My sister lives in a place where they hire a company to do inspections. Recent inspection they took pictures of the unit and the insides of all her closets. She is anal about cleaning so there is no problem there. She didn't push back on it, but is concerned about taking pictures of her closets is a breach of her privacy.

What does the group members think; do you do that for inspections? I told her I would get back to her with your thoughts.

Thank you for your time.

I look over the whole house because sometimes people might be hiding things like other people and their clothes, but mainly I am looking for roof leaks or wall damage.

That said, I do not take pictures of tenants things unless they were hiding something and I need evidence. Taking pictures of a current tenants dwelling with their things on a constant basis would seem a bit intrusive. I could see her feeling uncomfortable with that.

I would disclose at lease signing what items/areas will be inspected, and then send a notice a few days ahead of any inspection. If tenant has personal items they are concerned about, they can move them to a private place such as inside a dresser drawer or blanket chest.

Tenants overfilling closets so there is no possibility of air flow is a source of mold growth. Perhaps they were looking to document in an effort to minimize future liability.

It's very unlikely that the landlord is snooping in her clothing. Much more likely to be checking for roof leaks and mold.

Mold often starts in closets and tenants are bad enough about reporting leaks and they are not going to report one that they can not easily see.

Your sister should have received a notice before the inspection, so she had time to hide her sex toys and drugs before they got there, if that is why she doesn't want to have her closets looked into. Most people don't have anything in the closets but clothing and there is not a lot of reason to be upset that a landlord sees your clothing while it is on hangers.

Oreo, if you live in a place where there is the possibility of mold, you should be looking inside the closets when you do your inspections.

I hadn't thought of it but I can see it being useful to check closets.

Had a tenant that stored plastic bags in the bathroom closet. She had put a small dresser in there and then stuffed all her grocery bags beside it.

I needed to get in to change a water heater element and when we moved all the stuff there was mildew on the wall. The bags kept the airflow down I guess and maybe a few hot showers caused a moisture issue.

I don't take pictures unless there is an issue. I agree that a third party wants to earn their pay by proving they looked the place over good.

Things I have found in closets:

a cat in a cage (no pets), full set of clothing for a male/female who was not on the lease, mold, the new filters I left behind for them to use...

When I do inspections I take video so there are no gaps in where/what I was doing. And I try hard to only do them with the tenant present.

That is a long commute then Oreo.

I rent to my MIL and my son. Have rented two places to my daughter. Selling on contract to a cousin who is trying to make the place more valuable.

Rented to another cousin years ago in an effort to help her out. It ended badly. That has been the only problem situation for us tho, regarding family.

The mother-in-law is the reason we started rentals in the first place.

Kudos to things worked out well for you with family.

Been there, done that. Best for me to leave it there for my sanity. I want to be talking to the family I have. There were a few years of tough love not speaking to my sister. I'm not an enabler and we're speaking now after a few short years of not speaking.

Oreo,

We check the ceiling of closets for roof leaks and "mildew".

Often the trap door to the attic is in the closet so I have photo to remind me which closet.

Bags of clothing smushed against the walls invites MILDEW in Indiana.

My favorite FIND was the inside walls covered in shiny foil, a grow light, and a shaggy green plant.

We have one bad sewer line that we get mucho tree roots from. This one we do twice a year. Had a bad backup years ago that flooded the entire basement, taking out a furnace and appliance due to it.

Had a backup at another a couple times, once even though we had just cleaned it 3 months prior. One time it was dozens of man wipes in it, another time it was tampons. When the tenants protest that it wasn't them, the plumbers camera tells the tale. I had a 30 year old woman try to tell me she didn't flush tampons, I asked her in front of the plumber who had them lined up to show her, "so you are saying the 65 year old flushed them?" They were the only two living in the building. I was so angry I told that 30 year old to clean the whole thing up herself.