I (18M) live in Canada, and i just moved in with my mom for financial reasons not long ago and yesterday my landlord (which seems to be a very kind woman) and her husband who also works with her came to help with some issues we had in the apartment and it was mostly done as they said yesterday when they left. However, today, her husband came, without telling us he was coming and unlocked the door to enter the apartment so i went to see who it was and said hi to him. However, he seemed surprised that I was here and asked “Are you not working today?” to which i replied “no, not yet” (i never told them I was working or not before) then he replied that he “had to finish something” but they seemed to be panicking and it (kind of) sounded like a an excuse as it wasn’t very clear (though I can’t be sure since it’s not my job so i can’t really tell). But then after that, they literally just left and locked the door. I went to the window and saw a white van leaving.
Later i also saw a white van entering then leaving my parking which i found really weird, I can’t really tell more about this as i merely saw it.
I talked about it with my family and they said i should ask my landlord. My sister also mentioned that the landlord has to say that he’s coming 24 hours in advance. They say that maybe I just worry too much and there’s a misunderstanding but i don’t see ANY REASON as to why this man would come then suddenly leave when they saw that i was there.
Comments
Change the locks 🔐
Read. Your. Lease.
See what the stipulations say before you start reacting .
Read the fine print of any contract signed for the living space, contact the landlord and discuss your disappointment in how this person entered the apartment without notifying you or knocking the door, and get a WiFi camera set up facing the entrance so you can view any ‘uninvited’ company. I don’t think you can change the locks without giving a copy to the landlord anyway.
I’m in the US so take the advice with a healthy dose of Canadian maple syrup.
This is definitely shady.
Look for hidden cameras. And install an indoor Ring camera of your own.
Put up cameras in your apartment and I would move as soon as the lease ends.
He probably was coming back to fix something he forgot to check when he was there the day before.
He might not like to do things when people are there
there are times where they don’t have to give notice for entering your place.
In my former life, I worked for a landlord in Ontario and spent half my time in landlord tenant court.
Are you on the lease? Did your mom add you to the lease or notify the landlord in WRITING that you were moving in. If not, you have no standing here. It would need to be your mom that communicates with the landlord.
If you did sign the lease, look at your lease. Likely there’s a clause that says the landlord could access the unit on an emergency basis. THEY would need to prove that there was a legit cause for alarm on that day.
Mostly, if you want a peaceful living situation, I would talk to them rationally and calmly and then get yourself a cheap wifi camera off of amazon. If it reoccurs, you have proof and they have no reasonable assumption of privacy in a unit that they have rented to someone else.
Trust your gut, ask questions, protect yourself calmly.