Nosy landlords, own a snake, and moving out in a month. Interesting problem here?

Question

My fiancee and I moved in together in December of last year. We responded to an ad on craigslist and moved into a room in the basement of our landlords' four-level home. We have a private room, bathroom, and an area we use as a makeshift kitchen. In the makeshift kitchen area is the washer and dryer, which we share. Their laundry day is on odd days and ours on even days. We have one cat, and they do too. The basement is ours, the top floor is theirs, and the middle two floors are shared. Our six month lease expressly implies that we cannot enter each others' private floors without 24-hour notice, except for emergencies or when it is their laundry day, in which case they may come downstairs to use the washer and dryer.

Now that that's out of the way, we have been having some problems with our landlords for the last few months, namely with them coming downstairs and even into our bedroom without notice or permission. Of course they seem to equate *knock knock* "Uhhh, yeah?" "Can I come in?" "Uhhh... sure..." with permission. That's not permission, that's this-had-better-be-an-emergency. Also, neither of us are home often, so I set aside one day a week to clean downstairs. Yes, the counters get dirty, yes the carpet gets dirty. But I scrub and vacuum and make it look good as new once I get the opportunity. On occasion they have come downstairs and cleaned or vacuumed while we are away at work and touched our stuff without permission. Most notably, today one of them came downstairs during the small two-hour break between my leaving for work and my fiancee coming home, scrubbed the counter, moved all of our stuff (toaster oven, griddle, etc) over to one side, and stacked things precariously on top of one another in order to make room for said cleaning. My first question is, why was he even down here in the first place? It's an even day (so not their laundry day), therefore he has no reason to be downstairs AT ALL except to be nosy. It's happened several times over the last few months, and is a blatant violation of the lease, I know, but I just haven't really bothered to say anything.

Now, recently my fiancee got a small garter snake as a pet. It's kept in a locked tank, has no chance of escape, and pretty much doesn't do anything but eat goldfish. It won't grow bigger than three feet, no thicker than about a third of an inch, and is not poisonous. When our landlord found out (we neglected to mention because, frankly, we figured it's like getting a fish; who really cares?) , he said that it violates the lease and we have to get rid of it. Now, the lease does allow for our cat, but I can't remember where it says we can't have more pets. It may have, I don't know, but I can't really check on it since they didn't provide us with a copy of the lease when we signed it. In fact, he says that even having the betta fish we bought a few months ago violates the lease and made them mad, but they just let it lie. I feel that's ridiculous as far as the fish goes. I also feel that if the snake does indeed violate the lease, it pales in comparison to the invasion of privacy on their end. Of course we sometimes disturb each other; they'll bring friends over at six in the morning that stomp all over the place when we're sleeping downstairs, and we've moved in furniture at 10:30 at night (they go to bed really really early). It's part of living together. But that takes it way too far.

My main question is, what to do? Our lease is up next month. We've been planning on putting in our 30-day notice within the next week. We were just going to pay for the full month of May just to avoid conflict, but leave halfway through the month. The last time we brought up disregard for privacy -- when he barged into our room one night when we were laying in bed together naked just to tell us to keep my computer off at night (because the fans are apparently too loud when they watch TV and movies like they do all day), he turned right around and told us that we slam our cupboards and talk too loud at night when we're downstairs, so there. Didn't work out too well.

Should we keep the snake in secret until we move out? Get rid of it just to shut them up? Express our concern about their invasion of privacy (may not end well)? Just pay the rent for May and leave now? I hate conflict and try to avoid it when necessary, I usually just close off, hunker down, and wait it out. But my fiancee is getting furious and wants this resolved soon, especially because he loves his snake. What kind of legal ramifications can be held against us if we don't give 30-day notice? The fee for breaking the lease early is $700 -- two months' rent -- but can they still charge that if we just pay for the final month and leave? What should we do? Sorry for the wall of text but it

Answer 1

Obviously, this is not working out for all involved.



Give proper written notice to terminate your lease. As long as you pay through the termination date, you are not in breach of the lease. You can move out prior to the termination date as long as the rent is paid.



Of course they seem to equate *knock knock* "Uhhh, yeah?" "Can I come in?" "Uhhh... sure..." with permission.



I'm sorry, but that is permission. The landlord knocked, received a reply, asked to come in and was given an affirmative answer allowing entry.

Answer 2

Any pet not mentioned on the lease would be a violation, so yes, you violated the lease bringing in the snake. You need to get rid of it or move and pay what it costs to break the lease.



As far as entering goes, when you say "yes" that is permission to enter. You may not see it that way, but legally "yes" is permission, "no" is not.

Answer 3

How cruel to have a snake that you keep locked up in a tank. What kind of life is that for the snake? Snakes were not meant to be housepets.