Question about my Lease Agreement

T

Tucker 1371

New member
I recently reviewed my apartment complex's lease agreement today to find exactly where it says I am not allowed to keep a gun. In addition to hat I found that I am not allowed to have any weapon of any type, including BB guns. Also, near the back (go figure), I found a paragraph that said that my apartment comlex is not liable for my personal security or the security of any of my belongings.

So, in short, they refuse to be responsible my/my belongings safety but they also phrohibit me from being responsible for my safety. There has GOT to be some kind of violation of my civil rights here. Either way I'm ditching these communists and finding a gun-friendly apartment community in the fall.
 
No violation of legal rights.
You signed an agreement to abide by PRIVATE property owner's rules.
Take it or not. You CHOSE to take it VOLUNTARILY.
Most apartment complexes/lease agreements have a similar clause due to liability and insurance issues.

Landlords are allowed entry for varying degrees and if they see open violations of the lease AGREEMENT they can revoke that agreement.
Landlords CANNOT search spaces not visible (drawers, clothing, locked chests).

You must be fairly young (under 30?), and have yet to realize the totallity of your daily decisions. READ LEGAL DOCUMENTS BEFORE YOU SIGN AND AGREE.

Now, on to the more practical aspects.
How could they know you have weapons?
Did you complain to the management about this clause yet?
Do you display your weapons openly?
Have you let your neighbors know you have weapons?
Do you have weapon paraphanalia strewn about?
Are any of your weapons in view about your apartment?

For the most part, what they don't know/can't see can't hurt them and it is a non-issue.

Shut up, keep cool, give no reason to suspect.
Take what precautions you feel you need to protect yourself.
You still have no legal leg to stand on concerning eviction.

The choice when signing the agreement was yours.
The choice to agree to it is yours.
It's your choice to suffer the repercussion of your choices.
Welcome to adulthood.
 
READ LEGAL DOCUMENTS BEFORE YOU SIGN AND AGREE.
Click to expand...

I hate to sound like a public service message, but he is right. Remarkably, people even sign mortgages and buy homes, the largest purchase of their lives, without reading through the documents they sign.

I don't buy expensive cars, but when I do buy one I read the whole of every bit of paper each level of salesman gives me. I mark up the parts I don't like.

That's just the purchase agreement.

You won't mind if I take a minute to read it.

It just says that we are giving you the car we talked about for that price.

Well, it's three pages of fine print, so it seems to say a lot more than that.

Hey, you can't mark up our contract! The sales manager won't allow it.

Then he won't sell me a car.


No one who rushes you through reading anything expensive or complex is doing it for your benefit.
 
Depending in what state you live in, the clause may not even be valid.

Some state specifically prohibit landlords from imposing restriction of this type.

In any case you are entitled to quite and peaceable possession of the premises.

Depending on the EXACT wording of the clause it may not actually apply.
Some state that 'illegal weapons' are not allowed.
 
Depending in what state you live in, the clause may not even be valid.

Some state specifically prohibit landlords from imposing restriction of this type.

In any case you are entitled to quite and peaceable possession of the premises.

Depending on the EXACT wording of the clause it may not actually apply.
Some state that 'illegal weapons' are not allowed.
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I have no doubt that there are some states that forbid such clauses, but don't assume yours is one of them. Last I checked, my state did allow such restrictions, and we're pretty pro-gun up here. As such, I've run into few rentals that bothered to try including such a restriction (it puts them at a competitive disadvantage) but they're out there. Yes, some actually try to restrict possession of perfectly legal firearms.

EDIT: Basically this is one of those areas where firearm rights and property rights intersect, and in general you can expect firearms rights to lose.
 
For things like mortgages and other contracts of adhesion, you're actually better not reading them in some circumstances. By reading them, you're increasing the likelihood of being found to have knowingly agreed to the clause, which could overcome an argument that a portion of the contract was unreasonable if you were unlikely to have understood or actually agreed to it.

That said, in this case, I don't think that argument holds water. You're boned. But, as pointed out by other posters, you can probably practically still keep your weapons so long as they're not out for the world to see. In addition to what's been said, landlords usually need to give you 24 hours notice to enter. Just make sure your gear's put away when folks come. Me, I always had swarms of fine ladies pourin' courvoisier and dancing around my apartment in undergrad, so I needed to have my things locked up tight even beside the fact that I was willfully blind regarding certain clauses in my lease.
 
You must be fairly young (under 30?), and have yet to realize the totallity of your daily decisions. READ LEGAL DOCUMENTS BEFORE YOU SIGN AND AGREE.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm 19 and in college, living off campus. And yes, I think I've learned my lesson in dealing with contracts and this is the last one like this that I'll sign. Thanks for the replies everyone and like I said I'm moving to a place next semester that isn't run by communists.


EDIT:
my state did allow such restrictions, and we're pretty pro-gun up here
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I'm in GA and as far as I know the only state more pro-gun than us is Texas. I think I'm gonna write to someone in the state government about this cause it is pure BS. I'm not what you would call paranoid but there have been a few break-ins in my complex and somebody's gotta be responsible for my safety, why not me?
 
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Negative, but our laws are pretty darn good, especially the ones on home defense and right-to-carry, and as far as I know there isn't a gun for sale that we can't own in GA.

I do kinda wish we had something like CO's campus carry policy, don't think that applies to every CO college though.
 
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