.. to not allow prospective new tenants viewings while still living here?

[Lola528]

My landlord wants prospective new tenants in tomorrow to view the property we currently rent. We vacate on September 21st, so a good 7 weeks yet. I really don’t want to have anyone in my home right now (have asthma, not shielding level, but still a risk).

Our contract says they can give us 24 hours notice for viewings, but what about our “quiet enjoyment of the property” rights?

WIBU to say we will not accommodate viewings and they can wait till we leave? We will be gone around 14th September but pay/rent legally until 21st. So that gives them a week where we are still paying that it will be empty and ready to view.

I really hope the OP doesn’t sign another contract containing a viewing clause.

Why? It doesn’t affect the landlord either way. They still don’t have any right to access for viewings whether she (or anyone else) signs it or not.

@AmICrazyorWhat2 I did not sign unknowingly, and having rented for the last 20 plus years both here and overseas, am normally more than happy for viewings to take place near the end of a contract. However, the situation right now with COVID is changing my view on this occasion and I am simply not willing to have strangers in my home if I don’t have to. I don’t feel I’m being difficult or unreasonable given the risk involved. It’s good to know the law is in my side with this, and I am able to refuse but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t allow viewings in a new property at a different, safer time.

@Smallsteps88. So tenants should just blithely sign whatever the LL puts in front of them and not question anything?

How is the practice going to change if no one queries it? I hope this thread has been helpful to tenants in that they’ll now look out for this clause in contracts, because it sounds like it’s a common ( unenforceable) practice!

Interesting response from the OP- she doesn’t generally have an issue with viewings, but other posters clearly do.

So tenants should just blithely sign whatever the LL puts in front of them and not question anything?

Who said that? They can question what they like- but they’re under no obligation to point out to a LL that one of their clauses is unenforceable.

I hope this thread has been helpful to tenants in that they’ll now look out for this clause in contracts, because it sounds like it’s a common ( unenforceable) practice!

It’s in pretty much every tenancy agreement. There’s no point in looking out for it. It makes no difference if it’s there or not. It’s unenforceable.

@AmICrazyorWhat2 I guess LL and their Agents keep putting it in, in the hope that their tenants are not savvy enough to know they can refuse (like I was unsure of my legal standing before posting here). Why should a Tenant be disrupted multiple times with no compensation or incentive? Unless you have been a Tenant, you won’t understand the inconvenience, stress and disruption it causes to your life at a time when you’re trying to pack up a house, still working from home and dealing with teens all at the same time. To me, it’s an unfair ask and compromise should be reached where possible.

After the update about the gas certificate I think op should facilitate viewings if at all possible, simply so she can inform any prospective tenants that the landlord is breaking the law, and thinks risking tenants lives is less of a priority than saving a few pounds.

Seriously, take his/ her tight-fisted criminal arse all the way on this, no LL should get away with this level of cuntery.

Why are people harping on about moral duty?
My tenants do not have a moral duty to inconvenience themselves to increase my profits. Rather, if I want to save money on a void period, I have a moral duty to inform them they have a right to refuse, and if I'm making money from their inconvenience, I have a moral duty to give them fair recompense in return.

I'd be willing to bet the same money grubbing landlords expect their tenants to be inconvenienced for viewings so they can maximise rental income do exactly the same when it comes to repairs.
'Oh yes, I could get a pro in to do the job in a day, but my mate Dave can do a botch job in odd hours here and there over the next fortnight. Cos y'know you have a moral obligation to place my profit first and foremost'

Strangely, my budget for void periods is relatively small and rarely touched. Almost as though a very low turnover of mainly long term tenants is related to being a fair Landlord rather than a knob.

@AmICrazyorWhat2

I still don’t understand why ppl sign something containing conditions they’re not comfortable with. I simply wouldn’t do that and I strongly suggest other ppl don’t either.

I've signed rental contracts with terms I knew to be unenforceable, and was comfortable with those terms for that reason. Because it didn't matter in the slightest. It would've been completely illogical for me not to rent an otherwise suitable property because of it, and nor was I going to provide the landlord with free and unrequested legal advice.

Queit enjoyment does not trump the landlord's rights so YABU
Hope this helps:
From www.thetenantsvoice.co.uk
While tenants hold the ultimate authority to control the access of their home, landlords also have a right to enter, as they need access to uphold their responsibilities for repairs and maintenance and scheduled inspections.

Section 11 from the Landlord And Tenant Act 1985 states:

In a lease in which the lessor’s repairing covenant is implied there is also implied a covenant by the lessee that the lessor, or any person authorised by him in writing, may at reasonable times of the day and on giving 24 hours’ notice in writing to the occupier, enter the premises comprised in the lease for the purpose of viewing their condition and state of repair.

This means that unless your landlord or their letting agent has served you with at least 24h notice before they want to come visit, you’re under no obligation to accommodate their wishes and can arbitrarily sever their access to the property.

What is a correct notice for requesting access:
It is served and accepted at least 24 hours before the time of entry
The visit happens at a reasonable time of the day and allows the tenant to be present
Contains details about who will enter the property and for what reason
Respects the tenant’s right of quiet enjoyment of the property
What are legitimate reasons for your landlord’s entry
Move in / Move out inventory – Right at the beginning and right at the end of your tenancy, your landlord or letting agent will need to come in and benchmark the condition of the property. You can request a copy of each report and have a right to accompany the inspection or comment on the report’s statement.

