To wish I had said no to this house inspection.

[lollilou]

We have been given notice to quit from our lovely rented home. It belongs to the church and they want it back for a new vicar.
My agent has rung and asked if I will allow some church members to visit tomorrow to see what repairs/redecoration will need to be done after we move.
I felt put on the spot and said yes but now I'm not feeling happy about it. We still have six weeks so we have not packed a thing so they won't be able to see everything behind our furniture, pictures ect,the windows need a wash which we will do before we move, there is a spot of hairdye in the bathroom that I will sort out and many more little bits and bobs.
They have already been in once to show the new vicar his new home.
I just feel fed up we haven't found another place either and my stress levels are rising!
AIBU to ring the agents and say actually no they can wait till we've moved out?

[staffie99]

But you see my last tenant took the piss, so no longer will I do anything other than the bare minimum I'm legally required to do.

Perhaps the tenants took the piss because they had a shite landlord in the past, or did that irony pass you by?



Anyway OP just to clarify, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ALLOW ANYONE ACCESS TO YOUR HOME - your landlord gives up right of access in exchange for rent. If it's not convenient for you then just say no. If they harass you you can take it to the police.

There are a lot of misinformed people on this thread saying the landlord has right of access with 24 hours notice (what, even if you are on holiday?), that's bollocks, it doesn't matter if it's in your contract, your typical AST is full of unenforceable crap which is reflective of the collection of amateurs and get-rich-quick clowns who jumped on the buy-to-let bandwagon in recent times, and the lack of government regulation of private rentals.

[LadyBryan]

They didn't staffie99 - they were a friend who we did a favour for (all above board, all legal documentation in place). They left owing us £4000 unpaid rent (by the time we had them thrown out by bailiffs) and the property wrecked. No irony at all.

I am of the mindset that a great tenant-landlord relationship should be one of mutual respect. That includes allowing reasonable access when required.

[SelectAUserName]

"Horrible tenants"? For saying "yes", having a moment of regret and then going ahead with the inspection anyway despite the intrusion of privacy and disruption to her day?

If that's your definition of "horrible", littlewhitebag , you need to get out more.

[LRDYaDumayuIThink]

Oh, bless you.

[LRDYaDumayuIThink]

You really must read up on the basics of tenancy law before you have tenants again.

Perhaps you will learn that your immense sense of self importance is not totally justified? You see - I know it's a shock - we don't have a serf system any more!

It's almost like ... sorry, this will be upsetting ... you're actually renting out a house.

[lollilou]

We are not "horrible tenants" I can't believe that you would write that, you got that from my posts really? Please explain, because that has upset me.

[LadyBryan]

LRDY you've made my afternoon. So funny

[LRDYaDumayuIThink]

lol, honestly, you're totally normal, don't let it get to you.

To put it in context, I was in my last rental place for nearly five years and the owners wanted us to stay. I think I accepted a visit scheduled within the same week all of twice - the other times (and there were lots) I was simply busy. It is totally normal. I had no evidence the letting agents who worked for the LL, or the LL themselves, minded at all. When we moved out the LL scheduled visits around what worked for us. We actually got a reference from them for our new place saying what helpful tenants we were as we were always prepared to reschedule.

The idea that is is somehow unusual and rude to feel you actually can't make a meeting, or to cancel one meeting out of many, is really peculiar.

[LRDYaDumayuIThink]

Oh, you finally realized the 'my bad' was a joke? Well, better late than never!