A lot of building managers don’t follow the law, and that can cause their tenants a bigger hassle than necessary.

The tenant in this story found out he had the resources to get back at him.

Check out the tenant inconvenienced him and others.

Building manager rudely demands to have access and make a fix

My friend’s building manager, whom he’d argued with before because of some nonsense, said there had been a problem in another apartment’s repair.

Water had been cut from the playground and that apartment to avoid water running off and infiltrating the structure.

As a result, they would have to break his bathroom some to make the repairs.

His friend gets an idea.

The manager, who also has an apartment there and is elected, not a professional, was quite rude and dismissive of his property rights.

My friend was ticked from the get go.

Besides being impolite, the manager wanted to do everything ASAP, and the guy works and has pets, so it would be a big nuisance.

He consults lawyer friends about it, including me, and the consensus is he must give access, but it doesn’t need to be immediate as the manager implied.

He can’t postpone it forever, but it doesn’t need to happen at the same day they notify him.

The work is actually done quite quickly.

The repairman advises him that there are 2 valves in his bathroom and that one of them controls the water that flows to the playground, the other one the water to his own apartment.

Before leaving, the repairman warns him that there will be a party on the playground the next day – the rude manager’s party.

He said the manager asked him to make sure the valve stays open.

“You can count on me,” he replied, doing a mighty effort to avoid smiling.

Then he gives the manager a taste of his own medicine.

Needless to say, there was some mysterious problem with the water at the party the next day.

The manager sent him a message asking if he ‘accidentally closed the valve.’

He guaranteed he hadn’t, and that he still had water (separate valves), and there must be some other problem.

Getting desperate, they asked to have access to his apartment to check it.

“Sure, you can have access… Tomorrow.”

We met at a bar soon after and he told me about it.

We agreed one day to grant access was perfectly reasonable.

I laugh to this day when I remember the pettiness.

Here is what folks are saying.

I was surprised there were so few comments.

That’s what I thought, too.

I doubt it, but they do sound incompetent.

Maybe. If it’s just for the playground, I doubt it.

I feel sorry for the kids who had to miss out.

They really need to change their water system…

Or maybe get a whole new landlord.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.