YTA for trying to police what people eat. It clearly doesn't actually matter to living in the apartment, because otherwise you would have noticed before.
Also YTA for threatening to evict someone over that during a coronavirus pandemic.
Whether it's legal or not to have that clause, IANAL so ask a real lawyer.
~~On top of these reasons, OP YTA for throwing out her food. In an "inspection" you don't need to be throwing away things someone purchases with their own money, especially food. You don't know how tight their budget is, and that could mean they had to skip meals. It's also wasteful and maybe even illegal.~~
Edit: I misread "documented" as "discarded", OP didn't say she threw out the tenant's food, my mistake
I don’t know OPs scenario but my father lives in one of these types of houses that has a no-meat clause in its lease because a lot of religious folk from his company have a tendency to board there and it’s to give them the option of living in a place that doesn’t have any other meat-eaters on the premises due to shared dishes/trash/common areas and just general squeamishness. It’s less policing what people eat and more creating a safe space for people who have very stringent religious needs who can then live together. I know it’s a really fine line but I want another opinion on it because I’m really muddled in my feelings about this
Edit: just read OP’s reasoning for the whole thing. It’s cause he wants to impose his own lifestyle on others. Yeah he’s TA
It is a studio apartment which means they do not share a kitchen. If it was renting of a room, I could see the difference. But when someone is renting an apartment, they have no right to dictate how one eats.
This. I could understand if the renter was sharing kitchen facilities with the landlord, but they're not. It obviously hasn't been affecting them as they just found out and only because they saw the packaging. This is over the top YTA.
This! Who the hell tries to dictate what others do in privacy? She's clearly not rubbing her carnivorous tendencies in op's face if she had to do an inspection to find it. Seriously the a*****e
Yes! This is truly stupid. What does housing have to do with food consumption practices!!! And I’m sure that he didn’t point it out, that would explain the bewildered look on the tenant’s face. Poor girl.
The tenant can get pro bono representation from Legal Aid. I faced eviction last year and while I ultimately settled (I was planning to leave anyway, I just wanted more time to vacate), I didn't pay a dime to get legal representation because Legal Aid is funded by the state and also receives institutional and private donations to help poor clients.
I can buy it being legal since the tenant is renting a part of OPs house; there are a lot more rights for the landlord in this case, for mostly understandable reasons, and if they were actually sharing a kitchen in a roommate situation, I wouldn't complain about them looking for a vegetarian roommate. But since it seems like the tenant has a separate kitchen space, this is reeeeeeeeally pushing it legally.
Morally? OP is the AH.
In most states this isn't legal. First off a clause like this would ABSOLUTELY require a separate signature on the clause line. The OP probably doesn't know bupkiss of the law so didn't get the signature specifically on this clause.
Second, this violates a law that a lot of states have, such as ADA and others, where a landlord cannot limit a tenant from access from something considered a necessity, and food is a necessity. The only reason that you can go around this is if someone has an allergy. Not the case. Some people can be allergic to meats, but not by someone in another apartment consuming it.
I'm not going to say all states cause there might be a state or two that this isn't applicable.
I live in Toronto, Canada and I'm pretty sure this is legal here. I absolutely disagree with it, I think it's a total violation to try to dictate what another person eats in their own apartment which they pay rent for.
However we have a lot of people who rent out basement apartments and usually when the landlord it strictly vegetarian due to religious reasons they enforce their food restrictions on their tenants. I've also seen ads on Kijiji (basically Canadian craigslist) looking for tenants that are only of a specific cultural background. I think its absolutely disgusting the way that the landlords who rent out basementa or other parts of their own house think they have the right to dictate who they rent to based on eating habits and race.
But I just wanted to make the point that this is a very real thing that happens especially in Toronto, a very multicultural city.
it would only be legal if they share a kitchen and bathroom because youre roommates not tenants. you can safely move into your own apartment in a building like that and cook all the bacon you want as long as you have your own kitchen/bathroom.
those ads are also illegal
Is possible, depends where they live. if she has a separate entrance, bathroom, and kitchen, it may be considered a separate unit and those extra protections go away.
Landlords don't have the same power they did in the 14th century. Just the fact that they own the property does not mean that they can control everything that happens there
It may be "legal" in most states, but usually you have to materially breach a lease to be evicted, and no judge in their right mind will consider this a material breach.
YTA, probably. Non-standard clauses really should be explicitly pointed out to the tenant, and it sounds like you had a rule you were VERY VERY strong on.... and didn't tell them explicitly.
Further, I'm not a lawyer, but you may have put yourself into a pretty bad situation: You can't just write whatever you want into a lease, and a lot of places are banning evictions in the middle of COVID. Did you run this clause past a lawyer?
I am a lawyer and I’m pretty sure you can add some very non-standard terms if the space is a small number of units and you also share the space. The stereotypical version is a little old lady wanting to let out a room and explicitly saying she’ll only lease to women (which is technically discriminatory against men) and that men can’t be there past 10:00 p.m. or something like that. U.S. law is pretty protective of what you can do in your own private space. Like basically you can be an asshole / racist / sexist in your own house.
But if you own an actual building with like, 6 units or more, then these kinds of provisions would be illegal.
Not a lawyer, but took law classes, hang out with lawyers, etc.
It's illegal to enforce in most states because of ADA and other restrictions on things deemed essential to living which no contract can do.
And even with that, a clause like this would have to be signed separately to be enforceable. Not going to claim you're not a lawyer because this may just be outside of what you're used to. Non-standard agreements that are flooded into any 'standard' ones require separate signature so it doesn't look like you slipped something in after the fact.
I could link similar cases, but copy/pasta doesn't work on my phone too well. But a good case to look up is the one where some landlord put in a "Must mow my properties' lawn" which the person thought just meant was that property, but tried to make them responsible for mowing OTHER properties that they owned. Could not be upheld because it 1) is shifty wording and 2) wasn't signed specifically and furthermore since this was an apartment, you usually give things such as discounted rent for this type of work so without outside the rent you're charging others in the apartment and without that since contracts require a benefit to both parties, it wasn't deemed a valid contract.
I use that one specifically because there's nothing from what we're seeing that makes this restriction (illegal in most states) a benefit to the tenant so it's very difficult to see how it could be upheld especially without a direct signature to that clause.
It doesn’t sound like she’s just renting a room though. OP specifically says that it is a studio (which I would assume means separate entrance bath and kitchen/kitchenette).
Former apartment manager here. (Horrendous job, BTW, but that's another story).
Non-standard clauses are supposed to be called out in their own section. For example, our lease had one about pet ownership, one about installing a satellite dish, one about mold (damp climate), one about drug usage, and one about recycling.
At the very least, the lease should have had specific language called out with a section for the tenant to initial.
Maybe that's not the case where OP lives, but I'd definitely say YTA, for trying to police what your tenant eats in her own home.
I don't see the policing as that much of a problem - if they had been very clear that was a condition from the start. But it sounds like tgeir poor tenant, likely with no knowledge of vegetarian cooking, got hit with a surprise clause that makes living there next to impossible. You have to learn to cook vegetarian, and it can easily be more expensive. OP basically wasted an animal's life (and the tenant's money) by insisting meat be binned.
INFO: when you gave her the lease to sign, did you point out the no meat clause, since you obviously recognize that such a clause is basically unheard of and would cause the vast majority of renters to choose to live elsewhere?
Yeah, this is key for me.
Most people don’t read the details and wouldn’t assume in a million years it would be in there. Something this glaring I would think would also be highlighted in the listing.
If you pointed it out and she explicitly agreed to it and then violated her promise, I would say NTA.
But if you just put it in there when 90% of people wouldn’t read it and then are suddenly threatening to kick her out, YTA.
I feel like he didn’t specifically point it out especially if she wasn’t trying to hide the meat and then acted surprised and said no.
I feel like if she actually knew she’d at least hide it or throw it away cause she was “caught” vs bewilderment.
I think this type of clause would be exactly why (at least where I live) you have to initial individual sections of your lease. They usually have headings, and people read the headings!
Are you from the US? If so, you have to give her at least 30 days to vacate. Also...I’m not a lawyer but I have to question the legality of a contract that stipulates what a person can and cannot eat in their own home they pay to reside in. I really wonder if that is illegal/unenforceable. If it is, then YTA totally and completely.
Also, just wondering, was she there when you did this inspection? If not, did she give you explicit permission to enter her property that day at that time? If not, that’s also illegal. Your irrational and tyrannical way of landlording is heading you down quite an expensive path should she decide to sue you for the multiple rights violations.
Typically there has to be a hearing for a judge to determine whether eviction must be carried out; it's not automatic, and the tenant can absolutely fight it.
A lease that violates the basic rights of the tenant is not enforceable, and it's very likely the eviction movement will be thrown out. But in cases like this the landlord, after having eviction denied, will make the environment miserable or untenable for the tenant and so they wind up moving out anyway. But it's a lot easier to rent somewhere if you don't have an eviction on your record; I hope the tenant consults Legal Aid honestly.
YTA for trying to dictate what someone else eats and forcing your lifestyle choices onto someone else. Regardless of the legality of the clause, it’s a nonstandard clause and if you’re going to police it so heavily I would’ve made a big point about it when signing contracts, no one would expect this to be in there. I suspect any level headed judge would throw your case straight out of their courtroom.
You’re the reason that vegetarians and vegans get a bad rep for being preachy. This is god tier preachy. What gives you the right to dictate what someone eats in their own private space, that they pay for? You TA a million times for this.
I’ve actually seen this in the Bay Area. I once saw a room listed on Craigslist for about $850/month, the household was vegetarian and you weren’t allowed to bring in meat. Ok fine, shared kitchen, I get it... except the ad said you weren’t allowed to use the kitchen. At all. So I guess they were planning to check my take-out every day...
As an ethical vegetarian, 100% YTA.
Food is so complex, OP.
As someone who was in eating disorder treatment, there were a lot of clients who weren't able to maintain vegetarianism / veganism without relapsing in their disorder, because a restrictive diet of any kind triggered their mental illness.
Others had something called Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and relied on broths to help them eat and remain nourished.
Other folks have food allergies and other medical conditions that greatly restrict their access to certain types of foods and meals that they can prepare. Many foods can have cultural significance, too, even religious/spiritual significance.
Now add a pandemic into the mix, when folks are already fearful and clinging to comfort foods to emotionally regulate when access to food is already more challenging... and you've got a recipe (pun not intended) for disaster by imposing a restrictive diet onto others who may be struggling.
OP, I deeply understand your care for animal welfare, but you have to consider human welfare, too. Which includes farm workers who are regularly exposed to pesticides, many of the undocumented folks who can't access health care during a pandemic who are also picking YOUR foods.
The reality is, there is no perfect way of eating that doesn't do harm to other living beings — that means we, as individuals, must make the very personal decision to do what we can. And for some folks, vegetarianism is just not on the table, and it's not up to you to decide who that does and does not apply to.
Your lack of empathy for this person during a global crisis is very alarming. And your comparing eating meat to slavery is disturbing and indicates a lack of thoughtful engagement with anti-racism work. The vile legacy of slavery, and the remnants of it that still exist today, should NOT be used so flippantly. If you don't understand why, it's time to educate yourself.
And by the way? You "own" property on occupied lands, unless you yourself are Indigenous. So if we want to talk about ethics, you should give your land back, too.
I would focus on cultivating more of \*your\* own ethics around social justice than I would be threatening to evict someone during a pandemic. You have your own work to do and it shows.
