Reply To: What if landlord insists on showing the house on shabbos?

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#1134739
popa_bar_abba
Participant

Again it depends what the lease says.

Well, partially.

Firstly, if the lease says something too landlord-favorable, there is likely a local law that overrides it. Google “tenant rights [name of town].”

Second, you can’t take the lease language too literally, or it becomes absurd. Suppose it says:

Right of Entry. The Lessor shall have the right to enter the premises at any time, upon notice, to make all repairs, to inspect the premises, and to show the premises to prospective tenants and purchasers.

And suppose there is no local tenant law. So that means the landlord can send you an email that he’s going to show the apartment to a string of people for the next month 24/7 and will be staying in your apartment continuously for that time. (Don’t worry, he won’t sit on your couch.)

Right?

Of course not. No court in the world would read the contract that literally, and a contract means only so much as a court would legally enforce. There’s an obvious assumed interpretation that there is a reasonability aspect, and it’s quite reasonable to tell the landlord “I’m eating dinner with my family during that time, can you come a few hours later; my baby is napping during that time; I’m napping during that time; it’s too late at night; you’ve been in here for half an hour already I need you to leave; etc”.

ALWAYS read a lease before signing one and if you cant understand the legalize , get someone who CAN read it and explain it to you

Good luck negotiating the terms of a residential lease. Best you can do is probably to just change the terms you don’t like before you sign and hope they don’t notice. BTDT; no idea what a court would do.