Letting Agent Inspection

[purpleme12]

What are these actually supposed to be for? Legally what are they checking?

OP I completely get where you're coming from. It's a person coming into your home and criticising how you behave in there when how you live is not dangerous, illegal or in breach of your tenancy agreement. A person who moreover is funded by you and you are also funding the person authorising them to visit. But they hold all the cards.

I really hated it when the anti-book agent used to come round; it made me feel stressed, unhappy and defensive.

I think it's a combination of things: young single people tend not to have any understanding of what a household with a family that includes young children looks like; the more noise they make and the more inspections they do the more they can charge the landlord (this one is pretty crucial imo because it's how they earn their money) and also as I said just general twattery. Think about the kind of person you'd have to be to make a living from inspecting private tenants' homes. If you were at all skilled/a decent type you'd be doing something else.

Thank you

someone upthread mentioned (correctly) that clutter can be a problem. But as the only remedy a landlord has is eviction ( and even that is under threat, section 8s are easily evaded) there's not a lot to be done. One person's clutter is another's stuff - we don't all live the same.

As a landlord I ask for rent paid, no drug dealing or taking, no upset neighbours and property not destroyed. Ideally I'd like to know if there is anything not working so I can fix it. I don't do inspections or get the agent to do them.

some really fuckitted comments on this thread but that's the MN playground for you.

You don't have a choice about 'letting' inspectors in, op; it's not your property

Of course you have a choice, and can refuse them.

That said, the LL (or agent acting for them) can also decide they don't want a tenant who refuses inspections.

My parents let out a flat in Chelsea and the agents never did any checking. When the tenants left there was dog wee up all the curtains (they were not supposed to have pets), trash everywhere and several broken fixtures.
So, the point of an inspection is to see if the tenant is adhering to the agreed terms of the lease. I'm sure it doesn't say anything in yours about the degree of clutter allowed. Some people, (in all walks of life) seem to have a need to spread negativity around. We've all experienced grumpy salespeople, harried waiters, rude doctors. It has nothing to do with you.
If you are compliant with the lease you have nothing to worry about. The guy was either having a bad day or just being a pain in the arse.

Thank you
I have come to realise so much is reliant on that individual you are dealing with and whether they are nice or not. And if they are so inclined they can almost abuse that power really cos they do have power when you're renting don't they

I've not been one of those people who longs to own a house before but this is the first time it's really crossed my mind about wanting to own a home

A friend who is a letting agent discovered a flat in a naice part of town had been transformed into a brothel complete with sectioned off ‘rooms’ to get as many girls as they could into the space. The tenant sensibly didn’t question it when asked to move on. I’m not sure what they expected when they agreed to let the agent do her checks