to limit estate agent viewing to specific times?

[anice]

because DH thinks I am unreasonable, the landlord says I am not (but DH says that he is only saying that) and the estate agents think its outrageous! So, which is it?

We are moving out of rented house. There is no written contract - just the unwritten rolling one month one that came along after the written one expired last year. The written contract said give two month's notice, the law says we only have to give one month but we gave two anyway as gesture of goodwill to the landlord.

However I have asked the landlord if viewings could be limited to set times each week (3 X 1 hour slots - a mid-morning, an mid-afternoon and a Saturday lunchtime slot).

The landlord is saying ok, DH is saying that what I have suggested is unreasonable and this morning I got a call from an estate agent demanding access tomorrow and not accepting "its inconvenient" as a reason for refusal. He wanted to know exactly what I will be doing at that time that makes it inconvenient (although he felt I was asking too much personal detail of him when I asked for his surname!).

So, whose side would you be on?

I had some tenants who either wouldn't let the EA in to show prospective tenants/buyers (we had it up for sale and rent at the same time) outside of highly prescriptive times like this.

In the end we had to wait and market the property when they'd moved out. Funnily enough, we needed to provide a reference for their next rental, and we didn't provide a good one. They were furious with us about that, as the houses they wanted to rent all fell through when the owners heard about what they'd done to us.

I've been a tenant too, and I fully understand that EA can be a pain. By all means turn them away when they are standing at the door unannounced, no reputable landlord would expect you to allow 24/7 access.

But what I felt was reasonable form my tenants, was 72 hours notice from the EA, to bunch appointments together wherever possible, and for them to provide times & dates when they were not able to provide access.

Of course viewings should always be minimum 24 hours notice, but it is a two-way relationship!

YANBU, whenever I've rented in the past the landlord has waited until I have moved out before showing people around. I think you're being very reasonable letting them show the house at all, there's nothing in it for you. Obviously it's the kind thing to do but you shouldn't feel obliged and the agent needs to realise you're doing them a favour.

interesting post for me as i too have just given 2 mths notice on rented property - i work shifts, have 2 kids at home + 2 sc every other weekend and unfortunately am not a stepford wife so the house isnt often spick n span so i too am hoping to give set times for prospective viewers to come round.

do the agent have to come round with the viewer??? when we looked at the house it was the previous tenant and she just left us to get on with it - wish to dog i hadnt moved in here it has been a nightmare with repairs am i allowed to tell prospective tennants of the problems ive had??? not to be arsey towards LL but had someone told me what i was letting myself in for this time last year i wouldnt have touched it with a barge pole!

sorry anice for hijacking your thread - no YANBU when youve got kids and work and everything else you cant be on call for 2 whole months for people to drop in!!!

"YABVU - do actually not want your landlord to be able to let the house? If it's empty for a bit that will cost him/her lots of money, their income."

Why should OP care about that?

I would say if the landlord is OK, then keep it as it is.

If your husband is so concerned, perhaps he can arrange to be available?

If the timings don´t work out, perhaps you can be more flexible?

I think we are all used to be in a customer-orientated society and some of the people on here who have said I am a PITA etc are forgetting that I am not a shop keeper or a service provider. They think I should stand aside and let the consumer rule.

except if we were talking about a car that I had hired and the rental company wanted to keep borrowing it back to show to people who might want to rent it when my rental period was over, then every single last person would say they are being very unreasonable. Why is it so different for a house? I paid for this month and next so why shouldn't I have the use of it?

Its up to the landlord to make the offer of the discounted rent. I strongly suspect he will not as he's more than a bit tight (see the list of repairs that he has got away with for months and I expect will continue to try to get away with unless the new tenant spots them and makes it a condition of the deal...

Maybe I should offer to be ultra flexible.. come any time, with only enough notice to have a tidy round... but in return the estate agent can give me a share of their commission if they make a sale??? I wish I had suggested that to the agent who called me yesterday: it might have shut him up!

Well even as a SAHM selling my own house I didn´t want anyone coming at just any time.

you are right diddl, i don't want to do it even if paid. I was just saying that to make the point that there is something in it for everyone else involved - prospective tenant, agent, landlord, but not for me

I like your rental car analogy.

"there is something in it for everyone else involved - prospective tenant, agent, landlord, but not for me"

Of course! This is actually a good reason to NOT give extra notice. It sends the wrong signal, as though you are not considering your own interests in the situation.

