I resigned my lease on a house in March 2013. The rent is really high, but the reason I signed off on it all is because I have two dogs and the major perk of the house is a large yard and a dog door for them to access it. Not one month after resigning the lease, my landlord just sprung on me that she is having people over to put in bids to build a large garage in the backyard. The house already... [more]
I resigned my lease on a house in March 2013. The rent is really high, but the reason I signed off on it all is because I have two dogs and the major perk of the house is a large yard and a dog door for them to access it.
Not one month after resigning the lease, my landlord just sprung on me that she is having people over to put in bids to build a large garage in the backyard. The house already has an attached two car garage, so I do not see the purpose of this. There is a small shed in the back, which they are not planning on tearing down, and the garage will be taking up the majority of the yard. There is a concrete pad patio out there as well, which will leave maybe a 3 ft. x 3 ft. patch of grass for the dogs.
I am irate but haven't addressed this with her yet. I would not have signed a lease on a property without a yard, nor would I have signed on knowing there'd be major construction in my backyard all summer that would restrict my dogs' access to the outdoors.
Additionally, this is a personal issue for me. I had a rental house in college with several young women and two of the construction workers (after seeing us around and getting to know the access points to the house) broke in and were caught sexually violating our possessions. They are now convicted sex offenders, but the stress of the trial and the accusations slung by the defense of us "asking for it" by basically being girls still bothers me to this day and causes me a lot of anxiety at the thought of it happening again.
As a young woman living alone, I do not feel comfortable having strangers in and around my living space when I'm not there, especially in a capacity where they will be able to identify all potential access points and ways in which they can skirt around them (in the last case, they kicked in a window well).
Do I have ANY rights? I scoured my lease and there is nothing in there that says the landlord is allowed to conduct construction without my permission, that being said, there is nothing in there that says the landlord is not allowed to do that either and we don't live in a world where renters have a lot of rights.
This just feels unfair. My bigger issue is that I signed off on a property that will no longer be the same property. To me, signing a lease on a house with a yard that will no longer be there is the equivalent of renting a four-bedroom house (and paying market-rate rent on having a four-bedroom house) and then having your landlord say, "by the way, we're turning the fourth bedroom into a garage."
I don't want a rent abatement because it defeats the purpose, I would prefer that if this is going to happen, I be allowed to vacate my lease and find a house with a yard I can use.
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