Q: can your landlord enter your property before your move out date and demolish before you do your walk through?
The landlords had been harassing us to move out before our move out date so they could do renovations before the new tenants moved in the following month, we ended up leaving 3 days before our lease was up to do them a favor, we come back the day after to get more of our belongings and they are in there demolishing the kitchen at 10pm on a Saturday! No notice that they would even be there. Now they are coming up with the most ridiculous things to charge us from our deposit. Can they do this? We hadn't even done our walk through or signed anything, we still have the keys! How can they charge us now that they have gone in and demolished without our knowledge? Also, they are trying to charge us around $200 for not giving a 30 day notice that we were going to be moving out? We lived out our agreed upon lease, we didn't leave early, can they charge for this as well?
A: Well first, you should have alerted you were leaving 3 days early and done the walkthrough then. Anything can happen once you leave. And if you turned over possession then your lease was over. Your written lease will govern notice, most require 30 days notice EVEN IF it ends on a certain date, so landlord knows you are not thinking about renewing; you will likely lose the argument if your lease requires 30 day notice in the language. The deposit issue is tough you didnt do a walk-through by your own mistake so have no proof of anything. This may be an expensive learning experience for next time
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