WIBU to complain about this letting agent?

[coffeeandrainbows]

I recently gave notice to my landlord that I would be leaving my rental at the end of the month. He found a letting agent to market and show the property and they have been through twice in the last two weeks (once for an initial valuation and once for a showing) which the letting agent arranged with my landlord who then checked with me (and dh) to make sure we were ok with the time. All good so far and our landlord has been really good throughout the tenancy so we do want to help him find new tenants.

However, I came home yesterday morning after doing the school run to find our front door wide open and the letting agent in our house with prospective tenants! I asked him what he was doing in my house and he said that he had tried to contact the landlord but couldn’t get in touch with him as he was overseas. So he just decided to come in anyways!

I was furious and it felt like such a violation of our privacy. I can’t even imagine how I would have felt if I had been home and in the shower or something when the agent walked in.

I told him to leave right away which he did after a quick ‘sorry but I couldn’t reach the landlord’. I sent an email to my landlord right away and he did reply saying he is overseas but had left my contact details with the agent and strict instructions to contact me to arrange access. The landlord has said he’s had strong words with the agent to let him know it was not ok and my dh thinks we should just leave it at that.

I feel like I want to complain to the manager about this agent as I think it should be more serious than that. I felt like the agent was apologising for scaring me rather than entering my home without permission.

I genuinely don’t know if it’s better to just leave it knowing the agent probably won’t do that again (at least to us) or if I should take it a bit further and complain to his manager? MN what would you do? And if you feel like complaining is the right thing to do should I do a formal written complaint or just call the manager with my ‘concerns’?

Not to dripfeed - we are not in the UK but have similar tenant rights

I would definitely complain!! And leave markers out to see if they go back there another time without permission.

We have a small alarm system and we usually don’t use but it will definitely be activated (with loud siren and video recording) whenever I leave the house for the next few weeks! It’s just such a pain to feel like I need to do that now though. I seriously doubt the agent would be stupid enough to enter the house again but I think I should complain so he realises just how wrong and serious what he did was and ensure he doesn’t do it to anyone else. Dh however is of the view that since it won’t happen to us and with the alarm we can ensure that then it’s best to just leave it.

Oh my god that's awful I would be fuming!

You've no reason to help the LL find new tenants, it's not your problem. I'd put money on your LL telling the letting agent it was ok to let himself in though. I'd be bloody furious

Just refuse access to view after this. Tell ll why so he gets another agent. Yabu.

I would complain in writing to the letting agency and say that future access will be refused for this particular person as he clearly has no respect for the law and what he has done is illegal. I'd also be inclined to change the barrel of the lock so their keys no longer work. Usually I'd say refuse any future viewings but perhaps not in this particular case as your LL sounds like a decent sort and it will inconvenience him through no fault of his own.

Yes, refuse any future access for viewings. You aren't obliged to allow them in, and they don't deserve it after taking the piss like this.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. The more I think about it, the more I want to go ahead and complain. Should it be a formal complaint in writing or just a a call to the manager to discuss the situation?

Our landlord has been really good through our tenancy and I would like to help him find new tenants if possible. I have no issue allowing access as long as we have notice and have agreed. We are leaving in just over two weeks anyways so unlikely to be too many more viewings.

Unfortunately this may a difference in tenant rights as here we can’t refuse ‘reasonable requests’ for access to show the property but we can stipulate it is only allowed on a certain day/time each week. Rentals here go very quickly so there’s a good chance that it will already be rented out now and this won’t even be an issue (another reason why dh thinks we should just leave it).

I’ll defuse our alarm system from now on though to prevent any more unauthorised access.

Definitely use*

the crappy ''sorry you were scared'' instead of ''sorry i entered your home without your permission'' would really annoy me

Yes! I think that’s what has made me so furious. I think he either doesn’t care or doesn’t know that he’s breaking the law and either way should be called out for it

In what jurisdiction are you?

