I lease a house that has a front yard and a backyard and a legal apartment off to the side. My landlord and his dog live in his apt in the garage that I do not think is legal. When we moved in he told us he would be moving in a few months. Before he moved he let his big german sheperd mix run the property and always run up to my guests and come in my house. He moved and after a month he is back. Now it has started all over again and finally I said something to him and he got very nasty telling me that his dog has lived here a lot longer than I have. I told him then he should not have rented it out. When you lease a house doesn't that include the property around it. Technically shouldn't the landlord and dog not be hanging out in the yard of I'm leasing? He says his dog doesn't like the leash and likes to run but that is not my problem that his dog is not trained I have a dog and I keep him around my house not all over the property.

I lease a house that has a front yard and a backyard and a legal apartment off to the side. My landlord and his dog live in his apt in the garage that I do not think is legal. When we moved in he told us he would be moving in a few months. Before he moved he let his big german sheperd mix run the property and always run up to my guests and come in my house. He moved and after a month he is back. Now it has started all over again and finally I said something to him and he got very nasty telling me that his dog has lived here a lot longer than I have. I told him then he should not have rented it out. When you lease a house doesn't that include the property around it. Technically shouldn't the landlord and dog not be hanging out in the yard of I'm leasing? He says his dog doesn't like the leash and likes to run but that is not my problem that his dog is not trained I have a dog and I keep him around my house not all over the property.


You have a right to NOT be disturbed. Yes, you could break the lease and move. I would notify him in writing that if the situation is not corrected in 30 days, you will be moving.

Your lease should tell you exactly what you are leasing. I've seen leases that are restrictive concerning the surrounding property - for example, the tenant has no rights as far as the backyard is concerned.

Essentially you have two units occupying the same property. This means the grounds are common and shared. Unless your lease species that you get exclusive use of the grounds, I'm not sure you have much grounds.

Of course his dog shouldn't be entering your indoors or bothering your guests. But since it's the landlord's property it may be reasdonable for him to have the run of the grounds.

I think that technically you're right. At least that the dog should not come in your house or bother you. (Probably shared common areas.)

But it sounds like something that could easily escalate into a full blown battle. At this point I'd decide if it's a battle worth fighting. Take into consideration how long you plan to live there, how large of a rent increase you'd be willing to pay when the lease comes up for renewal (if you'd like to renew)... things like that. It may not be right or fair, but as the owner of the property he's probably not the best person to pick a fight with.

When someone leases you a house/ property, doesn't the yard and patio count as part of the house unless otherwise stated?

Please do not use Emails to follow-up. Post a reply to the thread for any follow-up.

Okay, a question for the legal experts. Doesn't the fact that the landlord told him that he'd be moving have any say in whether he can break the lease? Yes, the landlord did move, but he ended up coming back.

Just wondering. :)

I do not want to break the lease. I just want privacy and I am paying $2000 a month to rent a house. I did not rent an apartment I rented a house with a front and backyard. I do not want this person's dog on my space. He is living in an illegal apartment in the garage and I think it is common sense when you rent out property to stay off it unless there is a reason to be on it. Am I in the wrong?

The thing is the landlord owns the property. If it was rented with a condition that the landlord would be vacating and stay away, then the landlord moving back might be grounds for breaking the lease. If the landlord moving back interferes with the tenant enjoying the use of the property, it might be grounds. But, I'm not sure what a judge would say in this instance.

Since the landlord does own the property (and the legality of the apartment is not your business) he is entitled to use the property unless it interferes and then, how interference is defined, will have an impact.

As for it being your space, that depends on what the lease says about your use of the property.

The lease says, Lessee shall peacefully and quietly have, hold and enjoy the demised premises for the agreed term.

If you own property and have an illegal dwelling are you allowed to live in it?

My lease also states that I have leased the premises of the address, together with all appurtenances.

I would suggest getting a lawyer at this time, see if you can do something about this.

Good luck. :)

It might depend on the state, but here yes. And you must keep it presentable.

If you own property and have an illegal dwelling are you allowed to live in it?

Depends on why its illegal. But even if it is illegal, its not your concern. You are not liable in any way for the illegality of the dwelling.

If you own property and have an illegal dwelling are you allowed to live in it?


If a dwelling is illegal, NO ONE is allowed to live in it - neither landlord nor tenant.

