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gribot · Sep 25, 2007, 08:52 AM

We have a 3 family owner occupied house in Hoboken, Hudson County NJ. Our lease states that we can show the apt. on "reasonable notice" . We are evicting the tenants for various reasons. Below is a letter they sent in response to my showing the apt. Note that this woman has not been staying in the apartment lately. These people gave us similar problems in the past regarding another apt. they rented in the building. Below is an email I received in response to an email I sent them saying I want to show the apt. starting in Oct. The questions are. What hours can the apt. be shown? How must I inform the tenants? What do I do if they refuse entry to us (the landlords) or real estate agents?

"If you have to show the apartment or have real estate agents show the apartment starting in October, we will require "If you have to show the apartment or have real estate agents show the apartment starting in October, we will require " for all appointments as 24 hrs is too last minute. Also because we have a new born the apartment can only be shown during normal business hours.

The baby has had a lot of problems since birth therefore anyone who enters the apartment, including real estate agents, yourself etc, are required to wash their hands upon coming in, and they have to wear a mask which you should provide them. Under no circumstances can any person enter the apartment if they are sick for any reason- even if it's a cold. Everyone must be in perfect health and be cleared to come in. If someone is ill they are not permitted in the apartment while we are living there. Also no one is permitted in which ever room the baby is in for any reason, which will most likely be the master bedroom. Also if the baby is nursing or sleeping, we can not be disturbed.

We have to be extremely careful and protective of the baby as he is just a tiny a new born and has had many problems already, I'm sure you understand."

ScottGem · Sep 25, 2007, 09:07 AM

Your response is to check their lease. 24 hours is considered "reasonable notice". So that's BS. If the lease just says reasonable notice, then 24 hours is sufficient.

As for the issues with the child, have their pediatrician send you a letter confirming these precautions are necessary. If he says they are contact him and ask if would be sufficient to leave the child in a closed room and just restrict access to that room.

Frankly, I think they are just making it hard on you and I doubt if a doctor is going to put his rep on the line unless its true.

rockinmommy · Sep 25, 2007, 09:43 AM

I agree with scottgem about the notice.

You say you're evicting them... do you literally mean eviction, or have you given them 30 day (or whatever your lease requires) notice to move? When will they actually be gone?

I've dealt with this type of thing, too, when trying to show a unit before the old tenant is out. It's obviously desirable to minimize open days by having a new tenant lined up and ready to go ASAP when the previous one is out. However, I've found that once a tenant decides that they don't want you in their place, for whatever reason, it usually doesn't show well and you wind up wasting a lot of time. People have a hard time seeing past other people's mess, moving boxes, etc. And if the current tenants are present, hovering around, masking people, it will make potential tenants feel uncomfortable and like they need to just rush through.

I don't know if there's anything you can do to kind of "hurry" the current tenants along and get rid of them sooner. If you could prove that they cause you to lose rent by prolonging the re-rental process you'd have a case against them, but I think it would be a hard thing to prove or put a concrete value on.

Good luck!
Karla in TX

P.S. I've had "open houses" before. I pre-arrange a 3 hour time slot with the current tenant. Then over the course of a week or so I just inform everyone that the place will be shown on Sat. from 2 - 4 (I go an hour early to make sure the place is presentable - YES, I've had to clean stuff up before). It depends on how rentals move in your area - how quickly stuff turns over, etc. I've had it work very well, and had pretty lame results.

ScottGem · Sep 25, 2007, 11:01 AM

Karla makes some good points as usual. The idea of an open house is appealing, the tenant can arrange to have her kid put in a bubble during that time ;).

But I still say you should demand a note from the pediatrician. Don't let these people dictate terms. You don't say why you are "evicting" them but you need to be in control here.