The facts of a communal living arrangement may be that of a home sufficient to give a person standing in a common area. The court has to look to the realities of the living arrangement. United States v. Werra, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68790 (D. Minn. September 11, 2008):<\/p>\n
The parties have not identified, and I have not found, any reported decisions that have, with sustained reasoning, expressly examined the distinction between traditional family homes and multi-unit apartment buildings. Determining whether a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in an area or an item is, of course, a fact-specific inquiry. Before turning to the details of 63 Menlo Street, however, it may be useful to identify several illustrative factors for analyzing whether a residence is more akin to a traditional home or a multi-unit apartment building.<\/p>\n
The most important factor is whether or not the building contains recognizably separate living units. Distinct, complete living spaces indicate that the dwelling is more like an apartment building because each tenant’s functional home is not shared by others in the building. While each tenant would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her personal living space within that kind of building, that expectation would not extend to common areas shared with other tenants. By contrast, if the building did not contain compartmentalized living spaces, the residents would effectively be living together in a single, shared unit. This might occur, for example, where all tenants shared essential parts of the living space, such as bathrooms and kitchens. In that circumstance, each tenant would presumably have a reasonable expectation of privacy throughout the entire interior of the building.<\/p>\n
A related factor is the legal right of a resident to exclude others from certain parts of the building. See United States v. Anderson<\/em>, 154 F.3d 1225, 1232 n.3 (10th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1159 (1999) (“The right to exclude others is an important consideration in determining whether an individual has [a reasonable expectation of privacy].”). The presence or absence of locks may be a factor in making this determination, because it could be a manifestation of a resident’s belief that he had the right to exclude others from a particular part of a building. However, the presence or absence of locks is not a dispositive factor. It is, for example, conceivable that an apartment building could contain five distinct units and no locks, because the tenants of each unit were friends or the building was located in a safe area. In that situation each tenant would still presumably have the legal right to exclude others from the unit he or she personally occupied.<\/p>\n
The number of people living in a building can also be relevant in categorizing the building. For example, if 30 people lived in a large building, then it most likely would be characterized as a multi-unit apartment building. But if three people lived in the same building, it could be either a multi-unit apartment building or a home, depending on how the space was divided and what rights each individual had with respect to that space.<\/p>\n
I also note that the formal legal relationship among the residents of a building is not necessarily determinative in classifying the residence as either a traditional home or a multi-unit apartment building. For example, if two people living together as a couple each had access to all spaces in the dwelling, then it would be considered a traditional home, whether or not they were legally married. See, e.g., United States v. Paradis<\/em>, 351 F.3d at 27 (holding that the apartment of defendant’s girlfriend was his “home” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here, the defendant did not satisfy the court’s requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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