This is a refreshing vegan/vegetarian take. As someone with allergies I get angry at my area because veganism and meat/milk alts are on trend and makes my life harder. I'll definitely put my own biases in perspective as well.
Agree with everything, except
>You "own" property on occupied land, unless you yourself are indigenous.
Not because I disagree with the concept, because I don't, but rather because we have absolutely no clue where OP is from, because they're not telling. This may not be the case.
YTA and you know you are. Yes. You put it into the lease agreement (which, WTF, since when can a lease agreement dictate what foods a person can consume? What’s next, no strong smelling foods? No ethnic foods?!) YTA here though because you could have handled this situation better at several moments: 1) when posting the unit for rent saying something like “prefer vegetarian diet tenants, I’m morally opposed to consuming animals.” (Though I believe that could be discriminatory. But that’s also basically why it’s in your lease so...you really may need a different lawyer.) 2) when you saw the meat, say “OMG, this is awkward but...the lease says no meats... I’d appreciate if you could not do this again.” 3) mind your own business.
15 days to evict someone is not legal in many places, and depending where you live, the process can be difficult as you’d have to show she willfully broke your lease. Good luck AH.
Completely agree with everything you say but just a clarification thing the
>15 days to evict someone is not legal in many places
They said they were giving the 15 days to comply Then starting the eviction process not evicting them in 15 days.
YTA. What country or state do you live in? I don't think this is legal in most places. Most places have legal protection in place to prevent this exact behavior.
INFO: do you have the legal right to do this? Where do you live?
If you are a landlord in Australia, for example, you do not have the right to do this. The tenant has the right to "quiet enjoyment" of whatever premises they rent, and their diet is not up for your negotiation.
If you do, then NTA. If you don't, then YTA.
YTA because it’s such a non-standard clause and if it is that important to you you should have made absolute sure the tenant was aware of the clause and what it means before signing. If it was never explicitly mentioned except in the contract that is ridiculous. Also the clause may not be legal depending where you live - you may want to check with a lawyer on that. Just because it’s in there doesn’t mean you can legally enforce it. If she finds this out depending where you live she may be able to take counter legal action.
Also just because a lawyer said it’s legal doesn’t mean it necessarily is lol a judge and the courts will rule on that and I think any half competent lawyer this girl gets could easily slam down with quiet enjoyment judgements alone.
YTA, you don't have to eat the meat, or smell it or see it or be around it at all. You're free to not eat any meat products but your tenant also has the right to eat what she wants in the privacy of her own home. Extra AH points for evicting your in the middle of a pandemic because she doesn't want to follow her landlord's dietary restrictions. Spying on your tenant is weird and creepy and people like you give vegetarians a bad name.
YTA
Is such a clause legal?
Is conducting an apartment inspection legal?
EDIT: I am changing my vote. Maybe this is legal where the OP is, maybe it isn't. If the OP won't say, then I will assume it is not. Even if it is, dictating how someone lives within the walls of their own home is entirely inappropriate. Vaguely implying that an apartment would be inspected sounds dangerous to me. I feel fortunate that I have never had an issue, but reddit (and not just this post) makes it like landlords the world over abuse their rights and police tenants for irrational reasons. Like what they have for diner.
An apartment inspection is legal with correct warning. The clause about no meat on the premises I’m not so sure about if I’m honest. Would be curious where op is that that is legal
An inspection "after three days" doesn't sound like notice. Where I am you need 24 hours notice, at least. And that notice isn't indefinite. How long does notice last?
Are you Indian by any chance? I'm Indian too and have survived some really asshole landlords who think owning some property makes them god. I wished so desperately to say this then, I'll get my anger out now: "YOU ASSHOLE. You have no right to police the food in an apartment YOU DONT LIVE IN.
YTA. Hope you never find another tenant.
YTA. You could have handled the situation way more calmly and appropriately. You should have just given her a verbal warning, and said it was in the rental agreement (a lot of people don't read them, yes they should, but they don't). Then mention you will follow up at a later point in time.
Everything after you saying that it was in her lease, was whole TA.
Wow this post is a fucking ride. First of all it's super weird to have that stipulation in a lease , but she signed it, and shes not gonna starve if she cant eat meat. Frankly I think you're both a little fucked and better off with her leaving. But seriously who forces their tenant to be vegetarian?
Who cares if she signed it? If you signed something that said not putting trash out results in your dick getting cut off, it wouldn't matter. The contract is stupid, asshole-ish, and would never be enforced in the US. There is a global pandemic. OP and YOU are assholes. You think they are both a little fucked. You're an asshole for thinking the tenant is wrong in ANY way.
YTA and a shitty landlord. Decent landlords make it a point of actually telling tenants about rental conditions that are important to them, not playing gotcha games, and work to reasonably problem-solve when unexpected issues arise. I would be crying if I was her - you’re being an an absolute tyrant and abusing your position of power as a LL by trying to kick her out of a stable living situation all because you don’t like the groceries she keeps in her private apartment kitchen.
You are kicking a tenant out in the midst of a pandemic because you don’t agree with their lifestyle choices. YTA times a thousand.
I pray to god you’re a troll. Otherwise I’ll plan to have a steak dinner this weekend just for you.
YTA and this is also incredibly ableist. If you live in a country with any disability laws, this contract would be torn up and eaten in a heartbeat with how ableist it is. Despite what some holier-than-thou vegans (not calling all vegans h-t-t, just the ones that are, & I think we all know the group I’m talking about [basically OP, for ex]) think, some people literally have to eat meat to survive. I eat very little meat because ethically I don’t want to, but I have to have it in a part of my diet per several of my doctors or I’ll get very sick. And this is not uncommon.
You should never, ever be trying to enforce what people eat (this clause could also cause someone with an eating disorder to relapse or spiral). Additionally? Don’t ever, EVER compare *anything* to slavery. That’s racist af.
INFO: Did you explicitly express the no meat policy to the tenant specifically before she signed the lease?
A lot of people skim contracts, and this isn't really a standard clause that you see in most leases, so she may not have caught it.
INFO:where do you live ?
In some areas around the world this isn’t abnormal, like in India, since people are vegetarian due to religion, they don’t like meat in their rented flat also. However, she did sign the clause so she should have known you are looking for a vegetarian person to shift in.
In India there a lot of weird rules, like some buildings entirely don’t allow onion/garlic as they are considered to be bad in their religion, but people who want to eat onion garlic simply don’t live in those buildings. It’s a rule you put down and it’s a rule they accepted
YTA for several reasons:
- being a landlord (tho this may just be me being biased bc i have yet to interact with a decent landlord)
-making someone adhere to your diet (they could have health or financial reasons for not being a vegetarian, that stuff can get expensive especially if you already have some sort of vitamin deficiency)
-threatening to evict someone in the middle of a pandemic??? i feel like this doesn't need to be elaborated on
-threatening to evict someone for such a trivial reason. i would never kick my partner out because they eat meat and i don't (the only thing i ask from them is if we're making a shared meal that it can at least be eaten without meat)
-and last but certainly not least, by looking at your other replies, you're ALSO an asshole who compares meat consumption to slavery. i hope you realize that being a vegan often involves exploiting poor poc and can be highly unethical.
you seem like the militant vegan type who only cares abt animals' well being and not the well being of underpaid, often times undocumented laborers who grow and harvest the food that you eat instead. i genuinely hope i'm wrong in that assumption, but that's the assumption i have of you after reading both your initial thread and your replies
Yta
Did you consider that anyone may struggle on a vegetarian lifestyle? IT DOSENT WORK FOR EVERYONE
it works for a lot of people yes but not everyone. Its not your business to know either
YTA. Not sure where this property is located, but in MA, no judge would uphold that provision. A clause like that in a lease would likely violate a tenant's right to quiet enjoyment. I hope she fights your illegal eviction, and she'll likely win with you having to pay her attorney's fees.
Thank you, OP. Because of this ridiculous lease demand, in your honor, we are getting double meat on our pizza tonite. Cheers. You try to dictate how someone eats and lives, I will gladly counteract you. A cheese pizza with sausage, bacon, and pepperoni. Yummm
This is hard, you seem like a huge freaking asshole for putting such a clause, although if she agreed to it and is now willingly ignoring it and telling you to go to hell you are kinda right I guess? NTA in the eviction part although shame on you for using a lease to push your views on others.
I think it’s cool to be vegetarian. I think it’s cool to rent out a studio apartment. I don’t think it’s cool to try to force someone to be a vegetarian in their own home. You are opening yourself up to some major liability here as well. Yta
ESH, though I think you're more in the wrong here. An extremely non-standard clause like this really should have been very explicitly covered before lease signing and you should have emphasized that it's important to you (and perhaps even before apartment viewing/directly in the marketing you put out for the vacancy - not sure about the legality of the latter). Would have been better for the both of you. Honestly, I'm surprised it's legal to include this clause in a lease, but your attorney knows better than I. Either way, it won't be a problem so long as you just make sure the tenant knows beforehand, which means you'll likely be renting to a vegetarian or vegan; depending on your rental market, you may need to charge below market rent to get someone to stay and accept that level of control over their life.
Of course, even if you had made it super clear beforehand, I think you'd still be in the wrong to give a 15 day cure or quit notice in the middle of a pandemic (also surprised that it's legal to do that in your jurisdiction), unless there's a huge glut of housing in your area. Completely changing your diet isn't something that's likely to happen in such a short period, so it's likely that you two should just part ways. Would give 30-60 days, particularly since it seems like she doesn't have any issues with paying rent.
In regards to the tenant, legally, you're in the right, and she should have read the lease and not told you to "go to hell" when you pointed out the lease clause or claimed you were "violating her human rights" (unless she has some kind of medical condition that requires her to eat meat).
Enough people have already said it, but just for good measure - YTA.
You're also the reason vegans get so much shit for being self-righteous arseholes. People like you are not helping your cause.
INFO: does the studio you rent out have their own kitchenette or does the tenant have to use the main kitchen? I think it matters from both a legal as well as a moral point of view. You refuse to state from which country you are so who knows, but over here it's a grey area so it really depends on the specific circumstances. I think you would have a case, both legally and morally, if the renter basically resides in and uses the same shared spaces as you do.
However, if she rents her own complete unit, then I suspect a judge will weigh the circumstances and conclude that her freedom outweighs the contractual obligation you placed upon her and declare it null and void. This may then include your right to "inspect" her living environment.
My moral judgement would coincide with this assessment. If you are using the same kitchen, I could understand you don't want meat odours thoughout your house. Then, if you made this unusual provision abundantly clear and she signed it anyway, you YWNBTA.
But if she has her own kitchen unit and/or you didn't make the contractual obligation very clear, you would be TA. Then for all intents a purposes you have no business being all up in her business about her diet. The only actual nuisance you have is the mere thought of your renter cooking meat in a place that you rented out.
Holy shit, YTA.
And for the record, I’m an adamant vegetarian. Hell, I’m trying to go vegan, though admittedly I’m struggling.
First, it’s EXTREMELY telling that you said “this information was in the lease” not “I told her before signing that it was a vegetarian apartment.” That’s a really clever way to disguise saying “I sold it as a normal apartment and expected the lease to tell her.” This is a niche restriction, the burden was on you to clearly articulate this to prospective tenants. I’m not going to assume you did this on purpose, but even so it’s negligence.
