Complaint Review: North Hills Place Apartments/Sunridge management - Richland Hills Texas

Robert, according to the lease. I must have given written notice requesting for a member of management to check on my apartment and I did not

- That is NOT what your lease states.

Section 26 is the notification reqirements YOU must provide when requesting items such as repairs or installations. Section 26.2 is the requirement that YOU must notify them in the case of any safety issues or other hazards to property or health. Neither of these sections is meant as the  ONLY way they are allowed to enter your apartment.

Section 28 does state when they can enter. However, the part you did NOT make note of is the last couple of sentences that state..

"We are under no obligation to enter only when you are present, and we may, but are under no obligation to give prior notice or make appointments"

The "notification" requirement in this section is not enough to void the lease. In fact if I was to bet dollars to doughnuts based on the rest of your post, it sounds like you were looking for any little thing to be able to break your lease. Unfortunatly if you did try to fight this in court it would be extreamly likely that not only you would lose, but the landlord may take the opportunity to go after you for additional  expenses and attornies fees.

As I stated before if you still think you are entitled to not having to pay this amount, you will probably neeed to get an attorney.  However, do not be shocked if the attorney states exactly the same thing.

On approximately 1–9-19 a member of the maintenance staff entered my apartment which was caught on camera. Which constitutes as the management breaking the lease agreement.  No Stephen, that would not constitute a breach of your lease agreement.  It's important to understand the notification aspect of entering your apartment is one of courtesy only; it's violation would not constitute a breach.  They are allowed to enter your apartment for a host of reasons without notification if there is a sufficiently valid reason.  The fact they did not notify you can even constitute an unintentional mistake, which also would not be a breach.

Your lease should contain clauses which define a breach of the lease covenant.  Normally, those breaches allow the landlord to terminate the lease, not the tenant; after all, it is the landlord's agreement so it will be written for the benefit of the landlord.  The only obvious way a tenant can claim breach in a lease agreement is if the landlord cannot provide a habitable living condition for the tenant.  For example, if a pipe leaks, breaks the ceiling, and you end up with mold and mildew that the landlord cannot remediate sufficiently, then that would constitute a breach on the part of the landlord.  Even in that situation, the landlord would also have the right to move you and your belongings at their cost to another equivalent unit and continue the agreement by simply changing the unit number.  If the landlord in such a situation did not have an additional unit to move you to, then you can terminate the agreement and the landlord would likely agree in that situation with no amount due.

Now, here's the interesting part:  The landlord charged you $1500 which I suspect constitutes your final accounting.  However, under the law the landlord could bill you the remaining amount due under the lease.  For example, if the lease ran until 06/30/2019, and the landlord was unable to rent out the apartment between 01/31/2019 and the end of the lease term, then you are generally liable for the remaining amount due in rent through the end of the lease term.  Under the law, you really only have 2 options:

1.  You can pay the $1,500.00 and get it out of the way.

2.  You can pay the remaining amount due under the lease, plus legal fees when they take you to court.

The question for you is whether the $1,500 represents more or less than the remaining amount due under the lease?  Your answer does not require a response.  In fact, there is no rebuttal you can provide that would justify your leaving prior to the end of the lease.  If the $1,500 is less than the total amount of the remaining lease agreement, then I would pay it immediately before someone gets really smart and sues you for a whole lot more than that.  If it's less than that, then I would ask for a detailed accounting of what the $1,500 exactly constitutes, and then pay the amount. 

Either way, you're going to pay...the only question will be whether you wish for it to appear on your credit report because that's the next step in the process and it would be a legit black mark on your credit report...and you aren't going to be able to repair that....

 Robert, according to the lease. I must have given written notice requesting for a member of management to check on my apartment and I did not. Also, according to the lease they must leave written notice in a conspicuous place immediately after entering the dwelling and they did not. Furthermore I was not out of town when my apartment was entered.

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First off not sure who you think you are writing, but this is a PUBLIC web site and no one on this site has any power to do anything to get the negative marks removed.

As for your claim, as a member of the public, based on the narrative you posted it seems quite a stretch to claim that because maintenence entered your apartment according to you without notice you had the right to immediatly void the lease and leave without penalty.

Why did they enter the apartment? They are allowed to enter without notice in case they suspect or there is immenint danger or damage to life or property.

How do you know you didn't get "proper notice". By your own narrative you were out of town at this time.

"Proper Notice" may be as simple as leaving a notice on yout door 24 hours in advance They do not need to make personal contact with you. Since you were out of town you would not have seen this, but it would constitue notice and the entry would be legal.

However, even if the do violate that rule a tennant can not just generally just leave on their own, they usually must go through the courts or other legal process.

Do you have proof that you notified the manager? Did the manager have any response?

If you want to fight this you will probably need to get an attorney. Now they won't be free and depending on how much assistance you need could be anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand dollars as a retainer fee. If the entry is deemed to be legal(which based on your narrative it likey was), you will NOT get those fees back and will still have the negative marks on your credit.

Good Luck