On background, I'm renting a semi-fancy 1 br. apartment in coastal LA owned by a megacorp. I'm also a former landlord, so not a hater, and it's also relevant that my latest rent increase was limited by state-wide rent control.
LL sent a notice late July 26 that they would be conducting annual "LA County required" inspections starting at 9a on July 28.
Being privacy minded I don't like random people inspecting my home, but LA City does inspect units every four years, so a similar County mandate is plausible. I tried to lookup the county ordinance with no success, so I emailed the LL asking for more information about it.
LL didn't respond, so the morning of the 28th I emailed them again, citing the state statute that prohibits them from entering my unit without my consent and stating that I don't consent to their entry. LL replied that they forwarded my email to the maintenance team.
When I came home on Jul 28, I found evidence that they had entered my unit. I emailed LL again for an explanation and got no response. Then I called the management office to talk to the manager, but instead of a call back I get an email from a representative. It cites a section of my lease that includes "The parties further agree that Landlord or Landlord's agents may enter the Premises for any reasonable business purpose at reasonable times, including without limitation to perform repairs, renovations or make improvements." This is already a long post, so I'll refrain from sharing my many thoughts on this term.
I replied to the LL again, asking about the supposed County requirement, but they haven't responded. I also called the County and they weren't familiar with any such program, so I'm pretty sure that was a lie.
Going back to rent control, I suspect these inspections are really to uncover lease violations to evict rent controlled tenants like me. I've been at the property for over four years and my last increase in the Spring was the first time rent control was limiting. The property management generally gives no shits about my requests, so I really doubt they're doing these inspections for benevolent reasons.
So at this point I'm debating whether to file a complaint with the government or just let it go. The strictly rational part of me says just bend over and take it. The idealistic privacy guy says make them suffer so they cease the inspections. What would you do?