absolute last resort, but if he starts being awkward about things, it might be no harm to drop into conversation that I've spoken to them about it. Even if it's just to put the frighteners on him.

So I'm in the process of drafting up an email this morning, telling him that we've observed him entering the property, providing dates, times and screen shots, and stating that we did not and do not give him permission to enter without both of us present. I'm also going to ask him to reply and confirm that it will not happen again, and that if it continues we will have no choice but to lodge a complaint with the RTB. I also discovered last night that he never registered the tenancy, so hopefully the threat of the RTB will be enough, because he'll be fined for not registering it.

GBX · 22-11-2019 12:09pm

Hopefully he just backs off once he gets the letter and leaves you get on with things without the worry of him snooping.

Fol20 · 22-11-2019 12:11pm

Your post comes across has very diligent, calm, logical and not aggressive in the slightest - good job!

You did the smart thing and let it settle in first and weigh up all your options both current and future to come to your well rounded decision above

I personally wouldn’t be able to settle this so amicably as I always think of my home as “my castle” but fair Duce to you. You have approached this issue very well.

One other recommendation going forward is to be careful what you say on this thread. If this ever did go legal and if the ll found out, he may/may not use this against you. I hope it all works out for you and he stops this very weird behaviour. I still can’t believe he comes in every 2 weeks - does he have anything better to do with his time.

w/s/p/c/ · 22-11-2019 12:13pm

I have been looking at this thread since yesterday (while I should have been working!), I never responded as other posts covered what I was going to say. I am dying to find out the response from the Land Lord, best of luck sodafountain!

dartboardio · 22-11-2019 12:33pm

This is the way to do it OP, calm, and professional!

Hopefully now he realises his actions, and apologises, and that'll be the end of it.

Keep us updated if you see him hanging around the house nearby or anything.

Never go in all guns blazing, to anything. Always works in your favour if you are more calm. Fair play OP.

Thoie · 22-11-2019 12:41pm

sodafountain wrote: »

I also called in to my local Garda station and got chatting to a very helpful Garda;...

To be honest, I think reporting him to the Gardai would be an absolute last resort, but if he starts being awkward about things, it might be no harm to drop into conversation that I've spoken to them about it. Even if it's just to put the frighteners on him.

Hope he apologizes and arranges normal inspections in future if he needs them.

In relation to your informal chat with the guard, while it's fresh in your mind, make a note of the time, date and the guard's name now, and keep it with the log of times the landlord entered/exited, just in case you need it in future.

I seriously doubt there are hidden cameras around, but for your own peace of mind, you can be diligent and check the batteries of all the smoke alarms in the house (opening each one up to look at the battery), and with the lights out, play a torch around the rooms to see if there are any unexpected glints. He'd want to be a fierce eejit altogether to have left cameras in - that'd be a prison sentence.

John Hutton · 22-11-2019 12:48pm

Well done OP, please let us know how he responds.

AulWan · 22-11-2019 12:56pm

sodafountain wrote: »

So I'm in the process of drafting up an email this morning, telling him that we've observed him entering the property, providing dates, times and screen shots, and stating that we did not and do not give him permission to enter without both of us present. I'm also going to ask him to reply and confirm that it will not happen again, and that if it continues we will have no choice but to lodge a complaint with the RTB. I also discovered last night that he never registered the tenancy, so hopefully the threat of the RTB will be enough, because he'll be fined for not registering it.

My only suggestion would be to include your solicitor in the cc line of any email sent, so he knows they have been advised of the carry on.

James Bond Junior · 22-11-2019 12:58pm

As a landlord myself, I feel what he is doing is abhorrent. I would feel intrusive doing a drive by nevermind entering my property secretly.

oleard1987 · 22-11-2019 3:18pm

w/s/p/c/ wrote: »

I have been looking at this thread since yesterday (while I should have been working!), I never responded as other posts covered what I was going to say. I am dying to find out the response from the Land Lord, best of luck sodafountain!

I am the same :pac:

Unanimous · 22-11-2019 9:03pm

Lool, I find this very interesting.

Is it possible that you set a trap for him?

One that he can't complain about lol.

Are catch him in the act and hear what he has to say for himself.

sami2015 · 22-11-2019 10:10pm

Regarding how he knew if the OP was in or not.....

Is there an alarm on the house? If so is it connected to the www by an app? I know of some cases in the RTB where the LL was monitoring the alarm and could then deduce when the tenants were in/out.