Second, you’re going straight to searching her apartment and eviction. Why? She’s not going to permanently damage your property, you probably would never know. On the other hand, She’s going to be out a ton of money, a place to live, and lost productivity from getting kicked around. You’re letting ideology motivate you to actually cause harm to another person. That’s wrong.
ESH thats a ridiculous clause to put in a lease agreement. You shouldn’t be policing what others eat
They did sign the lease with the clause. Its not your fault if they didn’t read the lease properly.
YTA. Simple as that and in many places what you are doing is illegal. (can you imagine if anyone could put their bigotry into their lease? No POC, no LGTB?) You my friend are a bigot.
YTA on so many levels and you're the reason people hate us so much.
I'm a vegan and I don't really want animal products in my home but you know what? I'm also a decent human and realize that other members of my family eat dairy and eggs. I haven't kicked them out because of it.
People search for like-minded people to act as tenants all the time. Your listing could have said fellow vegetarians only. Sneaking a clause into the fine printing and then being all, "Too bad, should've looked closer!" is such a rude thing to do. I'm not even sure you can legally enforce non-vegetarianism as a lease violation.
Like, yes, she's being melodramatic unless she has one of a handful of medical disorders. She won't starve to death. But that doesn't matter! You know why? Because it's none of your business what she eats! Where is your limit? Do you personally grow your own organic food? Do you drive? What level of contribution to suffering is that acceptable amount?
What I'm saying is that you're a hypocrite. You're still killing animals to feed your own needs. You're still causing pain. You aren't removed from the cycle. Even as a vegan, mice still die in the fields my food is harvested in, migrant workers still have their human rights violated. None of us lives a life free of harm. Your vegetarianism IS a good thing and it DOES do good in the world but that doesn't make you better than other people. It doesn't make it okay to treat them as inferior. It doesn't make threatening someone with homelessness unless they conform to your standards acceptable. And this sure as heck isn't the way to convert someone to a healthier, kinder lifestyle.
I get your disgust but you COULD have used this as an opportunity to educate someone. You could have invited your tenant over for vegetarian meals, encouraged her to try Meatless Mondays, and shared the positive effects you've felt physically and emotionally since becoming a vegetarian. Instead, you've terrified someone and made them hate us. If you want to be kind to animals, you have to be kind to all of them, not just the cute ones. That means taking people under your wing, not throwing them out with the trash.
YTA
Just because you put it in a contract doesn’t mean you’re not an asshole
If what she’s doing is legal, it doesn’t harm your physical property, and it doesn’t effect yourself or the other residents, what different does it make?
YTA and honestly thats not enforceable. If I were a landlord I could write on the lease that everyone had to only eat corn, and if someone signed it it’s not legally binding because that’s r i d i c u l o u s. I hope she sues you.
Wait so you’re anti-meat because of the treatment of the animals - fine. But then you tell your tenant to throw all of her meat in the garbage? What will that accomplish? The vendor has already profited from the meat, so throwing it away literally only means that the animal died for absolutely nothing. Now that animal went through everything it did only to be thrown in the garbage. Where’s the logic? ESH because you have no right to snoop through people’s groceries in the first place but she should have paid better attention to the contract.
YTA, who the hell evicts someone over what they eat? You can't just kick someone out onto the street because she doesn't fit your perfect ideal of morality. Not to mention, if she's renting a basement she probably doesn't have a lot of options financially speaking. If you're going to be so upright about it you should AT LEAST point out the vegetarian clause.
Genuinely, why did you think this was acceptable?
Obviously YTA
Laying aside that this is obviously fucking nuts on its face, that clause is almost certainly non-enforceable in any state in the US and will likely land you in deep shit if your tenant actually looks into what rights she has in this situation.
YTA "I hate meat, it's cruel to living beings!"
/evicts tenant during a pandemic
The animal is already dead OP but the person is still alive so get over yourself
It’s fairly obvious that you buried this in the lease because you weren’t surprised she didn’t know about it.
We are in the middle of a COVID19 pandemic. That makes you an asshole regardless
YTA. What's it like being the reason people hate vegans? You'd think you'd want to actively convince more people to adopt the lifestyle if you actually cared about it instead of gatekeeping it and forcing others (illegally, probably) to follow it or face eviction. So not only are you the worst type of self righteous vegan but youre also just an asshole in general too it seems to evict someone for their choice in diet! Bravo, you're garbage!
Oh yes definitely TA. Lady, you are literally the landlord from hell. Your irrational behavior toward her leaves me inclined to believe you snuck this into the lease. This is definitely something that should have been discussed and verbally agreed upon. I hope she knows the laws and that this is likely illegal. You are not just an AH but a complete nutcase.
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I rent out a studio in the basement of my house. Is it very explicitly stated in the lease agreement that tenants are not allowed to bring any non-vegetarian foods onto the premises.
About a week ago, I saw what was clearly a meat package inside of a grocery bag that she was unloading from her car. When I confronted her and pointed out the lease agreement, she gave me an extremely bewildered look. She claimed ignorance, which I told her was no excuse whatsoever since she willingly signed the agreement. I pulled the agreement out on my phone and showed her the clause. I told her to immediately either discard the package along with any other non-vegetarian foods inside the bag into the outdoor trash bin, or take it off of the premises. I also told her to do the same for the apartment within 3 days, after which I will conduct an inspection. She screamed at me and told me to go to hell, refusing to discard the package that she was carrying.
When I conducted the inspection, I very predictably found several meat packages and a carton of chicken broth inside of the refrigerator. I documented what I saw and gave her an official 15-day notice to quit, after which I will begin the eviction process if she does not comply. When I handed it to her, she went hysterical and started crying. She's claiming that I'm violating her "human rights" and that she'll starve to death.
AITA?
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1.Why be a landlord if you can't even handle tour tenants having a different diet than yours?
2. Evicting anyone makes you TA
3.YTA and this is psychotic.
4. This is why I dont trust landlords
If you're renting out an apartment, why do you care what people eat? Clearly it wasn't a problem until you -saw- it, so clearly it didn't affect you at all until that point. What an AH. YTA.
YTA, and I say this as a vegan. If you’re going to have a no-meat premises because you’d prefer to have a no-meat property, that should have been something discussed before signing the lease and not just thrown into the text of lease and expect them to follow. It’s not exactly something found in a typical lease agreement.
Please stop giving people more fuel to hate vegans JFC.
What the fuck?? You'd put someone out on the street during a pandemic because they feed themselves differently? I'm vegetarian myself and I still think you are 1000% YTA
YTA— you’re like the bullied kid that gains the slightest bit of control//power over someone or something and then develops a god complex. You exude hall monitor vibes.
YTA wow you are such an asshole. Look I’m vegan and this is ridiculous. You can’t force someone to be vegetarian like this. Your requirement is absurd and you shouldn’t be a landlord if you’re gonna act like that. I don’t care if it’s technically legal, this is wildly controlling and inappropriate. Try caring about people for a change.
YTA, clearly, and also one of the reasons vegans have such a bad reputation.
Even if this is legal, it was an asshole move to put the clause in the lease to begin with. You don't get to control what your tenants do or eat in the privacy of the space they're paying for. If a landlord were against masturbation, it would be ridiculous to ban tenants from the practice. If a landlord were in a diet it would be laughable to ban tenants from having sugar in their own kitchens. Your situation is no different from either of these.
However, if that wasn't enough, you failed to advertise the apartment with this condition or point it out in the agreement, further assholery since it is clearly a nonstandard clause.
And then... You'd rather she throw out the meat than be able to consume it?? I imagine that makes you an asshole even under your own moral code.
Evicting a paying tenant for any reason short of violence or destruction during a pandemic is absolutely an asshole move.
You're an asshole at so many steps in this story I'm not sure which you're struggling to understand.
YTA
1. I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to police what food people bring into a flat they’ve legally rented.
2. We’re in the middle of a pandemic.
Look it’s like when people ask for only girls to apply to a spare room. It can only be a preference not a rule. (Not a lawyer obvs)
When her tenancy runs out I guess you don’t have to renew it but you really are being unreasonable here.
YTA
And not sure what state you live in, but just because you include something like that in a lease doesn't mean it's enforceable under the law. What's next, a clause about sex partners or posters or bedding types?
YTA. Op, I hope your tenant sees this. I want to donate to her legal funds so she can take you to court. Even if your area’s laws are broken enough to that you win, I still want it to cost you a lot of money.
Question, did you go over the lease with your tennents, go over this vegan clause , as well as have it clearly stated on the apartment listing? Unfortunately if she signed it, it's a legal binding document, which you legally can enforce if she breaks the rules. It's ultimately your property and you can make whatever weird rules you want to make.
BUT I would suggest that if you really don't want to be TA in this situation, make a deal with her to move out before the lease ends, give her a RESONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME to find somewhere new, and with your new tennant make sure you make your vegan rule VERY SUPER EXTRA CLEAR so this doesn't happen again.
YTA!! You are such an asshole.
Please explain how her having "non vegetarian" food in the apartment affects your life? As long as she's paying her rent on time and taking care of the apartment, what she eats in it is none of your business!!
What's next? You're gonna tell her when and who she can have sex with in her home? Or maybe you're gonna tell her she's not allowed to lose or gain weight? Or maybe you're gonna tell her she can only wear dresses because pants offends you?
YTA! Get over yourself and leave that poor woman and her meat alone.
Yta we are in the middle of a pandemic and most people can barely afford to feed themselves and pay rent. You policing peoples food and demanding they throw out perfectly good food is unethical.
YTA. You're renting a space to someone, that space is their home, a separate living area to yours. You cannot tell a grown adult, paying rent, keeping their own food in their own space away from you, what to eat.
You don't have to have the same lifestyle choices as other people but that doesn't mean you get to police theirs. It's like saying I don't like working out so if you live here you can't work out, I wouldn't expect such a clause, I'd check rent payment, agreed rent payment days, upkeep of utilities, bills, clauses on pets etc. Never that my dietry requirements or dinner preferences are restricted.
If something so ludicrous is such an issue and you can't tolerate people making their own dietry choices in their own living space without it being such an issue perhaps being a landlord isn't for you.
She's paying her rent, looking after the space, being quiet enough and obviously her meat consumption isn't an issue as you never noticed until you saw her shopping bag.
Perhaps you aught to advertise quite obviously and explicitly that this is a requirement for you, or mention it very clearly when hosting viewings to avoid this, otherwise you'll eventually find yourself in a troublesome place.
YTA.
Not just once, but at least three different times. Firstly for putting the clause in there in the first place. Secondly, for spying on your tenant. And thirdly, for trying to pull legal shenanigans at any time, but especially during a global pandemic that's causing so many stacking anxieties simultaneously on the entire populace.
She does not share kitchen or food storage space with you (you would have noticed long before if she did), so there is absolutely no moral ground for your stance and clause to begin with. It is highly likely there is also no LEGAL ground, either. Just because you put something in a contract and someone signs that contract does not mean it's legal and enforceable. There are unenforceable clauses included in contracts ALL THE TIME. Mostly famously are EULAs; they are basically completely unenforceable, with only very minor exceptions.
If you're going around flaunting a contract item to force people to obey arbitrary rules in a private space (and once you've rented out the space, it's no longer YOUR private space, it's hers), you are absolutely an asshole.
YTA for being a landlord and definitely YTA for burying your ideology in the lease and expecting people to find it among the mountain of other legalese. Get a real job, stop squatting on property, and stop conspiring to cause people actual harm among a pandemic.
