What to Do if Your Landlord Is Harassing You
Your Landlord Is Harassing You? DoNotPay Tin can Provide Help!
In a different movie, you would live in a cozy, affordable, rent-controlled apartment in a urban center of your liking, with plenty space for everything and everyone you demand. Your landlord would exist kind, understanding, trustworthy, and off-white. All of you happy renters, together with your awesome landlord, would look into a beautiful sunset from your windows, and then—cue the cease credits with some upbeat jazz embrace.
In real life, renting an flat rarely looks that rosy. Sometimes the relationship with your landlord can take a rather grim turn, leading even into proper harassment. Landlord harassment is a category of its own, merely it can often overlap with other types, like sexual harassment .
Co-ordinate to the study published in the Missouri Law Review , one out of x women with low income have experienced sexual harassment from their landlords. It doesn't take to get this dark, but if you have experienced landlord harassment of any sort, you should know that you lot are not alone and that at that place are things you lot tin can do with the help of DoNotPay.
What Counts as Landlord Harassment?
Landlord harassment can include sexual advances, but it can besides be many other things. In some instances, your landlord might even non exist aware that what they are doing is problematic, and then information technology is crucial to get familiar with what it means when someone is harassing you .
Any aggressive method used by a landlord to pressure, intimidate, or coerce yous to break your lease or move out of the bounds can exist considered landlord harassment. In most cases, harassing deportment must be repeated several times—isolated incidents will not count as stiff plenty grounds for legal action.
It's useful to know that harassment can target both tenants and their guests. The landlords must ensure that other people working for them or representing them cannot act in a style that counts every bit harassment.
Examples of Landlord Harassment
Landlords usually showtime harassing their tenants in situations related to hire raises. If they don't want to wait until your lease expires or they don't want to behave the expenses of legal eviction, the landlords might accomplish for questionable methods. Greedy landlords might use different harassment practices to make you leave sooner so they can go new tenants who volition pay more than.
Here is a non-exhaustive listing of the virtually common examples of landlord harassment across the U.s.a.:
- Poor maintenance/lack of repairs —a landlord might withhold necessary maintenance to create difficult living conditions for a tenant they want to get rid of. One Reddit user reported harassment on the grounds of poor maintenance which resulted in a physical injury
- Tenant lockouts —a landlord blocks access to the building or a specific hire unit past changing locks, barricading the entry, etc.
- Withholding previously agreed-on amenities —a landlord takes away your parking spot, pool privileges, landscaping services, etc. although your lease agreement includes them. This tin include even the necessary civilities such as h2o, heat, electricity, etc.
- Illegal entry —a landlord cannot enter the rental unit without obtaining your consent or notifying you in accelerate, unless there is an emergency
- Raising or overcharging rent —the laws might differ a scrap from state to state, but if the hire is increased without a timely discover before the lease expires or the increased amount gets unreasonable, a landlord might be defendant of harassment
- Exact and concrete threats —landlords use calumniating language over the phone, in person or in writing, they endeavor to put their hands on you, cake admission with their body or get in your face. In some cases, the landlord's verbal abuse tin can proceed online, and go cyberstalking
- Buyout —if a landlord constantly offers to buy out your lease, contacts you at work nigh it, or writes to you regarding the issue within 180 days afterwards your refusal, that counts as harassment
- Refusing rent —harassment is also when a landlord refuses to accept or acknowledge your rent payments considering they want to scare you into moving out or taking back your complaint
- Landlord retaliation —takes identify after you submit a legal complaint to authorities and tin can involve whatever of the harassment examples mentioned to a higher place as a method of revenge against you; one Reddit user fifty-fifty reported a bizarre state of affairs where the landlord had her face painted on a landscape afterward she started a lawsuit
Landlord Stalking
In some instances, the harassment from your landlord can turn into proper stalking. If your landlord is relentless and keeps verbally abusing you in person, online or via harassing phone calls , these can be the grounds for stalking claims.
Stalking can be anything from the landlord keeping track of your movement or contacting your friends and family. Things can go fifty-fifty more than difficult for yous if stalking is interrelated to sexual advances on the landlord's side or threats of physical violence.