Moomoomacshoe · 22-11-2019 11:37pm

gibgodsman wrote: »

I don't know how the above poster can suggest such a calm approach to something so serious

Not only is he entering your home without your knowledge, he is quite clearly watching your movements in order to check when the best time to be creepy is.

Every serial killer does the same thing....

Go straight to the guards, the lease should be the least of your worries, the safety of your family should be your main worry.

Also, he would have absolutely no chance of kicking you out as you look for legal action as he has in sense defecated on his own lease and you have protection from being evicted due to his own actions

Yes agree..its not so simple. My friends landlord entered without permission with own keys. Taken to RTB. Ll denied it. Seems you would need to photograph or video it ..get proof. Ridiculous but onus on tenant to above and beyond prove LL came in..apart from video I myself would call the guards.

Fol20 · 23-11-2019 1:30am

Moomoomacshoe wrote: »

Yes agree..its not so simple. My friends landlord entered without permission with own keys. Taken to RTB. Ll denied it. Seems you would need to photograph or video it ..get proof. Ridiculous but onus on tenant to above and beyond prove LL came in..apart from video I myself would call the guards.

Well to be fair. If you accuse someone of something without proof it’s hearsay. When you looking for compensation in particular everyone would be claiming this and that if the onus wasn’t on the accuser to prove what they claim.

CollyFlower · 23-11-2019 1:55am

For the people on here who say it's not Creepy, it is to me. He has no right to be there, he's trespassing... I don't think he'd have cameras installed inside the house, otherwise he wouldn't need to be in there... He must have seen the camera's you have installed while he's in there, are they obvious? ... Be careful you've not made any damage by screwing your camera equipment to the structure of the property.

Rodin · 23-11-2019 1:58am

I'd be installing a camera backed up to the cloud.
Gather evidence.

Then legal action.

dubstarr · 23-11-2019 2:16am

Rodin wrote: »

I'd be installing a camera backed up to the cloud.
Gather evidence.

Then legal action.

They already have the cameras installed,talked to their solicitor and the Guards.

How long after you leave does he arrive.
Could you "forget" something Monday and come back and catch him in your house.
That way you have caught him and have the added bonus of having him recorded.

23-11-2019 2:48am

Rodin wrote: »

I'd be installing a camera backed up to the cloud.
Gather evidence.

Then legal action.

Did you read any of the thread at all?

Berserker5 · 23-11-2019 3:51am

He has a lot of properties so likely other tenants affected too

23-11-2019 8:00am

kennethsmyth wrote: »

I dont get how this "you'll be out on the street senario" will arise. If he tries to do anything you can call the gardai for interfering with your home and property. He cannot change the locks either.

Get an alarm or train the dog .

If he throws everything out on the yard then they will be on street.

Graces7 · 23-11-2019 8:34am

893bet wrote: »

Extremely creepy.

Has be been in bedrooms?

Who knows what his intentions are but it’s not normal.

We once had a landlord who used to invade like this. When challenged? " I can come in here any time I like and I do not have to give a reason." When we were in he would walk past the kitchen window atop his wall so we would see these legs passing..

I spoke to RTB and it emerged he had not registered the tenancy so they sorted him .

Assuming this landlord IS registered?

MSVforever · 23-11-2019 8:59am

Jesus what a cheeky boll#x...

Do you have a house alarm? If so I would change the code so if he enters it would go off and he would have to contact you.
Btw have got keys for all the internal doors? I would lock every room when you are away.

Markcheese · 23-11-2019 9:19am

I'm assuming the op is long gone from this thread, (it's getting up in posts for her to be reading them all), the hot head responses are fairly natural, I think I'd have a fit,,,, but
Its either phone him and tell him to cop on, (back it up with e-mail) and leave it at that (if he behaves)
Or Ptrb, he can't just boot you out.. Although he may try...
I assume you just want to finish your lease and leave..

coffee_cake · 23-11-2019 10:25am

Markcheese wrote: »

I'm assuming the op is long gone from this thread, (it's getting up in posts for her to be reading them all), the hot head responses are fairly natural, I think I'd have a fit,,,, but
Its either phone him and tell him to cop on, (back it up with e-mail) and leave it at that (if he behaves)
Or Ptrb, he can't just boot you out.. Although he may try...
I assume you just want to finish your lease and leave..

her last post is like 20 posts ago

Bogwoppit · 25-11-2019 12:36pm

sodafountain wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I wasn't expecting to get so many!