I do not want to break the lease. I just want privacy and I am paying $2000 a month to rent a house. I did not rent an apartment I rented a house with a front and backyard. I do not want this person's dog on my space. He is living in an illegal apartment in the garage and I think it is common sense when you rent out property to stay off it unless there is a reason to be on it. Am I in the wrong?



I don't understand why you think it's "common sense" to stay off a property you are renting if there is another unit on the property -

Again, I see no options other than breaking the lease and moving.

If you rented with the understanding (and it's going to be your word against the landlord because I can't imagine it's written into the lease) that the landlord would not live on the property and he's back, then he's in violation.

If you rented with the understanding (again, part of the lease) that the GROUNDS are included in the lease, then the terms have been broken.

If there was an agreement that his dog would NOT be roaming the property, again, the terms of the lease are broken.

If you are offended that your landlord is living in an illegal apartment you can report the illegal apartment to the appropriate authorities and get him removed. He will then undoubtedly find reason to evict you and you can see how that eviction holds up.

I see no legal recourse for you other than breaking the lease OR sending a letter advising you will withhold rent until certain conditions are corrected. He'll try to evict you and, again, you can see if that eviction holds up in Court.

I'm sure this is all very upsetting to you but legally you have very few options.

Please don't start a new thread with half the info posted - it's unfair to the people trying to provide good answers to you and will be incorrect because people responding to the second thread have half the important info.

When someone leases you a house/ property, doesn't the yard and patio count as part of the house unless otherwise stated?



Please don't post the same question on another thread - you may be unhappy with the original answers you received but they are legally correct.

The same people who answered the first thread will see this, the second thread.

Should be combined.

When someone leases you a house/ property, doesn't the yard and patio count as part of the house unless otherwise stated?

I've merged the two threads. It makes no sense to open a new thread for the above question.

Normally, if one rents a single family, stand alone dwelling, they get exclusive use of the grounds. But when one rents a property where there are multiple dwellings on the property, then, unless stated otherwise, the grounds would be shared.

Original Poster, I stand by my original answer. I believe you do have "rights" and are "correct" for the most part.

The point I'm trying to make to you is that it's the OWNER of the property. Sure you can battle him until your blue in the face on this, but where is it going to get you? Even if a judge rules that his apartment is illegal, he has to move out and/or his dog isn't allowed in the yard your best case scenario is that he'll leave you alone until your lease is up and then give you a 30 day notice to get rid of you. If you plan to move when the lease is up anyway, that's an option.

It's not a "fair" situation. You're "right", he's "wrong", but in this specific scenario that's not going to get you very far. Or if it does get you the result you want (dog banned) I have a feeling along with it will come a whole other set of headaches with the landlord.

Just out of curiosity... is his dog particularly offensive in some way? Is the other tenant bothered by the dog as well? Our neighbor's dog was constantly in our yard - like your situation, would even come right in our house if given the opportunity - and it bugged the pooh out of us. We finally just kind of gave up and "adopted" her as our mascot. Now she comes over all the time, plays with our dog, hangs out, and then goes home. I guess she kind of grew on me?? I'm still annoyed that the owner lets her go all over like that, but now I like the dog.

Hello K:

Well, I don't know if your question got answered. I don't think so, because we don't know what your lease says. But, it appears that your lease isn't CLEAR about this apartment...

And, I agree with you. It probably ISN'T a legal apartment...

So, the question comes down to what are you going to DO about it? You want to stay, and you want him to leave. You may not be able to get what you want, but I'd sure take a shot.

Sit down with him. Tell him the truth, that you don't want him living there. If he doesn't leave, you'll report him, and break your lease. I'd follow it up with a certified letter stating the same thing. IF the apartment ISN'T legal, he can't sue YOU for the balance of your lease.

excon

I think excon is misreading something here. The illegal apartment you refer to is where the landlord is staying. I believe this is in a converted garage. In addition, to that there is the house and a legal apartment attached to the house.

So, the landlord living in an illegal apartment in the garage would have NO effect on your lease. If you report him, what would probably happen is he will be forced to move and the garage condemned.

As Mommy says, if you fight him, you may win (and I'm not as sure of that as she is), but at the cost of alienating him. At best it means he terminates your lease when it expires. At worst, it means he makes the rest of your tenancy very difficult.