While DoNotPay can help yous stop a stalker , you should know that you tin always written report such incidents to the police or even offset the procedure to get a restraining order against your landlord. Situations like this can often occur afterwards you lot reported initial harassment to authorities every bit a class of landlord retaliation.
What Doesn't Count every bit Landlord Harassment?
Landlords tin can use legal means that may seem intrusive to many people. You would exist well advised to research in item your state'southward specific laws nigh the landlord-tenant human relationship, merely in most cases, landlords have it within their legal rights to:
- Enter the premises in cases of emergency : if there is a fire or a gas leak or another emergency, the landlord is not obliged to provide any find beforehand, as per Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspection
- File an eviction if you don't pay rent : this seems straightforward, but it is useful to know that they still have to notify you in writing, at least three days beforehand, like in California
- Raise rent with a find: a landlord can increment your rent if yous have a periodic rental agreement (month-to-month or week-to-calendar week), simply they accept to provide a 30-solar day notice for increases of 10 percent or less, or a 60-twenty-four hours notice for bigger increases, as per California's Department of Consumer Affairs
- Transport tenants a Discover to Quit : if your actions, like making too much dissonance or non keeping your unit in a habitable condition, are violating the lease understanding, a landlord tin send you a Observe to Quit earlier filing for eviction; for example, in California , this discover tin can be sent anywhere between 3 and 90 days, depending on the contract or housing type
- Offer the tenant a buyout : information technology is legal for your landlord to offering yous a buyout, but this has to be done under local regulations; for instance, in New York , the landlord has to practise this in writing offering you a hazard to turn down, or speak to your lawyer. The notification also has to explain that you can tell the landlord to stop offering you lot a buyout for 180 days if you write a alphabetic character
- Change locks for victims of domestic abuse : in Oregon , if you request a change of locks from your landlord, due to being a victim of domestic violence, the landlord is obliged to do and then without verification of sexual corruption, domestic violence or stalking
What Landlord Harassment Federal and State Laws Are There?
While the tenant-landlord human relationship is commonly regulated on a state or local level, several federal laws can come in useful if you ever experience landlord harassment . Here is a general overview of the most relevant ones:
| Name | Brief Description |
| The Fair Housing Act | This law prevents bigotry based on race, colour, national origin, sex, disability, religion, historic period, familial status, etc. While it by and large guarantees that landlords offer equal opportunities to anybody, this act might be useful if your landlord starts getting verbally abusive e.g., using racial or ethnic slurs. |
| The Fair Credit Reporting Deed | This law specifies that a landlord needs a tenant'southward permission to run a credit report for possible screening purposes. |
| Americans with Disabilities Act | This law guarantees that a landlord cannot hold it against you if you have a trained helper creature, and then this cannot be grounds for fabricated lease agreement breaches. |
State Laws About Landlord Harassment
You should get acquainted with land laws regarding the tenant-landlord relationship fifty-fifty if you're not a victim of landlord harassment. For example, did y'all know that air-conditioning is not a required appliance in Texas or that a landlord cannot force per unit area you into declawing or devocalizing your pets in California ? Besides these random rules, state laws regulate:
- Rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords
- Security deposits
- Leases
- Lease termination guides
- Required disclosures
- Repairs
- Safety features
- Evictions
If you lot experience landlord harassment in whatsoever capacity, before taking whatever actions, try to research the legal framework of your relationship by consulting official government websites.
The land and metropolis laws regarding the tenant-landlord relationship are pretty similar in nearly states, merely in that location might exist some important differences, and you should be aware of them.
This advice applies to legal consequences also, since the amount of money that you can get for a harassment case is non the same in every area. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the state legislation, and check out the table below for examples from 3 major cities:
| Location | Examples of Legal Consequences for Landlords |
| New York |
|
| San Francisco |
|
| Boston |
|
How Can DoNotPay Help You lot with Landlord Harassment?
DoNotPay is on a mission to help you in solving various problems. While some of them tin be like shooting fish in a barrel to fix, landlord harassment can go pretty serious. Experiencing harassment in whatsoever form can take a cost on your emotional and mental health.
