Landlord access to show house before we vacate

[FrankieFox]

I live in London with my DH and 3 children ages 8, 6 and 3. For the past 7 years we’ve been renting a house but we are moving back to our home village soon. We are required to give our landlord 60 days’ notice and the lease states that he can show the property “with reasonable notice.” Obviously this was written before the pandemic. Can our landlord still bring people into our home as often as he likes as long as he tells us in advance? We are both working from home due to Covid, mine is PT and flexible but DH is on zoom calls all day and often into the evening.

A large part of why we are moving is to buy a larger home and access more paid and family help. I have a chronic condition and we just about manage but our house is too small and strangely laid out and very cluttered. We have a great cleaner twice a week but she just makes piles and hours after she leaves it is a tip again.

We are reasonable people and we know our LL will want to find new tenants but how can we make this work?

The tenant has the right to possession and to the lawful use and enjoyment of the premises, therefore you can refuse and they can show people around once you have vacated.

You can just say no and he has to respect that.

Legally you do it have to let anyone on for viewings. His contract does not trump the law

This is a contractual term that does not interfere with your tenant's rights to exclusive possession and quiet enjoyment so you can deny the viewings if you wish.

This clause is normally in the contract so the LL can go to court for financial loss as a result of not being able to market the house because viewings have been denied.

Whether the LL would do this and whether the court would agree - especially in "covid times" when virtual viewings have been made possible- who knows?

*DON'T have to not do 🤦🏼‍♀️

Oh thank you! Is this true even though the lease says LL can access with reasonable notice? I assumed that was for maintenance reasons or something like a gas inspection but my DH thinks it means they can show the house.

Dont feel pressure to change how you live and stress about the state of the house before viewings - you have 3 Kids and you're both working.

Potential buyers will see past all the clutter and understand the situation.

He can also wait until you've vacated

You can also specify a certain time only for viewings etc between 2-5pm Saturday afternoons every 2 weeks

Is this true even though the lease says LL can access with reasonable notice?

That's in every lease and its absolute nonsense, they cannot and never have been allowed to enter without your express permission.
Just say no, and continue to do so.

No I think your reading is right - the landlord can access with reasonable notice, it doesn't say anything about facilitating viewings. And yes, at the moment I think things are very different.

I can’t imagine anyone would want to rent this house the way it looks right now anyway. We moved in when we had one baby and we only planned to stay for a year or two. The house isn’t really designed for a family of five and certainly not meant to be a nursery, home school and office all at once!

Contract can’t override the law. He’s never been able to come in for viewings, even before Covid!

What a relief! Thank you all so much. If pressed we would be willing to do something like what @13579db suggests but we’d rather not even do that if we don’t have to. Our LL is reasonable enough but very cheap snd he has given us trouble a few times about small things. He lived in the house with his family for many years and I don’t even think he has a mortgage. And if he does ’m sure it is a fraction of the £4400 pcm we pay in rent!

Is that a typo? 4400 a month?

I agree with the suggested time idea.

@newnortherner111

I agree with the suggested time idea.

Why? Not doing it is a far better option for OP.

When this happened to my son and his partner I wrote a letter on their behalf to the letting agent refusing all viewings until they had vacated the house.

They made a copy of the letter, laminated it and stuck it on the front door as an extra warning in case anyone from the agency called round when they were out.