You should complain, his manager needs to know he was out of order. I've had similar before. Our old LL was selling and I'd asked that viewing were to be done during the morning only on weekdays and I'd want 24hr notice. I tend to dash out of the house in the morning and tidy once home from work so one afternoon so needed the notice to make sure house looked presentable. One afternoon the agent couldn't get hold of me and had a 'pushy' potential buyer that wanted to see the house asap. I was picking up youngest child from primary school and my oldest child was just in y7. She arrived home from school and agent and buyer were sat in the car. He then told my 11 year old he wanted to show woman around and could he go in. My daughter was put in a terrible position and didn't know what to do so she let him do a viewing. I was furious when I got back, one that there had been no warning, two that the house was a shit tip and most importantly, three that he had bullied a young girl into letting him in when he knew she was too young to make that decision.

I let rip at the manager of the agency, and also told the landlord as I was so shocked over it.

Why are renters treated with such utter disrespect by EA? I've seen several similar posts on here by tenants with similar stories. I'm sure if you, or I were the vendor they wouldn't even consider pulling a stunt like that. Because if they did we'd walk and go elsewhere but as a tenant we aren't the customer so any behaviour is fair game!

Id be very interested to know which jurisdiction you are in. (ROI?)

Here, there must be a mutual agreement with both parties and can be less than no 24 hours notice.

A 'reasonable request' does not negate your rights as a tenant.

We are in NZ and it seems like there is no real definition of ‘reasonable request’ but everything I’ve read seems to suggest it would be in writing and 24 hrs notice so we could have refused that particular showing. And we would have! Like you holidayz I was rushing out of the house that morning and didn’t tidy at all so it was a shit tip, which can’t be what either the agent or the landlord want to show. It felt like such a violation as we are moving (obviously) so all the clothes, underwear, private documents, everything is just kind of out at the moment but we packed it all away for the previous viewings.

That is absolutely horrible that the agent bullied a child into allowing access and I’m so glad you complained.

I feel like many renters here do not have the legal knowledge and ability to stand up for themselves in our area (lots of immigrants) as well as having to deal with English as a second language so they are very vulnerable to being taken advantage of by agents. I wonder if this agent does this often but was just unlucky enough to do it to me and I have the ability/privilege to complain and be taken seriously. It can be a really powerless situation as a tenant leaving a property.

The Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (NZ) applies and specifically s 48 which clearly states permission must be sought. Here is the link www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/DLM95504.html

Yes you should make a formal complaint. Hope that helps.

Thanks Jonbb

Do you think that section 3 means that we need to give consent each time?

^
(3)
With the prior consent of the tenant, the landlord may enter the premises at any reasonable time for the purpose of showing the premises—
(a)
to prospective tenants;

(d)
to a real estate agent engaged in appraising, evaluating, or selling or otherwise disposing of the premises; or
(3A)
For the purposes of subsection (3), the tenant—
(a)
may not withhold his or her consent unreasonably; and
(b)
may make the consent subject to any reasonable conditions.^

I did end up sending a complaint to the manager and requesting that going forward all requests for showing be done in writing and with 24hrs notice. I got back a pretty light email again saying ‘sorry for the upset’ but not actually admitting that anything was done illegally (perhaps to cover themselves or maybe waiting to find out more from the agent himself). They did say it won’t happen again so I feel like that’s probably all I’m going to get and I can just hope he doesn’t do this again to us or anyone else.

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

I feel you're overreacting. You've told him you're not happy and not to do it again; now get on with your life. If he goes against your wishes a second time, I'd say that's the point where you should go nuclear.

You're leaving, your LL has engaged an agent to find new people, nobody could reach you... Shit happens.

Fair enough, but we are still paying the full rent and it is still our home so the LL and any agent can’t just enter without consent, even if we are unreachable. We like our LL and have been working with him and the agent to find new tenants but this crossed a line. I’ve since had an apology directly from the agent for illegally entering our property without permission so I think it’s pretty clear that he was wrong. I replied thank you for the apology and that I’m happy to work with him in future for any upcoming showings so everyone’s moving on and happy with the resolution.

That’s outrageous! Complain like hell to your landlord.