Imagine - a beautiful early morning... no, very early morning, you have just woken up and are just making coffee or getting ready to take a shower. And then, like a bolt from the blue, a deafening knock sounds on the door. There is some random guy who says that he has come to do some maintenance. But you didn't receive any notification from resident support...
Sounds a bit creepy, doesn't it? Will you open the door? Well, the user u/Glittering-Bath-4527, the author of our story today, decided not to take risks and didn’t answer the door - but it turned out that it really was the maintenance guy, and now she's having problems with that very resident support. Well, let's figure it out further...
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is a 19 Y.O. student living in student halls with some of her roommates
Image credits: gpointstudio (not the actual photo)
Each of the roommates has their own bedroom and recently the author was frightened by a random gatecrasher at 6am
Image credits: Glittering-Bath-4527
Image credits: pressfoto (not the actual photo)
The man told the student he was a maintenance worker - but there was no notice from the resident support
Image credits: Glittering-Bath-4527
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
So our heroine didn't answer the door, and the guy left after 20 minutes of fruitless knocking
Image credits: Glittering-Bath-4527
But the resident support called out the author soon after, claiming that she's just being difficult here and demanding that she 'grow up'
So, the Original Poster (OP) is 19 years old, she's a student and lives in student halls, with several other roommates, each of whom has their own bedroom. And so, last week, literally at 6 am, our heroine was puzzled by a loud and very persistent knocking on her door.
Here we'll make a small digression - yes, looking ahead, it was the maintenance guy, but the author of the post didn't know about it - simply because the resident support usually sends advance notice of the visit of someone from the maintenance team by email, but this time there was no notification.
In general, our heroine was half asleep, getting ready for work, and didn't open the door. After twenty minutes or so the knocking stopped and the gatecrasher left. The author also went to work, and when she returned, she received a voicemail from resident support demanding that she come to them immediately.
Guess what the conversation was about? That’s right, about the fact that the OP, with her behavior, “made the work of the maintenance service difficult!” All our heroine’s attempts to explain that the guy came too early and without warning were dashed by the reinforced concrete confidence of the support staff that they were absolutely right.
Moreover, the girl was told that she should “just grow up” and not be too naive. They say, this is in an ideal world, where pink ponies run across green lawns, and everyone is friends with each other - so, only in an ideal world the maintenance comes at a proper time and always gives advance notice. But in the real world, things are much more crude and prosaic...
Moreover, they stated that the maintenance guy would still have to visit the OP's place in the near future, offering her a time that didn't suit her at all - at the same time she was supposed to have a lecture at college. The author told them this - and what do you think happened next?
If you assumed that the maintenance guy came exactly when our heroine was at the lecture, then you are absolutely, damn right! And again, the worker knocked on the locked door for a long time, but this time they didn't open it for him for a much more straightforward reason - there was simply no one to open it!
Image credits: Alexander F Ungerer (not the actual photo)
Isn't it true that this situation feels familiar to many of us? What can I say, I myself have encountered something similar more than once or twice. But how right is resident support in this particular case? And is it even right?
"In most places, the law is pretty clear: landlords or maintenance need to give you a heads-up before they come knocking. This isn't just a polite suggestion; it's a legal requirement designed to protect your privacy and peace of mind," says Nima Ostowari, the founder and CEO of Justice Church lawyer company. "Typically, a 24-hour notice is the standard, but this can vary depending on where you live and the specifics of your lease agreement."
"But here's the kicker: there are exceptions, especially in emergency situations. If there's a risk of serious damage or danger (think water gushing everywhere or smoke billowing out of an electrical outlet), immediate entry might be necessary. It's a delicate balance between protecting your privacy and ensuring the safety and integrity of the property." However, our heroine didn't talk about anything extraordinary, so, apparently, the point was simply about banal entitlement on the part of resident support.
The vast majority of commenters on the original post also massively supported the author, arguing that she did exactly the right thing in this particular situation. "I think they misunderstand what "resident support" means. They sound super lazy," one of the responders wrote. "Make them do their job and schedule actual appointments based on reality."
According to people in the comments, this decision on the OP's part is nothing more than common sense. At least there are many sad stories telling about people who opened doors... "A middle aged guy came into my dorm once and bypassed the locked doors, the front desk and went into a sleeping girl's room and shut the door. She was so lucky she was only robbed because it could have been a horror story," one of the commenters told.
“If anything, kudos to you for protecting yourself and having smart instincts not to open the door as a young woman living alone,” another person aptly summarized. And what do you, our dear readers, think about this story? Have you ever encountered anything similar? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below this post.
However, both experts and the commenters claim that the author was within her right to not answer the door in this particular case