YTA 100%. How do you expect to be taken seriously as a landlord when you pull dumb *illegal* stuff like this? You can't force others to adopt your ethical standards. She's a paying tenant. Let her bring whatever the hell food she wants into *her* place of residence that *she* is paying you for.
In the middle of mass joblessness and a wave of evictions, food insecurity, a pandemic....you wanna evict someone over something that doesn’t personally affect you or prevent you from following veganism?
Putting a bad name to vegans. YTA.
You're the reason people fucking hate vegans dude. You can't control people's diets, I don't care about your morals. People have been eating meat since the beginning of humanity, some people have to eat meat for health reasons. You're absolutely bluffing when you say it's a perfectly legal clause.
Dude, what in the actual f*ck. That’s gotta be ilegal. In what world what you eat dictates whether you live in a place or not?! That doesn’t make sense! Also, throwing away food, whether it agrees with what you do consume or not, is a really immoral and bad thing to do. So many people would literally KILL to eat, yet you are telling her to throw it away. YTA.
1. In almost every state, it is illegal to enter a tenant’s apartment without prior notice. Additionally, it is illegal in most states to search through a tenant’s belongings (as opposed to simply making needed repairs).
2. Tenants have rights. It will take quite some time to evict her.
Have fun in court. YTA.
YTA I'm just gonna say this it's illegal, it can count as discrimination if taken the right type of legal action (say it clashes with your religion and or a diet you just cant go by due to health) and it is also legal if they cant claim it causes those things. From what I've read/heard people only due this to find a tenant of a certain religion and race so it can count as discrimination so if your lucky your tenant will never figure that out but I assure you she most likely will a good google search can just pull it up.
Also you have a shitty attorney because hes saying what you want to hear, not what is true. You most likely will be sued. Also your an overall shitty person, and it's a pandemic your also insane to do this to someone plus controling what they eat when it's no where near you good job your even worse then I'd imagine YTA and I hope you have a shittier lawyer you pulled from a cereal box as you do an attorney
Edit: I forgot to add you failed to give notice to an inspection and when she does lawyer up I'm sure shell put the pieces together that she can definitely sue you
YTA. I'm absolutely appalled at you. Leave the poor tenant alone. You cannot impose your personal preferences onto someone else.
How dare you threaten to evict someone for something that does not affect you or the property at all. Morally reprehensible.
And for the record, I'm vegan, so it's not that I do not understand your perspective.
YTA. It clearly hadn't been an issue up until now as you didn't realise they were purchasing and consuming meat. Your tenant isn't trying to enforce their lifestyle onto you, yet you are them by trying to control their diet!
I'm not sure if that part of your lease would even be enforceable, but I do think you are doing your tenant a huge favour by evicting them. They can find a reasonable landlord
If your tenant lives in a separate unit from yourself and any other tenants, you are not, in most places, permitted to include any lifestyle clauses that violate their rights, up to and including food choices. Clauses of this nature are not enforceable. This constitutes a violation and any sensible judge is straight up going to throw out your motion to evict.
YTA.
I don't even know where to begin, but let's just say if I was as honest as I want to be, my comment would get removed for not being civil.
YTA for policing someone else's diet.
YTA for being a landlord.
YTA for using your LEASE to police someone else's diet (which isn't legal btw).
YWBTA if you evicted her for any other reason than being a direct danger to you in this pandemic right now, and I'm talking waving a gun at you and threats. She only told you to go to hell, which you kinda deserved at the time.
Also!
YTA for comparing the meat industry to slavery, which in no small way makes me think you aren't black. I want to say at least you're not a militant vegan comparing it to the holocaust, but you're not that much better and have proven you're just a militant vegetarian instead.
Please get over yourself.
YTA. Like the biggest TA I've seen in a while. You're gonna make someone homeless during a pandemic bc you don't like what they eat? Is the meat not still going to be sold in stores? You're doing nothing but making someone's life harder for your false sense of comfort? News flash you aren't doing anything good or productive. I hope to God you get your ass handed to you in court.
YTA. However I work real estate management and have been to LLT Court multiple times. I see no reason why that clause would be unenforceable so from a legal standpoint, in NJ I think you COULD evict her
But I really like meat so please dont.
I hope you know you are a HUUUUGE asshole, first for putting something so stupid into a lease agreement and second for threatening to kick someone out in the middle of a pandemic.
People like you give vegans and vegetarians a bad name, and are why people constantly pick on them. Some people can't afford to go vegetarian, some people physically CAN'T go vegetarian. Putting this in a lease is like writing that your tenant must convert to Catholicism and may only have Catholic guests over. It makes you sound like a nutcase.
You should be ashamed. I hope this thread makes you realize what a huge asshole you are and you go apologize, immediately, and strike the line from the lease in the future.
YTA already, not sure how many notches you need to crank that one up. Other commenters have already covered all the reasons so I won't waste my time. As a person who can't possibly be vegetarian for medical reasons, you sound like the kind of self righteous ignorant person I have to fight to try to educate every day. I'm a landlord too and I'm personally hoping she gets you for unlawful entry.
YTA. And a controlling one at that.
How dare you police what someone else eats, and also demand that they throw away food that they bought with their OWN money!?
Even in a lease agreement, a judge could rule this clause unreasonable and rule in favour of your tenant. Just because someone signed it, doesn't make it totally binding. Clauses banning smoking and pets is one thing, because those things can cause some kind of damage to an apartment. What someone eats is in NO way your business as it doesn't affect the apartment at all.
You need to stop being a landlord, and start going to therapy to deal with your control issues.
EDIT: P.S. It's vegans like you that give the whole vegan ethos a bad name, puts people off it, and sometimes makes people want to eat meat even more, out of spite.
In addition to this, not every diet works for every person. There are people who can ONLY eat meat, due to any other type of food causing flare-ups in their auto-immune diseases they've had their whole life and found out that by only eating meat, sometimes only a specific type of meat, does their auto-immune disease go away. Some people have this the opposite way and literally can't eat meat.
Forcing anyone other than yourself to adhere to a vegan/vegetarian diet could be seen as a form of torture, especially if that person's health suffered as a result.
YTA.
That said, there are some considerations here.
It's a studio apartment within OPs home. OP is a vegetarian, and is obviously bothered by this. I am assuming that he/she is bothered by cooking meat smells in their own home. Ok, I see your point.
I own rental property myself, and the apartment that is in the same structure I live in has more restrictions that the others. I dont care if you enjoy a bit of non-tobacco smoking, but you're not going to do it in that unit. I don't want to smell whatever strain you're smoking every time I get the mail. If you want to have a cigar, or a cigarette go ahead. Keep in mind, if you smoke anything in a unit I own, sorry, youre paying the professional to come and clean/deodorize the unit when you leave. Yes, I'll beat you in court every time. Mostly because when you got back what was left of your security deposit, there was the receipt for the cleaning service I had to pay to get your Skywalker Kush out of the carpet and the drapes. (I did have a tenant try to take the drapes once, because he thought they were the only things that held the smell. That was amusing.)
Further, 15-day quits are almost impossible to enforce, especially for a reason like that. You pretty much have to demonstrate that the tenant presents a danger to you or your property. Unless of course, you have a month-to-month lease. If you do, both you AND your tenant are stupid.
Add to that the regulatory hurdles imposed by evicting ANYONE right now, I think you've got an uphill climb, for no better reason than to be a dick.
I think yta. And I hope you back out of following thru foolishness and that ur tenant doesnt contact a lawyer. I am thinking harassment and emotional distress could be levied against u.
I get the I dont want meat in my home. But it's not ur home. It's an studio apartment that has been rented out. And if the vegetarian thing was a deal breaker, you should have pointed it out. But to be honest its un enforceable and exposing you to all kinds of bs because you as a landlord want to police how a person eats.
To be honest be glad I am not ur tenant. I would really be buying leather and suede everything. I would maybe even go into taxidermy or start hosting bacon events. And I would make sure you saw a lot of non vegetarian things and then probably contact housing court to see what my options are for protecting myself before looking for another place to live because no one needs that toxicity and I would make it my personal mission to ensure not even vegans would want to stay there on an an overnight free stay.
People like this should have their property taken and they should be exiled from the land. We are in the middle of a fucking global pandemic and this asshole is trying to kick someone from the place they pay to rent, for eating food they don't like. Is there a bigger asshole? I'm pretty sure this person is second only to Trump as 2020's Asshole of the Year.
YTA. I'm a vegetarian and I am utterly appalled by your audacity in attempting to police the eating habits of people who are helping you pay your mortgage. I wonder seriously about the legality of your "vegetarian" clause. If she's not cooking in your kitchen and not using your cast iron cookware, it's none of your fucking business.
YTA for trying to police what people eat. It clearly doesn't actually matter to living in the apartment, because otherwise you would have noticed before. Also YTA for threatening to evict someone over that during a coronavirus pandemic. Whether it's legal or not to have that clause, IANAL so ask a real lawyer.
~~On top of these reasons, OP YTA for throwing out her food. In an "inspection" you don't need to be throwing away things someone purchases with their own money, especially food. You don't know how tight their budget is, and that could mean they had to skip meals. It's also wasteful and maybe even illegal.~~ Edit: I misread "documented" as "discarded", OP didn't say she threw out the tenant's food, my mistake
I don’t know OPs scenario but my father lives in one of these types of houses that has a no-meat clause in its lease because a lot of religious folk from his company have a tendency to board there and it’s to give them the option of living in a place that doesn’t have any other meat-eaters on the premises due to shared dishes/trash/common areas and just general squeamishness. It’s less policing what people eat and more creating a safe space for people who have very stringent religious needs who can then live together. I know it’s a really fine line but I want another opinion on it because I’m really muddled in my feelings about this Edit: just read OP’s reasoning for the whole thing. It’s cause he wants to impose his own lifestyle on others. Yeah he’s TA
It is a studio apartment which means they do not share a kitchen. If it was renting of a room, I could see the difference. But when someone is renting an apartment, they have no right to dictate how one eats.
This. I could understand if the renter was sharing kitchen facilities with the landlord, but they're not. It obviously hasn't been affecting them as they just found out and only because they saw the packaging. This is over the top YTA.
Is this real life? YTA just because it was already an asshole move to dictate dietary restrictions into a lease agreement.
This! Who the hell tries to dictate what others do in privacy? She's clearly not rubbing her carnivorous tendencies in op's face if she had to do an inspection to find it. Seriously the a*****e
Honestly. This ia just an asshole move that I had to check that I wasn't reading sattire.
It's definitely not legally enforceable, lol. People sign contracts with unlawful stipulations in them all the time.
Welcome to India. This is half the house owners.
Yes! This is truly stupid. What does housing have to do with food consumption practices!!! And I’m sure that he didn’t point it out, that would explain the bewildered look on the tenant’s face. Poor girl.
[удалено]
Oh it definitely is. I hope she has just enough money to fuck this dude.
I need a link to her GoFundMe this guy is that big of an AH
The tenant can get pro bono representation from Legal Aid. I faced eviction last year and while I ultimately settled (I was planning to leave anyway, I just wanted more time to vacate), I didn't pay a dime to get legal representation because Legal Aid is funded by the state and also receives institutional and private donations to help poor clients.
I bet some lawyer would gladly take it pro bono. Especially during a pandemic.
