Maintenance

Can maintenance crews go into your apartment without anyone present and without 24 hour notice for check-ups?

Did you request repairs? If you did, that was permission for them to enter to make the repair. If no repair request was made then see the next paragraph.

This also depends on your state. Some states have no statute on LL entry or any requirements for prior notice to that entry. (It is a myth that all LLs must give 24 hours notice prior to entering.) Actually, only about 1/2 the states have this law. At least 12 others must give notice other than 24 hours (such as 12 hours, 48 hours, reasonable notice, or other terms). What state are you in and I can tell you the statute.

I am in California, but they said they just might stop by, and they didn't say anything about repairs just a check up again because I wanted them to check the vents because a smell is coming out of it. They said nothing was wrong with the vents. Then when they stopped by with no one present, they said they needed to patch up some cracks because that might have something to do with the smell. When the problem had to do with the vents, however, they also said nothing was wrong with the vent in the first place.

You reported a problem with the vents and told them there was an unusual odor. Maintenance told you they would stop by. You could have emphasized at that time that you wanted to be present, but didn't. Since you requested that they investigate this smell, and since the odor could have been an emergency (gas leak or some other toxic or dangerous condition), they were correct in checking this out. Had this been a gas leak, it would have been an emergency and would not have required your permission to enter. Since they had no way of knowing if it was an emergency or not without checking it, they were correct to enter after you reported the problem. Bottom line, you asked them to fix the problem. They didn't see one at first, but later found what could be the cause and came to fix it.

In future, request that you be present when they enter to do repairs.