apartment question

[Dawn]

I was wondering if anyone here had experience with living in an apartment and dealing with a lease...I was told by my manager today we can only have 1 adult visitor once every 3 weeks. Are most all apartment leases like this where you rarely can ever have company over?

[Dodgergirl]

Um, no. They cannot tell you who or when people can visit, however, they can stipulate that said persons may not sleep over for more than X amount of days per month. Do you have a lease? did you sign this as a mutual agreement?

[Dawn]

I signed a lease 4 years ago and never had no problem with visitors and now all of a sudden the manager says she got a complaint that my boyfriend visited too much. But he never stays over night. The lease says a guest cannot visit no more than 14 consecutive days or 21 separate days in a 12 month period. Even though he doesn't visit 14 consecutive days he's only allowed to visit me 21 times in the whole year. It sounds awful they control people's life so much in an apartment.

[oakhurstleaf]

That sounds ridiculous and wrong.

[Dodgergirl]

It's amazing to me that someone would actually sit around and count his visits...

[Dawn]

I guess I have to move unless I want to be extremely lonely in this apartment and rarely be allowed visitors.

[Kahlua Kid]

Wow - no more than 21 days separately... is that even a legal clause? I understand staying overnight... someone could move in and then if rent wasn't being paid, the landlord has to evict both parties... making it more difficult if the one person isn't listed on the lease (how do they even know who to put on eviction papers)...

But - visitors for a few hours...??? Hmmm... you might contact the California Housing Authority and see if that clause was legal in your contract? if it isn't, then they can't enforce that one item of the contract... (the whole contract wouldn't be invalid because of one disallowed item if your contract has a severability clause.) Just a thought.

[Newcomer]

If it's an apartment and not a room I would check with the housing authority to see if it is legal what she is doing. http://www.hud.gov/local/ca/renting/tenantrights.cfm I know you signed a lease but if it is a boyfriend and he is not living with you and has his own place of residence this may be an unfair housing practice. It sounds like the owner may have been taken advantage in the past by someone having multiple adults living in the residence before. I can see their point also of what the intent may be,

Example:

One person signs a rental agreement for an apartment saying that they are going to be the only one living there, the owner agrees that electrical & water & heating & trash are included in the rent. The renter then moves in friends and sub leases to them collecting his/her own rent while they all use X times the water/electrical/heat & such especially if they all work different shifts. You can see where I am headed here. I think it is going a bit far if they won't allow a boyfriend to visit as long as he is not residing in the apartment.

[ZipperMan]

I was wondering if anyone here had experience with living in an apartment and dealing with a lease...I was told by my manager today we can only have 1 adult visitor once every 3 weeks. Are most all apartment leases like this where you rarely can ever have company over?

Hi Dawn I had a valuable link for you that I was going to post, but due to some crazy rule on this forum I cannot post a link since I have less than ten posts, I guess that I should do meaningless postings just to get my count up to ten so I can post links that might help answer an individuals question.

Try to google (or use another search engine) California Fair Housing

Update: I see that newcomer posted the link I tried to post for you.

[Dawn]

Thank you everyone for your help and the links. What is really upsetting is I can only have
1 visitor at a time that means my mom and my dad have to come visit me separately.

[Ironhorse]

California Rural Legal Assistance may be able to help you also, or direct you to the correct place. They do civil rights stuff, but also do housing stuff too.

117 S Lake St
Madera, CA 93638
(559) 674-5671

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/appendix3.shtml

[Dawn]

Thanks everyone for the help with my apartment lease. I did some research from the links you guys posted for me and found out what they were trying to do to me was a violation of my human rights. I threatened the managers supervisor with a lawsuit and now I am allowed to have visitors at my apartment on a daily basis if I want.

[Dodgergirl]

Isn't it amazing what can be accomplished from just asking a simple question on a local forum?
Thanks Mat for putting so much into Yosemite Area Forums. :applause:

[Dawn]

Everyone here on this forum is so nice and helpful. It's great.