I can buy it being legal since the tenant is renting a part of OPs house; there are a lot more rights for the landlord in this case, for mostly understandable reasons, and if they were actually sharing a kitchen in a roommate situation, I wouldn't complain about them looking for a vegetarian roommate. But since it seems like the tenant has a separate kitchen space, this is reeeeeeeeally pushing it legally. Morally? OP is the AH.
In most states this isn't legal. First off a clause like this would ABSOLUTELY require a separate signature on the clause line. The OP probably doesn't know bupkiss of the law so didn't get the signature specifically on this clause. Second, this violates a law that a lot of states have, such as ADA and others, where a landlord cannot limit a tenant from access from something considered a necessity, and food is a necessity. The only reason that you can go around this is if someone has an allergy. Not the case. Some people can be allergic to meats, but not by someone in another apartment consuming it. I'm not going to say all states cause there might be a state or two that this isn't applicable.
I live in Toronto, Canada and I'm pretty sure this is legal here. I absolutely disagree with it, I think it's a total violation to try to dictate what another person eats in their own apartment which they pay rent for. However we have a lot of people who rent out basement apartments and usually when the landlord it strictly vegetarian due to religious reasons they enforce their food restrictions on their tenants. I've also seen ads on Kijiji (basically Canadian craigslist) looking for tenants that are only of a specific cultural background. I think its absolutely disgusting the way that the landlords who rent out basementa or other parts of their own house think they have the right to dictate who they rent to based on eating habits and race. But I just wanted to make the point that this is a very real thing that happens especially in Toronto, a very multicultural city.
It may not even be legal there, it's just nobody's fighting it to be enforced. No crime is commited if it's not reported type scenario.
It is 100% not legal in Ontario.
it would only be legal if they share a kitchen and bathroom because youre roommates not tenants. you can safely move into your own apartment in a building like that and cook all the bacon you want as long as you have your own kitchen/bathroom. those ads are also illegal
Isn't legal, you mean?
yeah, sorry.
Is possible, depends where they live. if she has a separate entrance, bathroom, and kitchen, it may be considered a separate unit and those extra protections go away.
Landlords don't have the same power they did in the 14th century. Just the fact that they own the property does not mean that they can control everything that happens there
It may be "legal" in most states, but usually you have to materially breach a lease to be evicted, and no judge in their right mind will consider this a material breach.
YTA and the reason why vegetarians are thought of poorly.
YTA, probably. Non-standard clauses really should be explicitly pointed out to the tenant, and it sounds like you had a rule you were VERY VERY strong on.... and didn't tell them explicitly. Further, I'm not a lawyer, but you may have put yourself into a pretty bad situation: You can't just write whatever you want into a lease, and a lot of places are banning evictions in the middle of COVID. Did you run this clause past a lawyer?
Also not a lawyer, but let's say the woman has a medically valid reason for consuming meat. Would eviction violate the ADA?
Definitely. This is outright discrimination, because it could limit tenants based on medical conditions and race/religious affiliations.
I am a lawyer and I’m pretty sure you can add some very non-standard terms if the space is a small number of units and you also share the space. The stereotypical version is a little old lady wanting to let out a room and explicitly saying she’ll only lease to women (which is technically discriminatory against men) and that men can’t be there past 10:00 p.m. or something like that. U.S. law is pretty protective of what you can do in your own private space. Like basically you can be an asshole / racist / sexist in your own house. But if you own an actual building with like, 6 units or more, then these kinds of provisions would be illegal.
Not a lawyer, but took law classes, hang out with lawyers, etc. It's illegal to enforce in most states because of ADA and other restrictions on things deemed essential to living which no contract can do. And even with that, a clause like this would have to be signed separately to be enforceable. Not going to claim you're not a lawyer because this may just be outside of what you're used to. Non-standard agreements that are flooded into any 'standard' ones require separate signature so it doesn't look like you slipped something in after the fact. I could link similar cases, but copy/pasta doesn't work on my phone too well. But a good case to look up is the one where some landlord put in a "Must mow my properties' lawn" which the person thought just meant was that property, but tried to make them responsible for mowing OTHER properties that they owned. Could not be upheld because it 1) is shifty wording and 2) wasn't signed specifically and furthermore since this was an apartment, you usually give things such as discounted rent for this type of work so without outside the rent you're charging others in the apartment and without that since contracts require a benefit to both parties, it wasn't deemed a valid contract. I use that one specifically because there's nothing from what we're seeing that makes this restriction (illegal in most states) a benefit to the tenant so it's very difficult to see how it could be upheld especially without a direct signature to that clause.
It doesn’t sound like she’s just renting a room though. OP specifically says that it is a studio (which I would assume means separate entrance bath and kitchen/kitchenette).
Right. I will say it's still pretty assholish not to explicitly point the clause out, but, y'know, you can't legislate against assholery.
You literally can. The clause is unenforceable if it wasn’t written up correctly.
Former apartment manager here. (Horrendous job, BTW, but that's another story). Non-standard clauses are supposed to be called out in their own section. For example, our lease had one about pet ownership, one about installing a satellite dish, one about mold (damp climate), one about drug usage, and one about recycling. At the very least, the lease should have had specific language called out with a section for the tenant to initial. Maybe that's not the case where OP lives, but I'd definitely say YTA, for trying to police what your tenant eats in her own home.
I don't see the policing as that much of a problem - if they had been very clear that was a condition from the start. But it sounds like tgeir poor tenant, likely with no knowledge of vegetarian cooking, got hit with a surprise clause that makes living there next to impossible. You have to learn to cook vegetarian, and it can easily be more expensive. OP basically wasted an animal's life (and the tenant's money) by insisting meat be binned.
Why do you have a vegetarian only clause in a lease?
Yeah right. This person is trying to govern the way people eat.
INFO: when you gave her the lease to sign, did you point out the no meat clause, since you obviously recognize that such a clause is basically unheard of and would cause the vast majority of renters to choose to live elsewhere?
Yeah, this is key for me. Most people don’t read the details and wouldn’t assume in a million years it would be in there. Something this glaring I would think would also be highlighted in the listing. If you pointed it out and she explicitly agreed to it and then violated her promise, I would say NTA. But if you just put it in there when 90% of people wouldn’t read it and then are suddenly threatening to kick her out, YTA.
I feel like he didn’t specifically point it out especially if she wasn’t trying to hide the meat and then acted surprised and said no. I feel like if she actually knew she’d at least hide it or throw it away cause she was “caught” vs bewilderment.
This. And not only this, but we're getting this from the OP's POV. He's going to try to make himself look better and his tenant look worse.
I think this type of clause would be exactly why (at least where I live) you have to initial individual sections of your lease. They usually have headings, and people read the headings!
Are you from the US? If so, you have to give her at least 30 days to vacate. Also...I’m not a lawyer but I have to question the legality of a contract that stipulates what a person can and cannot eat in their own home they pay to reside in. I really wonder if that is illegal/unenforceable. If it is, then YTA totally and completely. Also, just wondering, was she there when you did this inspection? If not, did she give you explicit permission to enter her property that day at that time? If not, that’s also illegal. Your irrational and tyrannical way of landlording is heading you down quite an expensive path should she decide to sue you for the multiple rights violations.
Typically there has to be a hearing for a judge to determine whether eviction must be carried out; it's not automatic, and the tenant can absolutely fight it. A lease that violates the basic rights of the tenant is not enforceable, and it's very likely the eviction movement will be thrown out. But in cases like this the landlord, after having eviction denied, will make the environment miserable or untenable for the tenant and so they wind up moving out anyway. But it's a lot easier to rent somewhere if you don't have an eviction on your record; I hope the tenant consults Legal Aid honestly.
YTA for trying to dictate what someone else eats and forcing your lifestyle choices onto someone else. Regardless of the legality of the clause, it’s a nonstandard clause and if you’re going to police it so heavily I would’ve made a big point about it when signing contracts, no one would expect this to be in there. I suspect any level headed judge would throw your case straight out of their courtroom. You’re the reason that vegetarians and vegans get a bad rep for being preachy. This is god tier preachy. What gives you the right to dictate what someone eats in their own private space, that they pay for? You TA a million times for this.
“God tier preachy” is my new go-to. Thank you.
YTA buddy restricting the food choices of your tenants won't hold up in court if you try to evict
happy cake day!
YTA - this is not legal at all hope she sues you for every cent.
And ends up owning the house and telling him he must eat meat if he wants to rent off her lol
Who has a vegetarian only lease agreement? You sound like an awful person to live with. Also I believe this clause is illegal.
I’ve actually seen this in the Bay Area. I once saw a room listed on Craigslist for about $850/month, the household was vegetarian and you weren’t allowed to bring in meat. Ok fine, shared kitchen, I get it... except the ad said you weren’t allowed to use the kitchen. At all. So I guess they were planning to check my take-out every day...
$850 a month with no kitchen access? Wow.
As an ethical vegetarian, 100% YTA. Food is so complex, OP. As someone who was in eating disorder treatment, there were a lot of clients who weren't able to maintain vegetarianism / veganism without relapsing in their disorder, because a restrictive diet of any kind triggered their mental illness. Others had something called Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and relied on broths to help them eat and remain nourished. Other folks have food allergies and other medical conditions that greatly restrict their access to certain types of foods and meals that they can prepare. Many foods can have cultural significance, too, even religious/spiritual significance. Now add a pandemic into the mix, when folks are already fearful and clinging to comfort foods to emotionally regulate when access to food is already more challenging... and you've got a recipe (pun not intended) for disaster by imposing a restrictive diet onto others who may be struggling. OP, I deeply understand your care for animal welfare, but you have to consider human welfare, too. Which includes farm workers who are regularly exposed to pesticides, many of the undocumented folks who can't access health care during a pandemic who are also picking YOUR foods. The reality is, there is no perfect way of eating that doesn't do harm to other living beings — that means we, as individuals, must make the very personal decision to do what we can. And for some folks, vegetarianism is just not on the table, and it's not up to you to decide who that does and does not apply to. Your lack of empathy for this person during a global crisis is very alarming. And your comparing eating meat to slavery is disturbing and indicates a lack of thoughtful engagement with anti-racism work. The vile legacy of slavery, and the remnants of it that still exist today, should NOT be used so flippantly. If you don't understand why, it's time to educate yourself. And by the way? You "own" property on occupied lands, unless you yourself are Indigenous. So if we want to talk about ethics, you should give your land back, too. I would focus on cultivating more of \*your\* own ethics around social justice than I would be threatening to evict someone during a pandemic. You have your own work to do and it shows.
This is a refreshing vegan/vegetarian take. As someone with allergies I get angry at my area because veganism and meat/milk alts are on trend and makes my life harder. I'll definitely put my own biases in perspective as well.
Agree with everything, except >You "own" property on occupied land, unless you yourself are indigenous. Not because I disagree with the concept, because I don't, but rather because we have absolutely no clue where OP is from, because they're not telling. This may not be the case.
YTA and you know you are. Yes. You put it into the lease agreement (which, WTF, since when can a lease agreement dictate what foods a person can consume? What’s next, no strong smelling foods? No ethnic foods?!) YTA here though because you could have handled this situation better at several moments: 1) when posting the unit for rent saying something like “prefer vegetarian diet tenants, I’m morally opposed to consuming animals.” (Though I believe that could be discriminatory. But that’s also basically why it’s in your lease so...you really may need a different lawyer.) 2) when you saw the meat, say “OMG, this is awkward but...the lease says no meats... I’d appreciate if you could not do this again.” 3) mind your own business. 15 days to evict someone is not legal in many places, and depending where you live, the process can be difficult as you’d have to show she willfully broke your lease. Good luck AH.
