Landlord stores stuff in our rental

Technically, if you leased the entire space then you are fully able to keep your things there and not require that your landlord store his stuff. You could remove the items and take them to the dump or give them to charity, however, if you do that you will start a war with your landlord. He will most likely make your stay very unpleasant and based upon what you previously stated– could attempt to illegally evict you.

I really wouldn’t suggest doing the above as it will almost definitely lead to more bigger problems.

You could de-junk your landlord’s crap as long as he does not have a lease condition that states he can store his stuff on your porches.

You have rights, but if you enforce them it will cause your landlord to lash out and make the situation even worse. Really, you are in a weird spot. The best solution would be to find a way to work it out with him in an amicable manner. If you want formal help, you can file a complaint with the RPA. This will assign you to an RPA Mediator whom will contact your landlord to work out a fair solution.

Thank you for the response. Although he believes he can store his stuff in our space, there is definately not a lease provision stating he has that right. In fact, we were told prior to move-in that it would be removed.

We have tried for many months to work this out amicably with him and shared our concerns that we are paying for the space and unable to use it because of his personal belongings being stored in our areas. We have also told him on many occasions that if he doesn’t remove the items, we will be moving them out of our space to behind the garage where he already has a junk pile. His response to that was that he would charge us with damages to his personal property. We are now resorting to housing council and RPA because we have not been able to make headway with the landlord.

It may also be important to note that we don’t seem to be the only tenant with this problem. We are in a 4 unit bldg and other tenants have expressed similar concerns.

If your landlord is doing that, I don’t blame you for taking it to the next level. Your landlord needs some tough love to understand how he is violating your rights. Love to hear about your case. Please come back to share more.

A home that we moved into last year is turning out to be a nightmare. We came to see the home prior to moving in last year. They had clutter everywhere, but told us that is was because of a fire in the kitchen, (which was already repaired). So we did not see all that was wrong. We were told the basement would be finished, a bathroom, another room and all.
We thought it was going to be okay. So once July came we loaded up our stuff and pets and moved down here. Once we got to the home we were in shock. The owners did not have all their stuff out of the home. There were other people in the house doing things. My family and I ended up leaving for a few hours so they could do whatever they needed to do, even though we had just drove 3 hours. Once we got back, their was still stuff in the house. The house was dirty…. We noticed scratches from their dogs on the window sills, doors, in the Master B. the dogs dug down past the pad of the carpet you can see wood. Their kids have wrote on the walls throughout the house. There is no molding around the baseboards in the dining area. Carpet looked nasty throughout the home. Basement is unfinished, loaded down with their stuff. All the materials that he started to work on the basement. Mouse feces all on the floor in the basement. Later that eveningwhen we were sitting on the floor, we had not unloaded the truck yet…We saw fleas jumping all over. So at midnight my husband went to the store to buy stuff to kill the fleas. Our landlords told us we did not have to put down a security deposit….. We were told they kept cats in the room my one daughter sleeps in….stains. I am guessing from the cats, (cat had kittens in the room).
2 weeks after we moved in my husband and I moved all their stuff out of the basement into the shed in the backyard, what we could fit in their. All of it had mice feces and urine on it. We did not have room to put our stuff anywhere in the basement but a little corner. THe rails on the deck in the backyard are loose. Which some were even missing but we replaced. Plus they have alot of stuff in the backyard of theirs. THe landlord would just show up, for about a week or more no notice.
To this day there is still their stuff in the shed plus what they had left in the backyard, toys, junk… Now he calls but that is it. He does not specify what time….The house has a odor if no air circulation. We have taken pictures of things that are wrong the day we moved in.
We have told them about the mice problem back in Nov. and still no one has been here to take care of the problem…
I was wondering where is that line of where the landlord has broke the lease……After all we have been put through.
Thank you

