Hey, the mother of my landlord (living upstairs) let herself in today while i was having a lay in. I was in bed and heard my door unlock and people talking inside. I jumped in some clothes and found the mother of my landlord, who is always around so she is the first talking point, in my house with someone from sector alarm starting to do maintenance on the alarm system.
I found on htu.no that its not legal for a landlord to come into my house with no notification for such maintenance. Here is the source.
Norwegian:
https://www.htu.no/rettigheter-og-plikter/utleiers-tilgang-til-boligen
https://www.htu.no/vanlige-uenigheter/utleier-laser-seg-inn
English:
https://www.htu.no/en/your-rights-and-obligations/the-landlord-s-access-to-the-residence
https://www.htu.no/en/common-disputes/the-landlord-unlocks-and-enters-the-residence
I still have to talk to my landlord. But since it happened to my neighbour as well (she’s off to work and they let themselves in, i don’t know if she was notified or not yet), im considering filing a complaint.
Here is what I want to know.
1 Does anyone here have some experience with such a case?
2 What would even happen if they agree with me. Does my landlord get a fine, do I get compensation? What would be the result.
3 Any other tips or remarks i should know about?
I want to make two things clear.
I feel real bad for the sector alarm employee. As an arborist we get in some dispute of neighbours getting some work done together and one says cut it low so i have a view, the neighbour agrees on this. Sometimes they didn’t discuss it with their neighbour and we are up a tree getting an angry land owner coming up to us. Today must have felt the same for him. He’s just doing his job and doing what he’s told.
Second thing is that I have asked for a meeting with my landlord. We’re going to discuss this first together before I file a case to maybe resolve it another way.
Thank you for your time.
Landlord let herself in my house without notifying
byu/Maxzzzie inNorway
Posted by Maxzzzie
6 Comments
Honestly, unless there are other problems with the landlord, or this seems more like a pattern then a one time thing then I wouldn’t see the need to report it. Like absolutely lay the bar down, set clear boundaries and state that you don’t want anyone in the apartment without informing you first, but if you complain to a higher authority you’ll likely just cause a rift in the relationship to the landlord. The best thing to do if your unhappy is to move as soon as the rental agreement is up, some landlords will even ask for references, so it’s best not to burn bridges.
I would let the landlord know it is a problem, and be clear that you are aware that it is illegal.
Let them know that they need to notify you in advance next (state how much). Put it in writing.
I wouldn’t complain unless it happens again.
Definitely have that talk with your landlord.
If those boundaries aren’t made explicitly clear, it’ll just keep happening. I’ve had a few landlords that assumed it was fine to just randomly let themselves in because they owned the place, but never needed to go as far as reporting it. Most understood why it was unacceptable after a brief talk, and the ones who didn’t (one old hag that wanted someone to pay to watch her stuff rather than renters, and one old woman who used to own the house) backed off after threats of legal action.
The landlord’s mother sounds like she fits in with the latter, so see what your landlord has to say.
Compensation is unlikely. An official warning informing your landlord of your rights is likely.
Anything past that would probably involve moving, and maybe getting out of the last month of rent due to breach of contract on their part.
This is just going by personal experience, though.
The tenancy law has some clauses that create gray areas but this is definitely not one of them. The landlord cannot just walk in to your home without your consent just like you cannot let someone else to use the place (f.e subletting) without the landlord’s consent.
That being said these issues tend to be an uphill battle for the tenants. You have every right to let them know that you don’t appreciate it and it would be great if this doesn’t repeat again. If you want to escalate things, you can but it tends to take forever, can cost a lot money and to be perfectly honest you don’t get too much out of it. If you want to pursue more formal channels here are two useful places to start
1) tenants union gives you access to affordable legal consultation and mediation
https://www.leieboerforeningen.no/
2) husleietvisutvalg is the state authority for mediation between landlords and tenants. This is the official body to start with before escalating it to court
https://www.htu.no/
My suggestion would be to let your landlord know that you don’t appreciate it politely. If he/she ignores this, move out. Landlords can be a major pain in the ass if they want to be and it’s usually easier to find another apartment than to fight them.
Presumably the landlord knew he was coming.
What he should have done is let you know ahead of time that there was someone coming. Ideally you should be the one to let the sector alarm guy in. The landlord didn’t need to be there.
I’m observing this kind of posts and their answers are really different from the german sub.
In this sub it’s much more apologetic, talk to your landlord, that please don’t walk into my home unannounced.
With quotes like that:
“My suggestion would be to let your landlord know that you don’t appreciate it politely.”
The Germans tell you that it’s illegal for the landlord to have keys to your apartment and yell at you, that you should immediately change the lock of your door.
It seems very weird to me, to be this ok with people walking randomly into your home.