I currently rent a condo in West Hartford, CT. My initial lease expired at the end of May. My landlord was away so we discussed signing the lease once she returned in early June. I paid June rent on time. When the landlord brought me the lease she noted in the lease that she wanted to renovate the master bathroom. I responded that I wanted to look into this to see what if anything I should include in the lease to address the following concerns. A) I have allergies B) access concerns C) time frame (I didn't want the never ending project) and D) possible rent adjustment (in case the project takes longer than expected). I would prefer not to have renovations done while I am renting there. Yesterday she told me she's doing both bathrooms. These are not emergency repairs. What are my options?
The first thing to note is that since your original lease term expired in May, but you paid rent for June, you are now a month-to-month tenant. As a result, all the provisions of the original lease continue to apply to your current tenancy, except that the lease can be terminated by a 30-day notice. (It's important to remember that the 30-day period runs from the next day that you ordinarily pay rent, typically the 1st of the month. So, if the landlord wanted to terminate the lease today, she would have to make the termination notice effective as of July 31, 2012, that being 30 days from the next "1st of the month".) The bottom line is that you don't have a permanent tenancy, so in a worst-case scenario (say, if negotiations go very badly with the landlord), you could end up losing your tenancy and having to move or else face an eviction in court.
The next point is that your original lease may have something to say about the landlord's right to enter to perform repairs. Often it does, and if so, that agreement will trump the statute on point. But I'll assume that your lease is silent (or consistent with the relevant statute). Under Connecticut General Statutes (C.G.S.) Section 47a-16 ("When landlord may enter unit") (available at http://cga.ct.gov/2011/pub/chap830.htm), a landlord may not enter a dwelling unit without the tenant's consent except in case of an emergency, as permitted during periods of long absences from the apartment by the tenant, pursuant to a court order, or if the tenant has surrendered or abandoned occupancy of the dwelling unit. C.G.S. 47a-16(d). The tenant must not unreasonably withhold consent to the landlord to enter in order to inspect the premises, or to make "necessary or agreed to" repairs, or to supply "necessary or agreed to" services, or to show the apartment to prospective renters, buyers, contractors, etc. C.G.S. 47a-16(a).
As a result, unless your original lease says otherwise, the facts you've described do not seem to support the landlord's demand to access the apartment to perform renovations of the bathrooms and master bedroom.
I can't really say what your options are without looking more carefully at the lease and making sure that the landlord has not claimed some sort of necessity to perform the renovations (like the bathrooms are leaking or could leak in the near future if not repaired, for instance). However, if your lease doesn't say anything about repairs and the landlord truly just wants to perform capital improvements to the apartment while you're trying to live there, I think you should try to negotiate a new lease with the landlord that doesn't obligate you to allow these renovations unless you get a rent adjustment, as you've suggested. I would not recommend taking a "hardball" approach to the negotiations unless you're prepared to walk away from the apartment, though, since you don't have a lease currently in place beyond your month-to-month tenancy, which could be terminated effective as early as July 31, 2012.
If this lease is valuable to you, then I recommend that you consult and retain a landlord-tenant/real estate attorney for advice on these negotiations. One way to do this is to negotiate the basic lease terms directly with the landlord if you can, then to say once you have an agreement in principle that you'll need to have your attorney review the lease before you sign it. You don't want to scare the landlord away here by involving an attorney too early, but you also don't want to sign away your rights, and if the landlord doesn't agree to your terms, you might have to involve a lawyer anyway. Depending on how expensive it would be to move and how important the lease is to you, you may be better off hiring an attorney to help you protect your rights.
Best of luck in reaching a good outcome here.
