She Was Showering When A Maintenance Worker Opened Her Bathroom Door, And Now She Doesn’t Feel Safe In Her Own Home
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Maintenance is a necessary evil. Whether you’re renting or own your own home, sooner or later you’ll need someone to repair something.
In this story, an apartment complex is having some repair work done on the pipes. While it’s annoying, it’s understandable. What’s not understandable is a maintenance worker entering an apartment on a day he’s not supposed to be working on that apartment and then entering the bathroom while a tenant is in the shower!
The tenant is understandably freaking out, but she’s not sure exactly how to handle the situation.
Keep reading for all the details and to find out what she has done so far.
AIO for wanting to move out asap after a maintenance worker opened the door on me while I was showering
I (29F) and my bf (26M) have lived in our apartment together for 3 years. It’s an old motel from the 50s that was converted into 1 bedroom apartments.
The hot water has been shut off for about a week now due to some initial emergency with the pipes, and maintenance has been going around each unit replacing the pipes.
We were offered $50 off of rent per day we did not have hot water while the make the repairs, which was all fine and good in our book.
We were instructed to clear out our entire closet and under the kitchen sink, as those would be the access point maintenance would need to be able to replace the pipes.
She had one important question.
I explicitly asked about the bathroom, and was told no. I was told maintenance would do x,y,z apartments on Thursday, a,b,c apartments on Friday, and then my apartment on Monday.
Annoying, but okay.
Friday I can hear them doing maintenance on some of the other apartments all morning, and decide around 11:45am to just suck it up and suffer through a cold shower and get ready to go in to work at the office instead of home to get away from the noise.
Yikes!
So I’m in the shower, and all of a sudden MY BATHROOM DOOR OPENS and I just instinctually go “What??”
And I hear a man’s voice go “oops”, see the door quickly jerk back shut.
I scream “GET THE F OUT OF THIS APARTMENT RIGHT THE F NOW” and quickly get out of the shower, get dressed, and try to figure out what the hell just happened.
I’m shaking at this point. Rattled and furious.
She was understandably frazzled.
I walk out of my apartment, go down the stairs, and see the main maintenance guy I recognize. He’s always been nice and extremely respectful towards me, so he was the one I went to about it.
I tell him what just happened, and he told me the guy who did it came down and told him immediately, and since our property manager wasn’t there at that moment (a VERY important detail) he was waiting to do anything so I had plenty of time to like get dressed after my shower and stuff because this never should have happened and he’s so sorry.
I made it clear I expected to hear from the property manager, and left my apartment to go in to work. They were already expecting me as I had already communicated I was heading in, and needed to get there as soon as possible.
I was totally frazzled and didn’t feel safe there at ALL. I just needed to do my normal routine at that point to have some kind of normalcy and safety to cling on to.
She wants it in writing.
The property manager was trying to text me to meet up and talk in person about it, and I know enough to know that this is a convo that absolutely needed to be in writing.
I spell the whole situation out for her, how furious I am and how I am not in any kind of emotional state to be able to have an in-person conversation, and make it clear I expect her to confirm with me exactly when maintenance will be entering my apartment through text, in writing.
No response.
I come back home later and see they had taken off my hot water knob in my shower and set it on the bathroom floor. I was not notified they would be entering my apartment for any of this. I feel completely violated and no longer feel safe here.
She wrote another letter.
I’ve written up a formal complaint letter that I plan to send to the property owner (a company separate from the on site property manager) through certified mail tomorrow morning that details the issue.
I am fortunate enough to have my lease be up at the end of this month, but since that’s only like 2 weeks away, I’m panicking.
I explained in that letter that I had previously planned and arranged with the property manager to renew my lease for another year, but in light of this incident, I no longer feel safe and am reconsidering. I requested to extend my lease to month-to-month after the one from last year expires so I have time to find a safer place to live.
I requested to know what their team will be doing to address this issue, and to receive confirmation on the month-to-month arrangement. There’s nothing in my lease that says anything against a month-to-month, so I don’t think that should be an issue.
Her boyfriend is on her side.
I’m genuinely just not sure if sending that formal of a complaint letter will make them inclined to retaliate in any way? I’m just scared.
My bf has rallied behind me and is down to do whatever I feel is best, no questions and no grumbles.
We bought a camera and have it set up now.
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I called a free legal aid place for my area and opened up case with them to understand my standing legally.
It would be awful not to feel safe in your own home.
But I’m a MESS.
I cry every time I think about it. I’ve been on edge and paranoid.
I don’t feel comfortable in my own home anymore.
It’s so hard to think or see clearly through the fog of how upset I am about it. I just don’t feel like I’m able to think rationally about this right now, and need to act swiftly.
Yikes! The maintenance guy never should’ve entered her apartment let alone her bathroom!
Let’s see if Reddit offers some advice.
This person shares another scary bathroom story.
Another person would’ve freaked out too.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t think their painters should use their water spigot on the job.
Here’s a vote for locking doors.
I’m assuming the front door was locked. Don’t most people lock their doors? The maintenance guy must have had keys. However, does she have a lock for her bathroom door? She needs to start locking the bathroom door too.
What a scary experience!
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