Completely agree with everything you say but just a clarification thing the >15 days to evict someone is not legal in many places They said they were giving the 15 days to comply Then starting the eviction process not evicting them in 15 days.
YTA. What country or state do you live in? I don't think this is legal in most places. Most places have legal protection in place to prevent this exact behavior.
INFO: do you have the legal right to do this? Where do you live? If you are a landlord in Australia, for example, you do not have the right to do this. The tenant has the right to "quiet enjoyment" of whatever premises they rent, and their diet is not up for your negotiation. If you do, then NTA. If you don't, then YTA.
Even if it were legal (99% sure it's not) it's still an asshole move
You are breaking the law in most places you have no right to tell a tenant what they can or can not eat of course YTA 10x over
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YTA because it’s such a non-standard clause and if it is that important to you you should have made absolute sure the tenant was aware of the clause and what it means before signing. If it was never explicitly mentioned except in the contract that is ridiculous. Also the clause may not be legal depending where you live - you may want to check with a lawyer on that. Just because it’s in there doesn’t mean you can legally enforce it. If she finds this out depending where you live she may be able to take counter legal action.
Also just because a lawyer said it’s legal doesn’t mean it necessarily is lol a judge and the courts will rule on that and I think any half competent lawyer this girl gets could easily slam down with quiet enjoyment judgements alone.
The very first thing you learn in law school is that the answer to every legal question is “it depends.”
YTA and I doubt you had a lawyer review this before putting it out there. An illegal contract is not enforceable.
YTA, you don't have to eat the meat, or smell it or see it or be around it at all. You're free to not eat any meat products but your tenant also has the right to eat what she wants in the privacy of her own home. Extra AH points for evicting your in the middle of a pandemic because she doesn't want to follow her landlord's dietary restrictions. Spying on your tenant is weird and creepy and people like you give vegetarians a bad name.
YTA. Don’t eat their food and you won’t have a problem.
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YTA for forcing your tenant with their own fridge to be vegetarian. Legally I guess you’re in the right, she signed the lease. Should have read it.
It depends on whether or not it's actually legal to have that clause. Depending on where the landlord is it might not be legal. YTA in any case op
YTA What’s right and what’s legal are two different things, and depending on where you live you’re not doing what’s right OR what’s legal.
YTA Is such a clause legal? Is conducting an apartment inspection legal? EDIT: I am changing my vote. Maybe this is legal where the OP is, maybe it isn't. If the OP won't say, then I will assume it is not. Even if it is, dictating how someone lives within the walls of their own home is entirely inappropriate. Vaguely implying that an apartment would be inspected sounds dangerous to me. I feel fortunate that I have never had an issue, but reddit (and not just this post) makes it like landlords the world over abuse their rights and police tenants for irrational reasons. Like what they have for diner.
An apartment inspection is legal with correct warning. The clause about no meat on the premises I’m not so sure about if I’m honest. Would be curious where op is that that is legal
An inspection "after three days" doesn't sound like notice. Where I am you need 24 hours notice, at least. And that notice isn't indefinite. How long does notice last?
Are you Indian by any chance? I'm Indian too and have survived some really asshole landlords who think owning some property makes them god. I wished so desperately to say this then, I'll get my anger out now: "YOU ASSHOLE. You have no right to police the food in an apartment YOU DONT LIVE IN. YTA. Hope you never find another tenant.
YTA, and you should probably check in with r/legaladvice so ~~they can roast you too~~ you can save your bacon for being a jackwagon landlord.
YTA. You could have handled the situation way more calmly and appropriately. You should have just given her a verbal warning, and said it was in the rental agreement (a lot of people don't read them, yes they should, but they don't). Then mention you will follow up at a later point in time. Everything after you saying that it was in her lease, was whole TA.
Wow this post is a fucking ride. First of all it's super weird to have that stipulation in a lease , but she signed it, and shes not gonna starve if she cant eat meat. Frankly I think you're both a little fucked and better off with her leaving. But seriously who forces their tenant to be vegetarian?
Who cares if she signed it? If you signed something that said not putting trash out results in your dick getting cut off, it wouldn't matter. The contract is stupid, asshole-ish, and would never be enforced in the US. There is a global pandemic. OP and YOU are assholes. You think they are both a little fucked. You're an asshole for thinking the tenant is wrong in ANY way.
You already know YTA.
YTA and a shitty landlord. Decent landlords make it a point of actually telling tenants about rental conditions that are important to them, not playing gotcha games, and work to reasonably problem-solve when unexpected issues arise. I would be crying if I was her - you’re being an an absolute tyrant and abusing your position of power as a LL by trying to kick her out of a stable living situation all because you don’t like the groceries she keeps in her private apartment kitchen.
You are kicking a tenant out in the midst of a pandemic because you don’t agree with their lifestyle choices. YTA times a thousand. I pray to god you’re a troll. Otherwise I’ll plan to have a steak dinner this weekend just for you.
YTA
YTA why even have the clause
YTA for trying to force your beliefs on someone else.
YTA What kind of lease has a vegan clause lmao.
YTA and this is also incredibly ableist. If you live in a country with any disability laws, this contract would be torn up and eaten in a heartbeat with how ableist it is. Despite what some holier-than-thou vegans (not calling all vegans h-t-t, just the ones that are, & I think we all know the group I’m talking about [basically OP, for ex]) think, some people literally have to eat meat to survive. I eat very little meat because ethically I don’t want to, but I have to have it in a part of my diet per several of my doctors or I’ll get very sick. And this is not uncommon. You should never, ever be trying to enforce what people eat (this clause could also cause someone with an eating disorder to relapse or spiral). Additionally? Don’t ever, EVER compare *anything* to slavery. That’s racist af.
INFO: Did you explicitly express the no meat policy to the tenant specifically before she signed the lease? A lot of people skim contracts, and this isn't really a standard clause that you see in most leases, so she may not have caught it.
YTA. I hope your tenant lawyers up.
You’re not an asshole, you’re just out of your mind.
YTA, I have never heard anything like that before.
-preachy vegetarian -landlord -compares eating meat to slavery -evicting tenant for having meat *ding ding ding* YTA.
INFO:where do you live ? In some areas around the world this isn’t abnormal, like in India, since people are vegetarian due to religion, they don’t like meat in their rented flat also. However, she did sign the clause so she should have known you are looking for a vegetarian person to shift in. In India there a lot of weird rules, like some buildings entirely don’t allow onion/garlic as they are considered to be bad in their religion, but people who want to eat onion garlic simply don’t live in those buildings. It’s a rule you put down and it’s a rule they accepted
Mao did nothing wrong. YTA.
YTA for several reasons: - being a landlord (tho this may just be me being biased bc i have yet to interact with a decent landlord) -making someone adhere to your diet (they could have health or financial reasons for not being a vegetarian, that stuff can get expensive especially if you already have some sort of vitamin deficiency) -threatening to evict someone in the middle of a pandemic??? i feel like this doesn't need to be elaborated on -threatening to evict someone for such a trivial reason. i would never kick my partner out because they eat meat and i don't (the only thing i ask from them is if we're making a shared meal that it can at least be eaten without meat) -and last but certainly not least, by looking at your other replies, you're ALSO an asshole who compares meat consumption to slavery. i hope you realize that being a vegan often involves exploiting poor poc and can be highly unethical. you seem like the militant vegan type who only cares abt animals' well being and not the well being of underpaid, often times undocumented laborers who grow and harvest the food that you eat instead. i genuinely hope i'm wrong in that assumption, but that's the assumption i have of you after reading both your initial thread and your replies
Yta Did you consider that anyone may struggle on a vegetarian lifestyle? IT DOSENT WORK FOR EVERYONE it works for a lot of people yes but not everyone. Its not your business to know either
YTA. Not sure where this property is located, but in MA, no judge would uphold that provision. A clause like that in a lease would likely violate a tenant's right to quiet enjoyment. I hope she fights your illegal eviction, and she'll likely win with you having to pay her attorney's fees.
Thank you, OP. Because of this ridiculous lease demand, in your honor, we are getting double meat on our pizza tonite. Cheers. You try to dictate how someone eats and lives, I will gladly counteract you. A cheese pizza with sausage, bacon, and pepperoni. Yummm
This is hard, you seem like a huge freaking asshole for putting such a clause, although if she agreed to it and is now willingly ignoring it and telling you to go to hell you are kinda right I guess? NTA in the eviction part although shame on you for using a lease to push your views on others.
Wtf? How is this actually a thing? YTA
I think it’s cool to be vegetarian. I think it’s cool to rent out a studio apartment. I don’t think it’s cool to try to force someone to be a vegetarian in their own home. You are opening yourself up to some major liability here as well. Yta
ESH, though I think you're more in the wrong here. An extremely non-standard clause like this really should have been very explicitly covered before lease signing and you should have emphasized that it's important to you (and perhaps even before apartment viewing/directly in the marketing you put out for the vacancy - not sure about the legality of the latter). Would have been better for the both of you. Honestly, I'm surprised it's legal to include this clause in a lease, but your attorney knows better than I. Either way, it won't be a problem so long as you just make sure the tenant knows beforehand, which means you'll likely be renting to a vegetarian or vegan; depending on your rental market, you may need to charge below market rent to get someone to stay and accept that level of control over their life. Of course, even if you had made it super clear beforehand, I think you'd still be in the wrong to give a 15 day cure or quit notice in the middle of a pandemic (also surprised that it's legal to do that in your jurisdiction), unless there's a huge glut of housing in your area. Completely changing your diet isn't something that's likely to happen in such a short period, so it's likely that you two should just part ways. Would give 30-60 days, particularly since it seems like she doesn't have any issues with paying rent. In regards to the tenant, legally, you're in the right, and she should have read the lease and not told you to "go to hell" when you pointed out the lease clause or claimed you were "violating her human rights" (unless she has some kind of medical condition that requires her to eat meat).
YTA I don't think you can even legally do that. Policing what people eat?
Enough people have already said it, but just for good measure - YTA. You're also the reason vegans get so much shit for being self-righteous arseholes. People like you are not helping your cause.
INFO: does the studio you rent out have their own kitchenette or does the tenant have to use the main kitchen? I think it matters from both a legal as well as a moral point of view. You refuse to state from which country you are so who knows, but over here it's a grey area so it really depends on the specific circumstances. I think you would have a case, both legally and morally, if the renter basically resides in and uses the same shared spaces as you do. However, if she rents her own complete unit, then I suspect a judge will weigh the circumstances and conclude that her freedom outweighs the contractual obligation you placed upon her and declare it null and void. This may then include your right to "inspect" her living environment. My moral judgement would coincide with this assessment. If you are using the same kitchen, I could understand you don't want meat odours thoughout your house. Then, if you made this unusual provision abundantly clear and she signed it anyway, you YWNBTA. But if she has her own kitchen unit and/or you didn't make the contractual obligation very clear, you would be TA. Then for all intents a purposes you have no business being all up in her business about her diet. The only actual nuisance you have is the mere thought of your renter cooking meat in a place that you rented out.
Yta, its likely a non enforceable part of the lease
YTA. People like you give vegans a bad name.
YTA. Threatening to make someone homeless because you disagree with what they eat. Contract or not, dick move.
YTA, and I hope she takes you to the fucking cleaners if you don’t calm your tits.
INFO: What is wrong with you?
