Need permission to enter the yard?

Question

I have a fourplex and the 2 downstairs units have their own small yards.  One of the tenants asked if I could have a big tree in their yard chopped down because she thinks there may be a wasp nest.  I hired a gardener to come and remove the tree and I peeked next door and the yard was covered with tall weeds so I asked them to go and pull out all the weeds and spray weed killer.  The tenant found out that all the weeds were pulled and that I did not give him notice about anyone entering his yard.  This was in the end of June and on Oct 8, he called the Police Dept to file a report that his garden tools were stolen and he said that I purposely had someone come in to take his things to harass him.  Should I have gotten his permission to enter the backyard?

Michele Fischer · Answer

If this situation happened to me, I would have sent the tenant with the weeds a 10 days notice to comply to take care of the weeds themselves, assuming it is their responsibility in the rental agreement.  Respects their privacy and trains them to be a good tenant.  We enter back yards uninvited only if we suspect abandonment, treating fenced yards with 48 hour notice (in our state) if we need to do more than peek over the fence.  Hope this blows over for you; hate it when being nice backfires.

Jerry W. · Answer

I don't know if I will be much help as California law can be very different from others.  First read your lease.  Usually leases have clauses that allow you to have people enter to do repairs, sometimes they have notice clauses however.  Second go talk to an attorney.  this person sounds like a "professional tenant".  there are people who take advantage of the system and have a something for nothing lifestyle.  If you do anything they will twist it to be bad and try to claim even more damages.

You will get a lot of advice from folks here but a local attorney who knows both your state and county or city laws is vital.  it may come to nothing, but many landlords who have have tenants from hell will tell you to get legal advice ASAP.  You were being considerate and they see an opening for money damages.  the fact they were sly enough to claim stolen property and throw in a bad faith claim at the same time suggests a lot experience doing this.  At your earliest legal opportunity(after seeing a local attorney) get rid of this tenant.  It is a lawsuit waiting for a chance.