Examples of tenant harassment

The relationship between a landlord and a tenant is not always peaceful. We have so many cases of landlords harassing their tenants, simply because they don’t know what to call harassment and what is allowed from the landlords. A landlord may try to intimidate you so that you can move out or as a form of retaliation. Learn some of the reasons a landlord may harass and also examples of this harassment.

Why a landlord may harass a tenant

Harassment can be termed as the use of aggressive ways by the landlord to intimidate or pressure a tenant. As a result, you will not enjoy peaceful living in the rental unit which will pressure you to move out.

At times, a landlord may harass you out of anger or their stress. An example is when a tenant keeps complaining when things go wrong. The landlord may get fed up and try looking for a way to make you move out of his premises.

Other landlords may be mean to you out of discrimination. Some apartments only have a specified group of people that are based on religion, colour, tribe, wealth standards and so on. If not one of them, you will start feeling like you are the odd one out. A landlord may want you out his property for this reason.

Examples of tenant harassment

The following are some of the examples of tenant harassment:

1. Entering your house without permission

Once you have paid for the house, the unit no longer the landlord’s house. This means that he or she is not supposed to enter your house without your permission. Even in cases of property maintenance, the landlord must inform you of entering your house. The landlord can only come into your house without permission in case of an emergency, court order or safety reasons.

2. Locking your house

In case you have not paid your rent, a landlord should not lock you out of your house. According to the Kenyan law, You should be given 30 days to look for the money, then past those days, he can evict out. Others go to extend of removing your property from your unit. Both cases are considered as breaking the law and harassment by the landlord.

3. Raising the rent without a proper notice

A tenant can indeed raise the rent but some rules govern this. A landlord should not raise the rent beyond the allowed percentage and also, he should give  30 days notice before raising the rent. This should happen when you are renewing your lease or when a new tenant is moving in.

4. Not making repairs

It is your right as a tenant to live in a comfortable environment, with all the basic amenities you need. If any of the amenities are not in order, then you can request the landlord to have repairs done .if the landlord does not do the repairs, this is considered as harassment. However, this does not apply to the damage you have done to the property. The deposit money I allocated to such issues. 

5. Threatening you

If you are the type of person who complains when things are not right, then most of the people don’t like you. In this case, you might go to report disturbances or noise to the landlord and he doesn’t make any effort to stop the noise. The more complaints, the more chance of him getting fed up. In the end, the landlord might threaten you physically or even tell you to move out. This should be the case hence its harassment.

6. Construction noise

Imagine yourself trying to get sleep after a long weekend at work, only to be woken up by loud construction noise. Landlords that carry out construction till at night or even early in the morning don’t care about the tenants and their right to a peaceful environment. This is harassment to the tenants and against your tenants right.

 

Knowing what is termed as harassment by the landlord is very important. It will save you from certain situations that most tenants in Kenya go through. Not knowing your rights as a tenant is saying yes to harassment.