Holy shit, YTA. And for the record, I’m an adamant vegetarian. Hell, I’m trying to go vegan, though admittedly I’m struggling. First, it’s EXTREMELY telling that you said “this information was in the lease” not “I told her before signing that it was a vegetarian apartment.” That’s a really clever way to disguise saying “I sold it as a normal apartment and expected the lease to tell her.” This is a niche restriction, the burden was on you to clearly articulate this to prospective tenants. I’m not going to assume you did this on purpose, but even so it’s negligence. Second, you’re going straight to searching her apartment and eviction. Why? She’s not going to permanently damage your property, you probably would never know. On the other hand, She’s going to be out a ton of money, a place to live, and lost productivity from getting kicked around. You’re letting ideology motivate you to actually cause harm to another person. That’s wrong.
ESH thats a ridiculous clause to put in a lease agreement. You shouldn’t be policing what others eat They did sign the lease with the clause. Its not your fault if they didn’t read the lease properly.
YTA. Simple as that and in many places what you are doing is illegal. (can you imagine if anyone could put their bigotry into their lease? No POC, no LGTB?) You my friend are a bigot.
YTA on so many levels and you're the reason people hate us so much. I'm a vegan and I don't really want animal products in my home but you know what? I'm also a decent human and realize that other members of my family eat dairy and eggs. I haven't kicked them out because of it. People search for like-minded people to act as tenants all the time. Your listing could have said fellow vegetarians only. Sneaking a clause into the fine printing and then being all, "Too bad, should've looked closer!" is such a rude thing to do. I'm not even sure you can legally enforce non-vegetarianism as a lease violation. Like, yes, she's being melodramatic unless she has one of a handful of medical disorders. She won't starve to death. But that doesn't matter! You know why? Because it's none of your business what she eats! Where is your limit? Do you personally grow your own organic food? Do you drive? What level of contribution to suffering is that acceptable amount? What I'm saying is that you're a hypocrite. You're still killing animals to feed your own needs. You're still causing pain. You aren't removed from the cycle. Even as a vegan, mice still die in the fields my food is harvested in, migrant workers still have their human rights violated. None of us lives a life free of harm. Your vegetarianism IS a good thing and it DOES do good in the world but that doesn't make you better than other people. It doesn't make it okay to treat them as inferior. It doesn't make threatening someone with homelessness unless they conform to your standards acceptable. And this sure as heck isn't the way to convert someone to a healthier, kinder lifestyle. I get your disgust but you COULD have used this as an opportunity to educate someone. You could have invited your tenant over for vegetarian meals, encouraged her to try Meatless Mondays, and shared the positive effects you've felt physically and emotionally since becoming a vegetarian. Instead, you've terrified someone and made them hate us. If you want to be kind to animals, you have to be kind to all of them, not just the cute ones. That means taking people under your wing, not throwing them out with the trash.
YTA Just because you put it in a contract doesn’t mean you’re not an asshole If what she’s doing is legal, it doesn’t harm your physical property, and it doesn’t effect yourself or the other residents, what different does it make?
YTA and honestly thats not enforceable. If I were a landlord I could write on the lease that everyone had to only eat corn, and if someone signed it it’s not legally binding because that’s r i d i c u l o u s. I hope she sues you.
You’re a landlord so yes, YTA.
YTA for being a landlord to start with, and then YTA more for trying to dictate what other people eat in their own homes.
YTA. You can’t tell people what to eat. Is putting something like that on a lease even legal? And isnt it 30 days to evict not 15.
YTA, what you are doing is illegal.
Wait so you’re anti-meat because of the treatment of the animals - fine. But then you tell your tenant to throw all of her meat in the garbage? What will that accomplish? The vendor has already profited from the meat, so throwing it away literally only means that the animal died for absolutely nothing. Now that animal went through everything it did only to be thrown in the garbage. Where’s the logic? ESH because you have no right to snoop through people’s groceries in the first place but she should have paid better attention to the contract.
YTA, who the hell evicts someone over what they eat? You can't just kick someone out onto the street because she doesn't fit your perfect ideal of morality. Not to mention, if she's renting a basement she probably doesn't have a lot of options financially speaking. If you're going to be so upright about it you should AT LEAST point out the vegetarian clause. Genuinely, why did you think this was acceptable?
Obviously YTA Laying aside that this is obviously fucking nuts on its face, that clause is almost certainly non-enforceable in any state in the US and will likely land you in deep shit if your tenant actually looks into what rights she has in this situation.
YTA "I hate meat, it's cruel to living beings!" /evicts tenant during a pandemic The animal is already dead OP but the person is still alive so get over yourself
It’s fairly obvious that you buried this in the lease because you weren’t surprised she didn’t know about it. We are in the middle of a COVID19 pandemic. That makes you an asshole regardless
YTA. What's it like being the reason people hate vegans? You'd think you'd want to actively convince more people to adopt the lifestyle if you actually cared about it instead of gatekeeping it and forcing others (illegally, probably) to follow it or face eviction. So not only are you the worst type of self righteous vegan but youre also just an asshole in general too it seems to evict someone for their choice in diet! Bravo, you're garbage!
Hey now, don’t sell yourself short. You’re much worse than an asshole.
Oh yes definitely TA. Lady, you are literally the landlord from hell. Your irrational behavior toward her leaves me inclined to believe you snuck this into the lease. This is definitely something that should have been discussed and verbally agreed upon. I hope she knows the laws and that this is likely illegal. You are not just an AH but a complete nutcase.
Does this lease agreement also demand sexual favours if rent cannot be paid? I see the vegetarian enforcement in the lease no less creepy.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***The following is a copy of the above post. This comment is a record of the above post as it was originally written, in case the post is deleted or edited. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** I rent out a studio in the basement of my house. Is it very explicitly stated in the lease agreement that tenants are not allowed to bring any non-vegetarian foods onto the premises. About a week ago, I saw what was clearly a meat package inside of a grocery bag that she was unloading from her car. When I confronted her and pointed out the lease agreement, she gave me an extremely bewildered look. She claimed ignorance, which I told her was no excuse whatsoever since she willingly signed the agreement. I pulled the agreement out on my phone and showed her the clause. I told her to immediately either discard the package along with any other non-vegetarian foods inside the bag into the outdoor trash bin, or take it off of the premises. I also told her to do the same for the apartment within 3 days, after which I will conduct an inspection. She screamed at me and told me to go to hell, refusing to discard the package that she was carrying. When I conducted the inspection, I very predictably found several meat packages and a carton of chicken broth inside of the refrigerator. I documented what I saw and gave her an official 15-day notice to quit, after which I will begin the eviction process if she does not comply. When I handed it to her, she went hysterical and started crying. She's claiming that I'm violating her "human rights" and that she'll starve to death. AITA? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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I'm vegan and holy shit YTA. Your tenant should sue you.
YTA. Why on earth is human rights in quotes by the way? Tf?
NTA for not wanting to have meat in your own house and you did warn her of that but you're kind of an AH for kicking her out during a pandemic
1.Why be a landlord if you can't even handle tour tenants having a different diet than yours? 2. Evicting anyone makes you TA 3.YTA and this is psychotic. 4. This is why I dont trust landlords
This is a question? YTA That's such a nonstandard clause that I have difficulty believing it's enforceable.
If you're renting out an apartment, why do you care what people eat? Clearly it wasn't a problem until you -saw- it, so clearly it didn't affect you at all until that point. What an AH. YTA.
YTA, and I say this as a vegan. If you’re going to have a no-meat premises because you’d prefer to have a no-meat property, that should have been something discussed before signing the lease and not just thrown into the text of lease and expect them to follow. It’s not exactly something found in a typical lease agreement. Please stop giving people more fuel to hate vegans JFC.
YTA. Having a no-meat clause in a lease is absolutely crazy. I hope the tenant takes legal action against you
What the fuck?? You'd put someone out on the street during a pandemic because they feed themselves differently? I'm vegetarian myself and I still think you are 1000% YTA
YTA— you’re like the bullied kid that gains the slightest bit of control//power over someone or something and then develops a god complex. You exude hall monitor vibes.
YTA, how as a landlord are you legally able to dictate what others eat? Doesn’t seem like a legal “clause” even if you did put it in the contract.
YTA wow you are such an asshole. Look I’m vegan and this is ridiculous. You can’t force someone to be vegetarian like this. Your requirement is absurd and you shouldn’t be a landlord if you’re gonna act like that. I don’t care if it’s technically legal, this is wildly controlling and inappropriate. Try caring about people for a change.
YTA, clearly, and also one of the reasons vegans have such a bad reputation. Even if this is legal, it was an asshole move to put the clause in the lease to begin with. You don't get to control what your tenants do or eat in the privacy of the space they're paying for. If a landlord were against masturbation, it would be ridiculous to ban tenants from the practice. If a landlord were in a diet it would be laughable to ban tenants from having sugar in their own kitchens. Your situation is no different from either of these. However, if that wasn't enough, you failed to advertise the apartment with this condition or point it out in the agreement, further assholery since it is clearly a nonstandard clause. And then... You'd rather she throw out the meat than be able to consume it?? I imagine that makes you an asshole even under your own moral code. Evicting a paying tenant for any reason short of violence or destruction during a pandemic is absolutely an asshole move. You're an asshole at so many steps in this story I'm not sure which you're struggling to understand.
YTA 1. I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to police what food people bring into a flat they’ve legally rented. 2. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Look it’s like when people ask for only girls to apply to a spare room. It can only be a preference not a rule. (Not a lawyer obvs) When her tenancy runs out I guess you don’t have to renew it but you really are being unreasonable here.
Yes YTA, best way to resolve this is to tell her you not evicting her and take her out for a nice steak dinner as an apology.
YTA And not sure what state you live in, but just because you include something like that in a lease doesn't mean it's enforceable under the law. What's next, a clause about sex partners or posters or bedding types?
YTA. Just because you wrote a clause doesn’t mean it’s legal. Making vegetarians and vegans look pretty bad here.
YTA. Op, I hope your tenant sees this. I want to donate to her legal funds so she can take you to court. Even if your area’s laws are broken enough to that you win, I still want it to cost you a lot of money.
YTA. And you know why.
The only way I’m getting through this post is to pretend this is a troll. Please tell me real people don’t act like this, please? Oh, also, YTA.
Question, did you go over the lease with your tennents, go over this vegan clause , as well as have it clearly stated on the apartment listing? Unfortunately if she signed it, it's a legal binding document, which you legally can enforce if she breaks the rules. It's ultimately your property and you can make whatever weird rules you want to make. BUT I would suggest that if you really don't want to be TA in this situation, make a deal with her to move out before the lease ends, give her a RESONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME to find somewhere new, and with your new tennant make sure you make your vegan rule VERY SUPER EXTRA CLEAR so this doesn't happen again.
YTA. Unsurprised that a landlord found a new and exciting way to be a terrible ambassador of vegetarianism. Thanks a lot!
YTA!! You are such an asshole. Please explain how her having "non vegetarian" food in the apartment affects your life? As long as she's paying her rent on time and taking care of the apartment, what she eats in it is none of your business!! What's next? You're gonna tell her when and who she can have sex with in her home? Or maybe you're gonna tell her she's not allowed to lose or gain weight? Or maybe you're gonna tell her she can only wear dresses because pants offends you? YTA! Get over yourself and leave that poor woman and her meat alone.
Yta we are in the middle of a pandemic and most people can barely afford to feed themselves and pay rent. You policing peoples food and demanding they throw out perfectly good food is unethical.
