‘This is like the fourth or fifth time’: Tour group walks into an Ohio woman’s apartment while she’s sleeping. Her property manager didn’t tell her they were coming
An Ohio woman has a message for Northsteppe Realty: Stop entering the home she is currently leasing.
“[Northsteppe Realty] had a tour of people come to my house,” said @thegarbitchtruck, a TikTok influencer with 60,000 followers. “I was dead [expletive] asleep in my bed. Had no [expletive] clue. Had no clue that there was, they scheduled a tour for our home.”
Her video recounting the realty company’s aggressive tactics has generated 102,000 views since Dec. 10, with many viewers asking, “Isn’t this illegal?”
Entering without notice: ‘this is illegal’
@garbitchtruck suddenly woke up to a leasing manager entering her apartment without her consent.
“ I literally, I’m gonna freak out. So my leasing manager decided it was a really cute, fun game to send a tour. Of the people I’ve never met who want to apparently lease this apartment after me,” she said. “Their employee opens my [expletive] door… I’m up immediately walking down my stairs and I’m upset ’cause I’m tired. I don’t know why the [expletive] someone’s walking in my house.”
She quickly confronted a man, alongside three other potential residents, who were entering her home. “ I go down to my front door and I said, um, ‘why the [expletive] are you trying to enter my house?’ It’s a, it’s a 20-year-old dude in a [expletive] Carhartt with two or three other adults standing behind him looking like kids that just got in trouble.”
The leasing agent said he was from Northsteppe Realty, which set @garbitchtruck off immediately. @thegarbitchtruck claims that Northsteppe Realty did not give her prior notice before entering her apartment for tours.
“I know in the state of Ohio, you need at the very least, a 24 hour warning before you send people to my [expletive] home,” she told her viewers.
@garbitchtruck’s other encounters with Northsteppe
This wasn’t the first time that Northsteppe entered her home, allegedly without consent.
@garbitchtruck called one of the company’s managers, Michael, to complain about it. “I called him today and I said, ‘Hey, this is the third [expletive] time you have sent people to my house to get into my home without a warning, without letting the residents know. This is the third time. The first time I was [expletive] naked, getting out of the shower, and I [heard] men’s voices downstairs.’”
According to her, maintenance workers also let themselves into her apartment without any prior notification.
“ We’ve had multiple times. We’ve had maintenance show up and unlock our door and walk in our house like they own the [expletive] place,” she said. “And then multiple times after that, we’ve had showings.”
Alongside that, she had other complaints. “It’s the worst [expletive] company I’ve ever lived with, and I have been on my own living in my own apartment since I was 18. I literally lived in a slum Lord apartment that had better management and better maintenance and better communication than these [expletive] right here who are a giant [expletive] realty business.”
Among her complaints were a rent increase mid-lease, alongside transfer fees to make basic payments. The apartment complex also does not, according to her, communicate regarding issues in any capacity.
@thegarbitchtruck #fyp #viral #northstepp #help #why ♬ original sound – The Garbitch Truck
Northsteppe Realty—a variety of sketchy occurrences
Many commenters quickly picked up on Northsteppe Realty’s sketchy behavior and even claimed that many of the things @garbitchtruck described are illegal.
For one, it is illegal for an apartment complex’s maintenance workers or general employees to enter a residence without prior warning. If @garbitchtruck received no prior warning, they are in fact breaking the law.
There is a chance, however, that Northsteppe Realty is notifying @garbitchtruck through an electronic notice.
“So as someone who has leased from Northsteppe for years, the way they send notices is to the primary resident through email if there are multiple residents,” wrote one commenter. “If you are not the primary resident you won’t be notified. The emails also go to junk mail quite often so you gotta check that. Also it is in your lease that on a specific date if you don’t renew they will start to show your apartment.”
In Ohio, the law does not specify whether the notice needs to be written, so landlords can email their notices to residents.
Other commenters noticed additional strange things about @garbitchtruck’s description.
“Everybody’s talking about how the entry with no notice is illegal but, and correct me if I’m wrong, did you just say they increased your rent mid lease?” said one viewer.
If the lease has any terms that allow for rent increases, it is legal to increase rent costs. As tenantrights.com states, “a mid-lease increase is usually not allowed unless the lease includes a clear clause permitting it or you agree in writing.”
But if there is no clause that states Northsteppe Realty can increase rent prices, this is illegal.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Northsteppe Realty and @garbitchtruck for comment. We’ll let you know if either party responds.
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