My husband and I are having the same problem. We’re furious at the owner of the two family house we’re renting. We’re in Massachusetts. She lived here for many years with her family but within the last couple of years, her marriage dissolved and she took her youngest child and moved to another town. She comes back twice a month so that the child can have visitation with the father. We are her first tenants for this apartment. During the time it was empty, she would stay here during her child’s twice monthly visitation. In the whole year or more she stayed here before she rented it out, she never did any cleaning or repairing to get the apartment ready for rental. When we saw it, (three times) each time the place was filled with her belongings and furniture so it was hard to see the whole layout and condition of the place. She assured us everything would be taken care of before we moved in. She promised us that the two rooms she would take for her storage would only be temporary, as she was going to be married and she would use the furnishings for her new house. Our only excuse is that we didn’t know her well at all. Three months tops, she said. That would be mid-July, we calculated. July came and went, fall came and went, the holidays came and went. We notified her about it. During all this time, she would come and go at her pleasure without notifying us, knocking on the door or calling us saying she was at her mother’s house, or her friend’s house nearby and would like to come over and “pick something up.” This got to be a regular thing. So finally she admitted the marriage plans fell through and she didn’t have the money to pay for storage so…”hope you don’t mind losing two rooms while paying market value for those rooms, as long as I don’t have to pay for storage!” This enraged us, especially my husband who had it out with her. At first she tried to shrug off responsibility by saying she lowered the rent to allow for this, which was a lie and she knew it. She then admitted it had not come up at the time we discussed rent. We turned down her first rent offer back in the beginning. She called us three months later and offered us a lower rent, which we took. There was never any discussion at that time about her storing her stuff there. It was all supposed to be temporary. Now admittedly, we should have gotten that agreement in writing but actually, despite not having that in writing, we are in the right, especially here in Mass, which favors tenants. She is ignorant of the laws. If we took this to housing court, we would win and we could make it very ugly for her, but we won’t and here’s why: she has friends who are our friends. We want to stay in good standing with these friends and we are Christians so we’re letting this go. We’re moving and that’s it. But for the poster above who is also struggling with this, I don’t know what state you live in but if you Google “housing court [state]” you should find your own housing court that will help with mediation and get the situation resolved for you. Our landlady is an ignorant woman and we hate dealing with her but we’re not taking her to court. We’re not going to sue her. We could. And probably win some kind of retroactive back rent to make up for the rent we paid with her stuff there. When your landlord/lady signs a lease listing the rooms you have for that rent, you have to have access to all those rooms so our own landlady doesn’t even realize she’s breaking the lease because we don’t have access to those rooms that are filled with her belongings. We could also probably win something for the disrepair of the house. It was horrible and a lot of it we didn’t notice at the time. It’s hard to see everything with lots of furnishings in place. We didn’t notice the beat up floors because of a huge pool table in the middle of the dining room she used as a table. We didn’t notice holes in the walls with strategically placed bookcases blocking them. Later we noticed missing molding and trim and doors hanging off. We had to throw out ratty carpeting, which my two teenagers gleefully threw out the upstairs window. The whole place is in deplorable condition by her savage children, which she allowed. The whole yard, porches, and floors were covered in BBs of every color. This was while we were waiting for her to clear out and we (wrongfully) assumed they’d be gone when she left. Cracked windows and torn up siding where her animal children climbed up the railings and balconies were left for us tenants to live with. So yes, we have lots with which to bring a grievance against her in housing court but we would only end up alienating friends we share and it’s not worth it. As Christians, we don’t believe in “karma” but in consequences. She is already living in pain from poor choices. She will end up reaping more consequences as time goes on. Believe me, it will go worse for her to try and rent again, to try and find decent renters. She may not be as fortunate in what she has to choose from for prospective tenants and it probably will become a nightmare for her. In the end, we’ll continue to sleep at night knowing we did the right thing. Most painful lesson learned: never ever rent from a friend, or a friend of a friend. It’ll ruin your friendship, just like renting together or going into business together.

My girlfriend is renting a room in a trailer. At first it was ok; the landlord/roommate said she would get her stuff out of there and she would have the room to herself.

Now her landlord/roommate is entering whenever she wants. She goes into my girlfriend’s room to clean. She borrows things without permission. She trades things that she thinks my girlfriend will like, and won’t return my girlfriend’s things when she asks for them. She stores things in my girlfriend’s room, and won’t remove them when asked.

My girlfriend keeps asking her to stay out of her room (which she pays monthly rent to occupy), but her landlord/roommate refuses to stay out; citing all kinds of reasons why it’s necessary to enter whenever she wants.

They do not have a written agreement, but we are considering making one. The problem here is that the landlord/roommate will likely insist on having everything her way and ask for extra concessions from my girlfriend, which will likely result in my girlfriend choosing to move out rather than concede.

We’ve also discussed installing a locking doorknob with my girlfriend holding the only key and restoring the original knob upon vacating.

We’d appreciate any ideas, comments, or suggestions to alleviate this problem.

I just moved out of a place for a similar problem. The landlord was storing stuff in the rental, and wanted to come in and out to get it. I said no, and suggested she pick a date and remove everything. She refused. I moved out, and now she is with holding my security. Is this site any help? I’m trying to get this issue resolved.

I NEED HELP. MY LAND LORD HAS TOLD ME TO GET OUT BY THE 08/07/0. THEY WANT TO ACCOMADATE THEIR DAUGHER
I HAVE PAID FOR JULY.NOW I SEE THAT THEY ARE STORING A LOUNGE SUITE AND A WASHMACHINE IN MY LOUNGE.
THE DAUGHTER KEEP ON SENDING ME MESSAGES TO GET OUT.I HAVE ASK MY LAND LORD TO GIVE THIS TO ME IN WRITTING
ON THE 03/07/12.I FEEL I HAVE BEEN INVICTED BY THIS FAMILY.THEY ARE NOT REGISTERED BY THE RENTAL BOARD
COULD YOU PLEASE ASSET ME.THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE PAGE

My landlord has been storing a cherry picker right beside the house I am renting. It has been there for months now and I have asked when it will be moved. The reply I get is when the ground is hard. The ground has been hard enough times for them to move it but they have not.
What are my rights? I am paying a lot of money to have him store things in the yard.

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