This sounds as though I am saying you are stupid and you deserve what you are getting, but that isn't the case; I sympathise with your situation and think the EA should go and boil his head (or should offer to share commission - you see, you are not stupid at all; that is genius!). However, there is now an extended period of conflict of interest, which is a situation worth avoiding in future.

i think, in life generally, things work both ways.

we've given notice on our rental, the LL/Letting Agent are being very flexible regarding our moving out date, willing to let us stay a couple of extra weeks because there has been a delay with our purchase, and perhaps they wouldn't have been so accommodating if we hadn't been about viewings

the way we see it is that our LL and letting agent have always been very good, fixing things quickly, and not giving us any hassle, so why would we make life difficult for them?

karma innit?

Mumswang - in that case the letting agent must be feeling that what goes around comes around because no sooner had we given our notice in, when they served an eviction notice on us without the landlord's knowledge or consent. They said it is "standard procedure - just a formaility". So we definitely couldn't stay an extra couple of weeks even if we wanted to.

PS The relationship with the landlord has always been good or at least civil with no complaints on either side.

Diddl - you replied to my comment of "YABVU - do actually not want your landlord to be able to let the house? If it's empty for a bit that will cost him/her lots of money, their income."

with 'Why should OP care about that?'. Seriously? She should care because it is just better, more decent if you try to help other people and yes, what goes around comes around. It's just not necessary and doesn't help anyone if you antagonistic for the sake of it.

And anice 'what's in it for me?' er, the knowledge that you doing the right thing and not causing somebody else a load of stress and lost income.

Goodness there are some idiotic opinions on this thread. The landlord has already accepted the OP's suggested viewing times - its the EA who have an unreasonable attitude and a lot of you are echoing that.

Yes, I was being serious when I put that.

OP offered some times, LL is ok with it-that should be the end of it.

Once bitten twice shy. We were really flexible with respect to viewings, even letting the estate agent have a key and do viewings whilst on holiday. Didn't stop them trying to keep all of our deposit (unsuccessfully) and they had the cheek to demand we do certain things before viewings.

But that's the problem with amateur landlords, if you can't afford void periods you can't afford to be a landlord.

qwepoi - I would argue that the right thing is to leave your tenant in peace and not to put them in the position where they have to deal with your letting agent and open their homes for viewings.

You write as if everyone has a right to take my money and then not deliver the service I am paying for and that for me to object is bad form on my part. I honestly don't get your attitude.

I fail to see that the op is being antagonistic just for the sake of it. Keeping a house tidy and having people viewing is stressful, I don't see why the op should suffer the stress so the landlord doesn't have to.

how would you feel if I made an appointment through an agent to come and look around inside your home tomorrow, knowing that if I do, then someone else may be lucky and profit from it? if yes, then give me your address, i'll make an appointment and I give a donation to the charity of your choice.

I'm not so fussed about tidiness, yes i wouldn't leave my pants on the bathroom floor, but it's not like i'm trying to sell the place, i don't feel the need to make a massive effort to 'present' the place as i would if i were. it's genereally fairly clean and tidy, they're not coming to judge my housekeeping skills. actually saying that we've got boxes everywhere at present, but i can't see that that is a biggie.

likewise why would you need to be there for viewings? our letting agent does them while we're out at work, it barely effects us at all (except i do have to pick up my pants from the bathroom floor )

moving is stressful, you've said the children are struggling with it, i just think that you're causing yourself extra angst that could be avoided

i wish you all the best for the move and hope it goes well

YANBU to want to restrict the timing of viewings, but your 3 slots are very restrictive.

Tell the EA that they need to give you 24 hours notice ideally, but you need to give them slots of time that do not interfere with your school run etc and you need to say Saturday morning/afternoon (which ever suits you better)

Eg You need 10-12 then 1-3 plus 10 till 4 on a Saturday but with 24 hours notice. See how that goes, but don't forget some people need to see properties after work, so perhaps a night a week where you will consider appointments.

Ultimately you don't need to allow a soul to enter your home if you don't want to, but you are the one that is moving out.

Mumswang - thanks. I run a business from home so that's why i am here a lot. but I am out a lot too because I am looking for a new house and (nightmare) a new school. Plus we are downsizing so I will soon be having a major clearout and getting rid of about 1/3rd of our furniture, arranging storage for the rest etc.
on top of that I've got to arrange for this place to be thoroughly cleaned in the hope that I will get my deposit back.
I really have my hands full. Dh is away for the next three months so I am doing this alone.

I just don't need the hassle but the call yesterday really upset me which is why I posted but now I have to get back on with things because I thought I would have at least found a school by now.

Do people know that it is virtually impossible to move to a new area and get places in a new school? I have been amazingly flexible, but I am beginning to think i will have to look in another county!

Once you hand in your notice, to everyone's eyes it stops being your home and starts being a property that needs filling FAST. While they do need to consider your feelings, you do need to play ball.

I work in inventories, business is down this year. Many landlords are selling up, because they are not making any money, many tenants are staying put.