So you need to decide what you want to do.

As Mommy says, if you fight him, you may win (and I'm not as sure of that as she is), but at the cost of alienating him. At best it means he terminates your lease when it expires. At worst, it means he makes the rest of your tenancy very difficult.



I'm not necessarily all the sure she'd win, either. If it came to a court case or whatever. I'm just saying she's "right" in the fact that she shouldn't have to be bothered by the dog.

But there are lots of injustices in the world and it's not practical to fight all of them. You'd run yourself silly.

So, the landlord living in an illegal apartment in the garage would have NO effect on your lease. If you report him, what would probably happen is he will be forced to move and the garage condemned. Hello Scott:

Bingo. That's what she wants. If the apartment ISN'T illegal, no harm no foul. He can't retaliate for complaining.

Plus, if the LL moved into an apartment (legal or not) in a building that the tenant thought was HERS, that's a violation of HER lease. In my view, in order for the apartment TO BE EXCLUDED from HER premises, it would have to be spelled out in no uncertain terms in her lease. That apparently, WASN'T done. Therefore, I think the garage belongs to the tenant.

Given the above, I can't see the LL recovering if she vacates.

excon

He can't retaliate for complaining.



Of course he CAN! He wouldn't be right to do so... but he can.

That's my whole point.

Overall, I believe the tenant is "right" and the landlord is "wrong" on this one. But he's still the landlord, it's still his property, and she needs to decide how far she's willing to take it and what she may face in the way of retaliation from him.

In my opinion, if she likes the house and the dumb dog is just an annoyance it might be worth it to just suck it up and deal with it. If she doesn't mind moving and getting into a big battle to get the annoying dog to stop bothering her... have at it.

I guess I'm giving what I consider to be practicle advice at this point - not necessarily what the limits of her legal rights are.

Of course he CAN! He wouldn't be right to do so.....but he can.....

I guess I'm giving what I consider to be practicle advice at this point - not necessarily what the limits of her legal rights are.Hello again, mommy:

In MY state, he CAN'T retaliate for complaining.

I too, believe I'm giving her practical advice. If she CAN'T put up with the dog and the LL in the garage, I think she can get rid of him, and/or vacate without any adverse consequences.

If she CAN put up with him, then she's cool. Between the two of us, I think she got good advice - oh yeah - Scott too - and Jude - and this - and my mother (ok, not my mother).

excon

He can't LEGALLY retaliate. But we all know that there are many ways to retaliate that wouldn't be seen as such.

Actually, out here where I live one of the legal reasons that a landlord has for evicting a tenant is that they need to move back into the house. So I can just see in this case: tenant complains because landlord is living in an illegal apartment. Housing department forces landlord to move out of apartment. Landlord turns around and evicts tenant that reported him because he now has no place to stay and needs to move back into house!

Froggy has a point. I considered that but wasn't sure how universal that rule was.

Thank all of you for your advice. Sorry about the other thread didn't know there are so many rules on this site. Are some of you answering my question doing this as your job? Anyway you have all been helpful but after talking to him he made some phone calls and he told me I was right and that since he leased the property to me and the tenant in the apartment he has to stay out of our backyard unless we say it's okay and keep his dog leashed when we are home on the other side of the property. I do not know if this is because of legal reasons or because someone told him it's rude. I do not know but so far so good. Thanks

Part of the issue here is "legal" apartment, in most terms this is the right to rent an apartment, since he owns it, there is no need to rent, the issue will be zoning and if he got building permits to use it for living. Since he already has one "legal" apartment, we will assume for sure that the property is zoned multi family. So all we have is the issue if the garage was approved to be occupied or not. ** and that may even be depending on where you live and if they have strict building and zoning regulations.

As to the dog, you rent a shared yard, you share it with the other tennants, just like living in an apartment complex. The tenant of the "legal" apartment, the person living in the other apartment and you all have equal access to the yard area.

But if the lease specificly says the other apartment people have to stay out of the yard, then he may be bound by it also, if it is not in writing but just verbal, it can be changed at his desire with reasonable notice.

But if you have it solved now good luck

The garage is not near the yard maybe I wasn't clear. The house and apartment have a front and backyard that yes we share. The garage is another story it is all the way at the end of a 200ft driveway. It is not on the yard. But, it has been resolved already thank you for your thoughts.