Ok so just to answer/clarify a few things I've seen mentioned a couple of times:

* We won't be changing the locks - it's specifically prohibited in our lease and we don't want to do anything that might give him grounds to evict us.

* He has been going in to the bedrooms, but not for long enough to be doing anything creepy like sniffing my underwear or anything - we have a camera in the landing and we can see him walking into the bedrooms but from the looks of it he walks in and turns around and comes straight back out again.

* I completely understand that he wants to keep an eye on the property (particularly seeing as how we're first time renters and we also have 3 kids and a dog) I have no problem with him wanting to carry out inspections, however he needs to notify us first. Also, he seems to have been accessing the property roughly once a fortnight, which would be an excessive amount of inspections. I would even feel once a month would be too much; looking at the RTB website, they recommend once per quarter and I would be happy with that.

* I'm not sure how he knows my routine - I've 3 young kids, so I suppose it wouldn't take a genius to work out that I'd be out in the mornings and afternoons doing the school run. However, I've noticed that he only comes into the house when I'm out in the morning and have the dog with me. I leave the dog in the house when I'm going to collect the kids from school, so I'm assuming he doesn't go in then because the dog would go ballistic. She's crated, so she couldn't attack him or anything, but the barking would be enough that neighbours would notice.

As far as I know, his house/office is about a 15 minute drive from us, so I suppose he could be driving by regularly to check on the place. It's in a cul-de-sac so he wouldn't be going past on his way to/from anywhere; you'd have to specifically drive down our road to see the house. A couple of people on here have mentioned that he might have hidden cameras in the house, which is frankly a terrifying prospect. The only thing that makes me think he probably hasn't is surely if he had done, he would have noticed us putting up our own cameras?

So anyway, to give you a bit of an update, my husband mentioned it to the solicitor yesterday and the solicitor said that while we'd have him "bang to rights" if we wanted to take a case to the RTB, my proposed scenario of email/letter from ourselves first is probably the best way to go because we can escalate from there if things continue. He said if it was a case that we were happy to move out and go elsewhere straight away, we'd be entitled to break the lease because he is in violation of it, but seeing as we want to stay in the place til the lease ends in the summer, the aim is to resolve it firmly but without aggro. He also mentioned the same thing I'd said previously - that it would give us the upper hand if there was a dispute over getting the deposit back when we move out; basically "we behaved reasonably towards you and didn't go straight to the RTB when we found out you were accessing the house, now we'd appreciate the prompt return of our deposit".

I also called in to my local Garda station and got chatting to a very helpful Garda; he said that in terms of him going in and out, it was a civil matter (which I already knew) but regarding him seeming to know my routine, if I could prove that he was following me or watching the house then that would be something they could possibly pursue because it could be considered harassment. He also mentioned hidden cameras and said that he could be prosecuted for that, particularly if they captured images of the kids. His recommended that we put a camera in an upstairs window, facing out on the street, and that way we might be able to see if he's sitting nearby in his car, watching the house. He also suggested to me that I try and vary my routine a bit.

To be honest, I think reporting him to the Gardai would be an absolute last resort, but if he starts being awkward about things, it might be no harm to drop into conversation that I've spoken to them about it. Even if it's just to put the frighteners on him.

So I'm in the process of drafting up an email this morning, telling him that we've observed him entering the property, providing dates, times and screen shots, and stating that we did not and do not give him permission to enter without both of us present. I'm also going to ask him to reply and confirm that it will not happen again, and that if it continues we will have no choice but to lodge a complaint with the RTB. I also discovered last night that he never registered the tenancy, so hopefully the threat of the RTB will be enough, because he'll be fined for not registering it.

Any response yet?

doughef · 28-11-2019 4:20pm

OP ??

GooglePlus · 28-11-2019 4:24pm

He's only gone and killed her..

NuttyMcNutty · 28-11-2019 4:51pm

Are you sure he hasn't got any hidden cameras?, he has to be entering the house for a reason, if he wants to enter the house to see if its in condition he only has to ask.

Not trying to alarm you but get this sorted now, ring him and tell him to arrange a viewing and stop snooping, don't let this rumble on just get it over with.

doiredoire · 28-11-2019 7:17pm

I would be worried he has cameras installed. Is there anyway of detecting cameras?

Landlord Entering Property Without Permission

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