It’s a lot of people’s dream to own their own home, but for many folk that simply isn’t a reality. Whether it’s because they live in a city where prices are too high in comparison to their income, whether it’s impossible to save a sufficient deposit or get credit for a house purchase, or whether their job doesn’t allow them to stay in the place they’d like to own property, there are plenty of reasons why. But this does have quite the bonus for a particular group of people: landlords.

What is great for property owners in a city is the sheer number of people who need a home at all times. Apartments in half-decent city blocks won’t stay empty for long, since there’s no end to the number of employees flocking into a city in search of good jobs and the lifestyle that a city has to offer – even when that requires renting an overpriced and undersized apartment. Of course, most building owners don’t manage the building themselves, and certainly not repairs, leaving that to a superintendant.

The woman in this story is all too familiar with her building’s super, who – to be fair to him – does carry out the required work in the apartments. However, the rest of his customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

Read on to find out why things have gotten dramatic between them.

AITA for not letting my building’s super in because I was in a work meeting?

I rent in an older building in my city.

The maintenance guy/super is supposed to give 24 hours’ notice by law before entering for non-emergency repairs, but for months he’s had a habit of texting an hour or two before he wants to come (sometimes thirty minutes) and showing up unannounced.

I work an office job and can’t always drop everything to let him in, so I’ve repeatedly (politely) asked him to give me a day’s notice, or at least text me when he’s actually on his way so I can be ready.

We had a minor repair to do and I offered him several days that worked for me. He originally said today was “no good” and pushed it to another day I offered him. That was fine.

But things did not pan out as planned.

Then this morning after telling me he couldn’t do today, he texted me at 8am saying he’d stop by “later today.” I said I can’t do a same-day repair on a few hours’ notice, and asked him to confirm a real time.

He called me (very annoyed) and kept talking over me (“lady, lady, lady”) insisting he’d “just be a minute.” I told him today would be fine but going forward I needed more notice since I’m usually at my office.

I said “I need a 24 hour notice.” He said “who told you that? You don’t need that.” He hasn’t liked when I’ve brought up city law in the past (“the city makes things worse”) so I stayed silent.

My exact text to him: “Thanks for the call. Can you text me when you’re on your way today? In the future, can you please provide me notice the day before, since I’m usually at work and can’t always be here on short notice.” He never texted back.

Read on to find out what happened when he did show up.

Instead, at noon, in the middle of a meeting with a customer (I work in a customer-facing role), he started pounding on my door and ringing my bell.

I didn’t get up as I was leading the meeting and wasn’t going to interrupt an important call for an unscheduled visit I’d specifically asked to be warned about. He tried about three times and left.

I texted after asking if that was him (I knew for a fact it was) and reminding him I’d asked for a heads-up on when he’d get here. My friend told me I’m being petty due to other issues we’ve had and should just let him come whenever since it’s only a minute of work.

My opinion is that it creates a larger problem of he keeps texting me at 6am or 7am (when I’m still sleeping) saying he’ll get here at 9am (when I usually wake up). I’ve tried reinforcing this boundary in this past, but keep getting “ladied.”

And now she’s feeling stuck.

My management is hands off and hasn’t helped with this. I could try reaching out to them to set that expectation with him, but don’t want to make this a larger issue.

I feel like the city is easily guessable from here, and I’ve heard many a horror story about supers. I have many with mine, so I’m mostly burned out from other issues. My friends saying I’m just being petty here since it’s so minor.

But I found this online: “A landlord will need to provide a tenant with reasonable notice of his or her right to enter the premise for the purpose of a necessary repair, inspection, or to show the home to prospective tenants or buyers. ‘Reasonable’ means one week’s notice for repairs and 24 hours notice for inspections.

An exception exists when the landlord must enter the home or apartment in response to an emergency. Additionally, a landlord can enter the home with less than 24 hours’ notice or no notice at all if the tenant invites the landlord to enter.”

AITA?

It’s no wonder she’s finding this whole situation frustrating, since she’s doing her best to communicate and he seemingly can’t be bothered to.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a tenant who walked away from their lease after the landlord hassled them over renting month-to-month.

Not only that, the way he talks over her is rude, and banging on her door like that?

Not acceptable.

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person agreed that the tenant was the one in the right here.

While others encouraged her to be clear in her expectations.

Meanwhile, this Redditor warned that doing so could lead to her missing out on repairs.

It’s clear that this super has very little respect for the time or work of the building’s tenants – he expects to be able to do whatever he needs to do, whenever he sees fit to do it. It’s a very entitled attitude, and one that has probably annoyed more than just this one resident. Because let’s be real, in order to afford a city apartment, you have to be working – and working pretty hard, at that. You’re not just going to be hanging out at home all day every day, making it easy to let the super in whenever he feels like it.

The complete lack of communication really isn’t okay, especially since the tenant is doing her best to implement clear communication for both their sakes. Right now, he is wasting his own time, as well as causing her a lot of stress – when simply sending her a message with sufficient notice would be much easier for both of them. It can be tricky to deal with people like this, but luckily for this woman, she has the law on her side. Perhaps it’s time to remind him of that fact.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a barista whose keen eye uncovered a customer scheme for free coffee.