can i change the locks on my door with landlords permission?

Question

ok so i live in the state of NY and live in an apartment with two roommates but only one of the roommates is on the lease with me, while the other one is just a disgusting/annoying prick that just uses the house as a place to chill but never actually stays here he always goes somewhere else to spend the night, and i just told him he has thirty days to move out, i will serve him a written notice tomorrow i guess, but he was never on the lease and also me and the other roommate who is on the lease are refusing to accept rent from him for the month of october , which he forgot to pay anyway, but the story gets more complicated from here, in our lease it says we aren't allowed to have anyone stay with us with out permission from the landlord, but at the same time our lease expired on july of 2012 and its now october of 2013 we just had a month to month kinda deal going on with the landlord, but she never knew about the third person, until i called her today to resign a lease because he was demanding to see a lease, and when i told her we had a third living with us she said he was not allowed to live there so, would he be forced to move out immediately? or does he still need his 30 day grace period? and also during our argument he said he wanted to move out but he wasnt going to be out in thirty days, he said he would need at least 90 maybe 120, so after his thirty days are up can i change the locks to door, i do not intend to damage any of his stuff it can just gather dust in his room until he can arrange to pick it up, and finally if i technically cant change the locks would i be able to think like a lawyer and loophole the system by not changing the locks but locking our outside door?
our house is a two family and the front door usually is never locked because i was the only person with a key, but if i were to cut copies and distribute them to the people upstairs and my other roommate i technically wouldn't be changing any locks i just want to restrict his access into my home especially when I'm not home and i honestly don't want to see him in my house anymore, he disgusts me .....ew

Answer 1

Lease or not he is still legal resident and has legal rights that you can't violate. You CAN NOT change the locks until he has either vacated or you evicted him. It is a criminal offense, which will lead to your arrest and him in possession of the apartment. There is no legal way to lock anyone out of their home, you need to stop looking for one. NY is especially aggressive to anyone who tries any illegal eviction techniques. I am not joking, you could easily serve a 6 month sentence for what you are proposing.



You need to give him the 30 day notice, in writing, At the end of the 30 days you would then start the eviction process with the courts. There are no loopholes for you or your landlord. NY is slow, it will take another 5 weeks to evict him, and there are ways to make it longer then that.



You keep saying "my home" when you need to realize it is more then that. Legally this is his home too. None of this other stuff matters, he can not be removed from HIS home until you talk to a judge and a judge decides he does not have the legal right to live there.

Answer 2

In July of 2012, when you did not formally renew your lease, it because a month to month lease with the same contracted terms. This will be stated in the lease. You could have shown the dude this lease and you wouldn't have had a problem.



But now you have GIGANTIC problem. You and your other roommate are in violation of the lease. The landlord could give you 3-day fix or quit notice tomorrow, which means if the other tenant is not gone in 3-days formal eviction proceeding can begin against you. However, you have no legal standing to get the dude out in 3-days. You can't give him a 3-day fix or quit notice, because you are unwilling to accept the "fix", so the soonest you can request he be out is 30 days from the rental terms. Assuming you are on a standard monthly, this would be Nov 30th. October does not count because you didn't notify him before the 1st of the month.



No, you can't randomly lock a guy out of his room.

Answer 3

Your third person guest that you want to get rid of actually puts your tenancy at risk. The landlord may want him out immediately as he was never allowed to move in, in the first place, but because he has been there so long you still must abide by the law by giving him his 30 days to vacate. If he stays longer you will have to file for a formal eviction to obtain a forcible detainer to have him removed. Explain this to the unwelcome guest and explain that once the eviction papers are filed it makes no difference if leaves before the court date or not, the eviction process will proceed. And once the eviction shows up on their credit report, no landlord will rent to him for up to 10 years.



You can change the locks with the landlord's permission, as long as you give the landlord a copy of the key. But you can't legally lock out the unwelcome tenant until the formal eviction is finalized.

Answer 4

Just change the locks, you sound like you're too kind and overthinking this. He's not on the lease and I assume you have no verbal agreement with him in regards to him being there for a fixed term. You've been fair giving him 30 days. Plus do you really think he's going to go through the trouble of taking you to court over being kicked out, It's a lot of time, effort, money, and does he really have a leg to stand on with no written or even verbal agreement. You're breaking the lease by him being there so it was either him or all of you right? Pack his things up put them outside for him and change the locks.

Answer 5

You should have no objection except he will demand a copy of your new key.

Answer 6

Yes you need their permission to modify their property.

Answer 7

You can do anything to your home with your landlords permission. If he consents, it's his land it's like he did it himself.