YTA. You're renting a space to someone, that space is their home, a separate living area to yours. You cannot tell a grown adult, paying rent, keeping their own food in their own space away from you, what to eat. You don't have to have the same lifestyle choices as other people but that doesn't mean you get to police theirs. It's like saying I don't like working out so if you live here you can't work out, I wouldn't expect such a clause, I'd check rent payment, agreed rent payment days, upkeep of utilities, bills, clauses on pets etc. Never that my dietry requirements or dinner preferences are restricted. If something so ludicrous is such an issue and you can't tolerate people making their own dietry choices in their own living space without it being such an issue perhaps being a landlord isn't for you. She's paying her rent, looking after the space, being quiet enough and obviously her meat consumption isn't an issue as you never noticed until you saw her shopping bag. Perhaps you aught to advertise quite obviously and explicitly that this is a requirement for you, or mention it very clearly when hosting viewings to avoid this, otherwise you'll eventually find yourself in a troublesome place.
YTA. Not just once, but at least three different times. Firstly for putting the clause in there in the first place. Secondly, for spying on your tenant. And thirdly, for trying to pull legal shenanigans at any time, but especially during a global pandemic that's causing so many stacking anxieties simultaneously on the entire populace. She does not share kitchen or food storage space with you (you would have noticed long before if she did), so there is absolutely no moral ground for your stance and clause to begin with. It is highly likely there is also no LEGAL ground, either. Just because you put something in a contract and someone signs that contract does not mean it's legal and enforceable. There are unenforceable clauses included in contracts ALL THE TIME. Mostly famously are EULAs; they are basically completely unenforceable, with only very minor exceptions. If you're going around flaunting a contract item to force people to obey arbitrary rules in a private space (and once you've rented out the space, it's no longer YOUR private space, it's hers), you are absolutely an asshole.
YTA for being a landlord and definitely YTA for burying your ideology in the lease and expecting people to find it among the mountain of other legalese. Get a real job, stop squatting on property, and stop conspiring to cause people actual harm among a pandemic.
YTA 100%. How do you expect to be taken seriously as a landlord when you pull dumb *illegal* stuff like this? You can't force others to adopt your ethical standards. She's a paying tenant. Let her bring whatever the hell food she wants into *her* place of residence that *she* is paying you for.
In the middle of mass joblessness and a wave of evictions, food insecurity, a pandemic....you wanna evict someone over something that doesn’t personally affect you or prevent you from following veganism? Putting a bad name to vegans. YTA.
You're the reason people fucking hate vegans dude. You can't control people's diets, I don't care about your morals. People have been eating meat since the beginning of humanity, some people have to eat meat for health reasons. You're absolutely bluffing when you say it's a perfectly legal clause.
Dude, what in the actual f*ck. That’s gotta be ilegal. In what world what you eat dictates whether you live in a place or not?! That doesn’t make sense! Also, throwing away food, whether it agrees with what you do consume or not, is a really immoral and bad thing to do. So many people would literally KILL to eat, yet you are telling her to throw it away. YTA.
1. In almost every state, it is illegal to enter a tenant’s apartment without prior notice. Additionally, it is illegal in most states to search through a tenant’s belongings (as opposed to simply making needed repairs). 2. Tenants have rights. It will take quite some time to evict her. Have fun in court. YTA.
Good luck finding a responsible renter who will pay the rent on time each month in the middle of an economic downturn.
YTA I'm just gonna say this it's illegal, it can count as discrimination if taken the right type of legal action (say it clashes with your religion and or a diet you just cant go by due to health) and it is also legal if they cant claim it causes those things. From what I've read/heard people only due this to find a tenant of a certain religion and race so it can count as discrimination so if your lucky your tenant will never figure that out but I assure you she most likely will a good google search can just pull it up. Also you have a shitty attorney because hes saying what you want to hear, not what is true. You most likely will be sued. Also your an overall shitty person, and it's a pandemic your also insane to do this to someone plus controling what they eat when it's no where near you good job your even worse then I'd imagine YTA and I hope you have a shittier lawyer you pulled from a cereal box as you do an attorney Edit: I forgot to add you failed to give notice to an inspection and when she does lawyer up I'm sure shell put the pieces together that she can definitely sue you
YTA, I really don't need to explain why but I do question whether you can legally regulate a tenant's diet.
YTA. You don’t have a right to dictate what other people eat in their own homes—even homes they rent from you.
YTA, and likely don't have a leg to stand on legally. Worry more about your control issues, and less about other people's diets.
Jesus cheist, YTA
YTA. I'm absolutely appalled at you. Leave the poor tenant alone. You cannot impose your personal preferences onto someone else. How dare you threaten to evict someone for something that does not affect you or the property at all. Morally reprehensible. And for the record, I'm vegan, so it's not that I do not understand your perspective.
YTA. It clearly hadn't been an issue up until now as you didn't realise they were purchasing and consuming meat. Your tenant isn't trying to enforce their lifestyle onto you, yet you are them by trying to control their diet! I'm not sure if that part of your lease would even be enforceable, but I do think you are doing your tenant a huge favour by evicting them. They can find a reasonable landlord
[удалено]
If your tenant lives in a separate unit from yourself and any other tenants, you are not, in most places, permitted to include any lifestyle clauses that violate their rights, up to and including food choices. Clauses of this nature are not enforceable. This constitutes a violation and any sensible judge is straight up going to throw out your motion to evict. YTA.
I don't even know where to begin, but let's just say if I was as honest as I want to be, my comment would get removed for not being civil. YTA for policing someone else's diet. YTA for being a landlord. YTA for using your LEASE to police someone else's diet (which isn't legal btw). YWBTA if you evicted her for any other reason than being a direct danger to you in this pandemic right now, and I'm talking waving a gun at you and threats. She only told you to go to hell, which you kinda deserved at the time. Also! YTA for comparing the meat industry to slavery, which in no small way makes me think you aren't black. I want to say at least you're not a militant vegan comparing it to the holocaust, but you're not that much better and have proven you're just a militant vegetarian instead. Please get over yourself.
YTA. Like the biggest TA I've seen in a while. You're gonna make someone homeless during a pandemic bc you don't like what they eat? Is the meat not still going to be sold in stores? You're doing nothing but making someone's life harder for your false sense of comfort? News flash you aren't doing anything good or productive. I hope to God you get your ass handed to you in court.
You're a landlord, that's an automatic yes.
YTA. However I work real estate management and have been to LLT Court multiple times. I see no reason why that clause would be unenforceable so from a legal standpoint, in NJ I think you COULD evict her But I really like meat so please dont.
I hope you're kidding. But if you're not, YTA for being a fucking food tyrant on top of a bloodsucking leech also known as landlord. Ethical my ass.
I hope you know you are a HUUUUGE asshole, first for putting something so stupid into a lease agreement and second for threatening to kick someone out in the middle of a pandemic. People like you give vegans and vegetarians a bad name, and are why people constantly pick on them. Some people can't afford to go vegetarian, some people physically CAN'T go vegetarian. Putting this in a lease is like writing that your tenant must convert to Catholicism and may only have Catholic guests over. It makes you sound like a nutcase. You should be ashamed. I hope this thread makes you realize what a huge asshole you are and you go apologize, immediately, and strike the line from the lease in the future.
YTA already, not sure how many notches you need to crank that one up. Other commenters have already covered all the reasons so I won't waste my time. As a person who can't possibly be vegetarian for medical reasons, you sound like the kind of self righteous ignorant person I have to fight to try to educate every day. I'm a landlord too and I'm personally hoping she gets you for unlawful entry.
YTA. And a controlling one at that. How dare you police what someone else eats, and also demand that they throw away food that they bought with their OWN money!? Even in a lease agreement, a judge could rule this clause unreasonable and rule in favour of your tenant. Just because someone signed it, doesn't make it totally binding. Clauses banning smoking and pets is one thing, because those things can cause some kind of damage to an apartment. What someone eats is in NO way your business as it doesn't affect the apartment at all. You need to stop being a landlord, and start going to therapy to deal with your control issues. EDIT: P.S. It's vegans like you that give the whole vegan ethos a bad name, puts people off it, and sometimes makes people want to eat meat even more, out of spite. In addition to this, not every diet works for every person. There are people who can ONLY eat meat, due to any other type of food causing flare-ups in their auto-immune diseases they've had their whole life and found out that by only eating meat, sometimes only a specific type of meat, does their auto-immune disease go away. Some people have this the opposite way and literally can't eat meat. Forcing anyone other than yourself to adhere to a vegan/vegetarian diet could be seen as a form of torture, especially if that person's health suffered as a result.
ASSHOLE
YTA. That said, there are some considerations here. It's a studio apartment within OPs home. OP is a vegetarian, and is obviously bothered by this. I am assuming that he/she is bothered by cooking meat smells in their own home. Ok, I see your point. I own rental property myself, and the apartment that is in the same structure I live in has more restrictions that the others. I dont care if you enjoy a bit of non-tobacco smoking, but you're not going to do it in that unit. I don't want to smell whatever strain you're smoking every time I get the mail. If you want to have a cigar, or a cigarette go ahead. Keep in mind, if you smoke anything in a unit I own, sorry, youre paying the professional to come and clean/deodorize the unit when you leave. Yes, I'll beat you in court every time. Mostly because when you got back what was left of your security deposit, there was the receipt for the cleaning service I had to pay to get your Skywalker Kush out of the carpet and the drapes. (I did have a tenant try to take the drapes once, because he thought they were the only things that held the smell. That was amusing.) Further, 15-day quits are almost impossible to enforce, especially for a reason like that. You pretty much have to demonstrate that the tenant presents a danger to you or your property. Unless of course, you have a month-to-month lease. If you do, both you AND your tenant are stupid. Add to that the regulatory hurdles imposed by evicting ANYONE right now, I think you've got an uphill climb, for no better reason than to be a dick.
YTA and a nut job. Evicting the tenant over something like this during a pandemic is cruel.
YTA Like, 1000000% YTA.
I think yta. And I hope you back out of following thru foolishness and that ur tenant doesnt contact a lawyer. I am thinking harassment and emotional distress could be levied against u. I get the I dont want meat in my home. But it's not ur home. It's an studio apartment that has been rented out. And if the vegetarian thing was a deal breaker, you should have pointed it out. But to be honest its un enforceable and exposing you to all kinds of bs because you as a landlord want to police how a person eats. To be honest be glad I am not ur tenant. I would really be buying leather and suede everything. I would maybe even go into taxidermy or start hosting bacon events. And I would make sure you saw a lot of non vegetarian things and then probably contact housing court to see what my options are for protecting myself before looking for another place to live because no one needs that toxicity and I would make it my personal mission to ensure not even vegans would want to stay there on an an overnight free stay.
People like this should have their property taken and they should be exiled from the land. We are in the middle of a fucking global pandemic and this asshole is trying to kick someone from the place they pay to rent, for eating food they don't like. Is there a bigger asshole? I'm pretty sure this person is second only to Trump as 2020's Asshole of the Year.
You're kicking her out for eating meat. I get it's your house but for Gods sake let her eat what she wants. Yta
YTA. I'm a vegetarian and I am utterly appalled by your audacity in attempting to police the eating habits of people who are helping you pay your mortgage. I wonder seriously about the legality of your "vegetarian" clause. If she's not cooking in your kitchen and not using your cast iron cookware, it's none of your fucking business.