AIBU to kick off about number of tenancy viewings?

[BBrush]

I live in a rented apartment in London and we are about to move. Ever since I gave notice, we've been inundated with people coming to view the property. The landlord is being greedy with the asking price and as a result, despite it being a lovely flat, nobody has taken it! Does anyone know if I'm within my rights to decline any further viewings? There have been 18 so far. We move out in 2 weeks and have a friend over from Australia next week - I really don't want to have to think about people coming in to the flat. I'm on mat leave with a 10 month old and cleaning the flat constantly is kind of a buzz kill. I did say to myself that I wouldn't bother, but my house pride gets the better of me and I reason with myself that it's better to get the flat presentable so someone takes it ASAP.

You are within your rights to refuse as you are entitled to quiet enjoyment of the property. You can either be amicable and allow only viewings on a specific day or you can say you are not able to allow any further viewings, either is fine

you are legally entitled to quiet enjoyment of the flat so regardless of what tenancy agreement says you can say no to more viewings

they also can not let themselves into flat unless an emergency even with notice 24/48 hours or whatever

if you are renting it is not your problem whether landlord has a new tenant or not

I had the same with a letting agent when I was 30 weeks pregnant. I sent a stern email and asked them to allocate slots, one hour in the week and one on the weekend, and give viewers 10min each. It worked

Wow that’s so selfish of you, the landlord needs to fill the vacancy since you are leaving, it is not your house so they do have a right to have viewings as long as they give you adequate notice. Check your lease for the finer details. Try and see their point of view it may be stressful for them the thought of having a vacant property. I’m sure I’m in the minority and the rest of the comments will enable you further into thinking you’re not being selfish or unreasonable.

Yes you can and I wish I had when we were in a rented property

You don’t have to accommodate any viewings. You have been very good about the viewings to date but I tend to find the more nice and flexible I am the more some people will take the piss. If you don’t want to say “no more viewings” then offer block viewings to suit your timetable and not theirs.

it is not your house so they do have a right to have viewings as long as they give you adequate notice

This just isn't true.

@Witchinaditch paying rent and council tax means OP is temporarily the ‘owner’.
Landlords should price in downtime between tenants, maintenance etc

witchinaditch you need to look up a tenants rights. They can refuse viewings no matter what the tenancy says. The right to quiet enjoyment trumps all of it. The landlord just wants to avoid a void period which is tough. They happen when you let a property.

It is nice if a tenant let's them do viewings, they do not have a right to it though. While they are in the property it is the tenants home.

Witchinaditch it may not be ops house but she has presumably paid rent for the period in which case it is legally her home, and she is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of it without facilitating strangers viewing the space

@Witchinaditch you ok hun? 🧐 op is hardly selfish if there has been 18 viewings already. Seems quite clear the landlord is over pitching it.

Definitely refuse anymore viewings you’ve got enough going on.

Do as suggested and tell the agents what day and time is convenient for you.

Try and see their point of view it may be stressful for them the thought of having a vacant property.

Have you ever tried to rent a flat in London? Even the shit holes are rented out bloody quickly as long as the rent being asked is reasonable.

If there’s been 18 viewings, the owner either needs to reduce the price or make repairs etc once OP has moved out.

The owner is the selfish one and he’s lucky OP has been so accommodating - most tenants would not be.

Just say no we have two properties we rent out and have never asked a tenant to allow viewings. We like to do a proper inspection, clean and repair so prefer an empty property.

You can decline the viewings. And do so! Also I'd keep my key in the lock whilst there in case they try to enter or change the lock barrels so they cannot let themselves in whilst you are not and then change them back upon leaving.

Err...the OP is far from selfish.
You have been very accommodating to allow 18! Viewings. And clean and tidy for these viewings.

Having so many rental viewings is absolutely unnecessary in London. I had less viewings than that SELLING a south London property recently.
Would absolutely limit the time allocated. As you're moving out in two weeks give them two more slots for viewing and that's it. They'll have to wait. That's reasonable.

Wow that’s so selfish of you

Yes OP you selfish cow! How selfish of you to accommodate EIGHTEEN viewings whilst juggling a 10 month old and attempting to pack for a move.

I rent my other house out and I'd never behave like this to my tenants. Honestly, if I had EIGHTEEN viewings I'd group them into open viewings, just like lettings agents do. I don't think you'd be unreasonable to say "people can come and view at these times. As many people as you like, but they all come at these times."

Frustrating - a lot of viewings but no movement and yet they’re not willing to compromise - I understand why you’re feeling that way. Agree with pp, YANBU

Aw thanks all! I'm kind of at my wits end with it. They keep turning up late too, which only adds to my anger. One more viewing booked in for tomorrow and then I'm going to offer them a weekend slot only. I didn't know I had any rights to be honest, as my tenancy agreement says the landlord can enter so long as he's given 24 hours notice - so you've all helped hugely, thank you

This happened to us when we were leaving our last house and I was juggling 2 children plus working full time. I told the agent I won’t have viewings whilst I am home so they need to arrange them for one specific day in the week and within a specific 2 hour window at the weekend so I could be out.
They were more than happy to accommodate that.

@Witchinaditch
You might want to actually check your facts before you post utter bollocks and look like a an unkind name-calling pillock.

You are WrongyMcWrongface.
OP is paying the landlord rent in order to live in her home. OP is no more obliged to tolerate a stream of unwanted visitors through her home than anyone else

Yanbu! 18 viewings so far is ridiculous. I would point blank refuse to allow any more, as you are leaving in 2 weeks anyway. Stand your ground.

I wouldn't even offer weekends. LL'[s should counter in voids and not presume that the tenant will allow viewings. For those that do they should be given a days discount.

A friend owns an estate agent. He will not work with owners who want back to back tenents. When he goes around properties it's obvious who the back to backers are.
His logic makes sense - how are places supposed to be maintained without inconveniencing occupants if they are always let.
This should be an industry-standard policy, along with discount IF the renter allows viewings.

It's easy to work out. A simple yes/no question when notice handed in.

And LL's/agencies should be fined for putting bollocks on the tenancy agreements.

quiet enjoyment, so tell them no! Having constant viewings is so disruptive and you're not being selfish at all.

We rented a 2 bed house out, and a month after we moved in the landlords told us they had moved in with family, with their 2 children to make money out of us to get a deposit for a bigger house as it was completely unreasonable to expect 2 boys with a 2 year age gap to share a bedroom and was like living in poverty, telling us with our boy and girl in that same room. We had 18 months of viewings, it was awful.

Rented somewhere else, 6 month tenancy, we made it very clear we would be moving out after 5 months and our security deposit could be used for final months rent, the house was an absolute hole! when we moved in, and the landlord told us it was the benefit to be the first to rent it since he bought it! From the time we moved in we were beyond certain we would have to fix and clean it to such an extent there was no way our security deposit would be needed. Despite the landlord having a month's rent for an empty property, they wanted to do 18 viewings in one day! before we moved out, this was the 5th house we rented and we just took the hard line of no, no viewings, nothing.

For what its worth, over the course of renting 5 houses, we tried to accommodate requests, and for our troubles we had our childen's toys stolen, visibly dirty children going through our underwear drawers, kids bouncing on my children's beds with their shoes on, grown adults doing a no.2 and not flushing, viewers asking us for snacks for their children, adults accidentally breaking things, we even had viewers come back to different times in the day unannounced for another look. Hence just no.