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Landlord entered apartment to inspect a window without required two days' notice; should I complain?

Asked by mirifique (1540points) May 5th, 2010

The lease agreement states “tenant shall allow landlord access at all reasonable times to said Property for the purposes of inspection, or to show said Property to prospective tenants… Landlord shall, whenever practicable, give the Tenant two (2) days prior notice of his intention to enter the Property.”

However, Revised Code of Washington Section 59.18.150 (PRIVACY—LANDLORD’S ACCESS TO THE RENTAL) reads as follows:

The landlord must give the tenant at least a two day notice of his intent to enter at reasonable times. However, tenants must not unreasonably refuse to allow the landlord to enter the rental where the landlord has given at least one-day’s notice of intent to enter at a specified time to exhibit the dwelling to prospective or actual purchasers or tenants. The law says that tenants shall not unreasonably refuse the landlord access to repair, improve, or service the dwelling. In case of an emergency, or if the property has been abandoned, the landlord can enter without notice. The landlord still must get the tenant’s permission to enter, even if the required advance notice has been given.

Landlord left a note within my apartment—so after he had entered—that he had entered to “inspect a window.” Normally I would not care, but the landlord is in the process of selling the building and there have been numerous “inspections” in the past few weeks, albeit in those instances, proper notice was provided. I’m getting a little peeved and feel quite invaded to find someone else has been in my apartment. I trust that my landlord isn’t a creep, but I still feel that my privacy has been invaded.

My questions: (a) can I say something, per the above provision and (b) should I say something? He did, at one time, drive all the way out to slip a replacement key under my mat when I got locked out (they don’t live on site so this was apparently a big deal for them), so I don’t want to be nasty and obviously legal action would be unnecessary, but I still want to set a boundary and retain some dignity. Thoughts?

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