Most people struggle with agreement their rights and acceptable courses of action due to the complexities of the legal organisation. That is why DoNotPay created a new user-friendly and streamlined service designed to protect you from harassment. It is particularly useful if your landlord turns into a stalker . Check how unproblematic it is:
- Open DoNotPay in your spider web browser
- Hit Human relationship Protection
- When prompted, choose Safety and Stalking
- Accept a short chat with our chatbot while following its simple instructions
- Provide additional information that you find of import for your case
Afterward you end the conversation, DoNotPay volition prepare the advisable documents and courses of action suitable for your case. The deportment can range from writing a cease and desist letter that y'all can transport to the harasser to reporting and blocking the landlord swell on social media.
What Else Can You Do in the Meantime?
If you decide to take legal action against your landlord, it would exist all-time to find another place to live. Since this is not always possible, y'all might have to stay in the same flat while waiting for a court appointment or determination to the whole process. In such cases, here's what you should exercise:
- Accolade your lease agreement : Make certain to follow the rules stated in your lease to the letter. Any violation can weaken your claim or hinder your success in courtroom. Don't throw loud parties, don't get a pet, and avert doing anything that the landlord might utilize against y'all
- Keep paying your rent: Don't stop doing it no matter how unpleasant the harassment yous suffered is. If yous are nether a lease, you are however legally obliged to honor your part of the agreement, unless your lease says otherwise. Make sure to do it on time as well, because all belatedly payments can strengthen the case confronting you
It is hard to list all variations of harassment, but brand sure to cheque the most mutual ones below.
Verbal or Concrete Harassment
- Tape everything you tin— Write things down in detail, try to have video or voice recordings during the harassment occurrences. Take photos or screenshots if you're exposed to online harassment. All of these volition serve as important evidence if you lot stop up suing your landlord in court
- Ship a letter— Enquire your landlord to stop harassing yous in written form. Be every bit detailed equally possible about the situations when they verbally or physically attacked you. Save a copy of your alphabetic character
- Call the constabulary —Practice not hesitate to call 911 if the violence escalates, and you don't feel condom at your identify
Tenant Lockouts
- Make records—If your landlord locks you lot out, make sure to record it somehow. You tin can have a video of yourself trying to enter your unit, explaining what happened. The more information y'all include, the stronger your claim in court, if it comes to that
- Mutter to the landlord in writing—Make sure to state that yous know your tenant rights and that lockouts are a clear violation of the law. Need for such harassment to stop. Copy the letter and save it with other harassment bear witness you obtained
Utility Shut-Offs
- Call the utility visitor —If the shut-off is non a issue of unpaid bills on your stop, and it comes from the landlord harassing you lot to get out, attempt contacting the utility service provider, explaining what happened and asking them to resume service
- Keep a list—An isolated incident cannot be treated as harassment and, if your landlord is harassing you, the chances are they will shut off your gas, cablevision, electricity, or heat multiple times. Whenever it happens, go along a detailed list of shut-offs stating the dates, the time, and the duration. If applicable, include all the negative consequences of the shut-offs that you experienced
- Talk to your neighbors—If the landlord is harassing yous to move out earlier your lease expires, so they can increase the rent, information technology'southward very likely they are doing it to other tenants besides. Check if any of your neighbors experienced whatever harassment. If it comes to a lawsuit, you can act as witnesses for one another
How Else Can DoNotPay Help You, Also Fighting Landlords?
Harassment of any sort is a serious issue, just the odds are that y'all have experienced some other problems that DoNotPay can set too. Instead of wasting time researching the policies and regulations for every administrative or legal issue that troubles you, you can become an efficient solution past consulting DoNotPay help in just a few clicks in your web browser . Contact the states if yous're struggling with:
- Challenging parking tickets
- Disputing traffic tickets
- Getting a refund for that canceled/delayed flight
- Working around those bills you are unable to pay
- Scheduling a DMV date with no fuss
- Saving yourself from waiting in customer back up'southward phone queues
- Dealing with bug with credit cards
- Stopping unwanted subscriptions or memberships
- Fighting speeding tickets
- Getting revenge on annoying robocalls
- Suing people and companies in minor claims court
- Protecting yourself from stalking and harassment
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Source: https://donotpay.com/learn/landlord-harassment/