Can Maintenance let themselves into my apartment whenever they like without my permission?

Question

I work graveyard and sleep during the day. I woke up to maintenance letting themselves into my apartment today. He was "dropping off" mail keys which I already have. I don't think it was necessary to come uninvited into my apartment for this purpose. Is this legal?

Answer 1

Agree with the above, except to add that there may be a clause in your lease allowing something like that, but I doubt it.  I'd report it to management, at the very least.  Might talk to the cops too; just in case they are looking for clues to a string of robberies in your area ;- )

Answer 2

Absolutely NOT!!! He was going to nose around...possibly steal stuff.  Press charges if you need to or at least contact the owner of the building and report this.

Answer 3

No.  24 hour notice must be given to you prior to entering your apartment unless it is an emergency and/or they are concerned for your safety.

Answer 4

Unless your house is on fire or they smell a gas leak or it's an emergency (water pouring from your unit) they must provide you with notice that they are going to enter your unit.  The law usually states that they must provide 24 hour verbal notice that they will be accessing your apartment for maintenance purposes only, i.e. checking for leaking toilets, plumbing repair, electrical repair and that's if you've requested the repair to be made.  If they are fixing the plumbing due to upgrading or improving the property/unit itself they still need to notify you that they will be entering your unit to make these repairs/upgrades.

Dropping off Mail keys does not constitute "maintenance repair" and you could have picked those up from the onsite leasing office, that was not necessary to have the maintenance guy do that and a waste of his time when he could be working on something else.

I suggest you write to the management company and complain, explain that you sleep during the day, you were not notified of anyone coming by to do any work and the maintenance guy should not have entered your apartment simply to drop of keys you could have picked up from the office.  The reason I state to put it in writing is because you want a paper trail if anything happens or goes missing.

This is not legal, however, depending on what state you live in most have a 24-48 hour notice period that they must provide to you some don't require any notice at all.