Read more in our dedicated guide – The Tenancy Inventory Check

Requested or scheduled inspection of the property – Your landlord has a right to inspect the property on reasonable intervals throughout the tenancy. This gives them a chance to catch damage and deterioration before it turns into an expensive renovation project. Furthermore, when you request repairs to the property, the landlord must again enter to assess and confirm the issue and take on their repair responsibility.

Repairs and maintenance – Your landlord is responsible to maintain and repair the property after the tenant reports a problem, or an inspection has detected one. To do that however, the landlord will need to go inside the property.

Read more in our dedicated guide – Repairs and Maintenance Of Rented Properties

Allow access to workers for repairs and maintenance – When the landlord needs professional work done in the property, he can authorise workers to come in and do the necessary repairs. They will need access to the property to do their work.

Annual gas safety check – Your landlord is required by law to renew the gas safety certificate by performing an annual check to the gas installation and appliances. The safety check needs to be done by a certified Gas Safe Register engineer. He will need to access the property to perform this check.

Read more in our dedicated guide – Gas Safety – Repair of Rented Properties

Arrange viewings near the agreed end of the tenancy – When you’ve arranged the end of your tenancy, they may want to begin marketing the property to prospective tenants in efforts to miss void months. They will need to access and show the property around. It’s reasonable to expect that the property is in tidy condition for the viewings.

@AmICrazyorWhat2 If you're comparing it to work contracts think of it like the working time directive.
You can't just send someone a contract to work 100hr weeks indefinitely, especially if there's an employment crisis on a scale with the housing crisis, and then suggest they were at fault for signing. For any employment contract that isn't in line with the directive, you have to ensure the employee is fully aware of their rights, and even then there are limits as to what can or cannot be legally or contractually signed away.

@Twillow Section 11 of the ace doesn't actually mention viewings.

What you have written is highly unlikely to help twillow, since this LL is a tad anti repair.

@Twillow

Queit enjoyment does not trump the landlord's rights so YABU Hope this helps: From www.thetenantsvoice.co.uk While tenants hold the ultimate authority to control the access of their home, landlords also have a right to enter, as they need access to uphold their responsibilities for repairs and maintenance and scheduled inspections.

Section 11 from the Landlord And Tenant Act 1985 states:

In a lease in which the lessor’s repairing covenant is implied there is also implied a covenant by the lessee that the lessor, or any person authorised by him in writing, may at reasonable times of the day and on giving 24 hours’ notice in writing to the occupier, enter the premises comprised in the lease for the purpose of viewing their condition and state of repair.

This means that unless your landlord or their letting agent has served you with at least 24h notice before they want to come visit, you’re under no obligation to accommodate their wishes and can arbitrarily sever their access to the property.

What is a correct notice for requesting access:
It is served and accepted at least 24 hours before the time of entry
The visit happens at a reasonable time of the day and allows the tenant to be present
Contains details about who will enter the property and for what reason
Respects the tenant’s right of quiet enjoyment of the property
What are legitimate reasons for your landlord’s entry
Move in / Move out inventory – Right at the beginning and right at the end of your tenancy, your landlord or letting agent will need to come in and benchmark the condition of the property. You can request a copy of each report and have a right to accompany the inspection or comment on the report’s statement.

Read more in our dedicated guide – The Tenancy Inventory Check

Requested or scheduled inspection of the property – Your landlord has a right to inspect the property on reasonable intervals throughout the tenancy. This gives them a chance to catch damage and deterioration before it turns into an expensive renovation project. Furthermore, when you request repairs to the property, the landlord must again enter to assess and confirm the issue and take on their repair responsibility.

Repairs and maintenance – Your landlord is responsible to maintain and repair the property after the tenant reports a problem, or an inspection has detected one. To do that however, the landlord will need to go inside the property.

Read more in our dedicated guide – Repairs and Maintenance Of Rented Properties

Allow access to workers for repairs and maintenance – When the landlord needs professional work done in the property, he can authorise workers to come in and do the necessary repairs. They will need access to the property to do their work.

Annual gas safety check – Your landlord is required by law to renew the gas safety certificate by performing an annual check to the gas installation and appliances. The safety check needs to be done by a certified Gas Safe Register engineer. He will need to access the property to perform this check.

Read more in our dedicated guide – Gas Safety – Repair of Rented Properties

Arrange viewings near the agreed end of the tenancy – When you’ve arranged the end of your tenancy, they may want to begin marketing the property to prospective tenants in efforts to miss void months. They will need to access and show the property around. It’s reasonable to expect that the property is in tidy condition for the viewings.

Whilst the article you have quoted clearly states that the landlord "has a right to enter, as they need access to uphold their responsibilities for repairs and maintenance and scheduled inspections." it only suggests that it would be reasonable to allow access to show the property around and that was before COVID-19. Not so reasonable at the moment.

How revealing that someone has chosen to highlight a suggestion for the landlords profit, but completely ignores the legal requirements for gas checks for the tenants safety.

Hi OP, I'm in the same situation and told the pushy estate agent that they were welcome to take me to court for breach of contract if they wished to. I will be long gone before they could even begin that process at the moment.

No more requests for viewings and my landlord lives upstairs.

@Twillow You have misunderstood. Section 11 from the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is about the landlord's obligations to keep the property in good repair and access to do that, nothing to do with the landlord's "right" to hold viewings at the end of the tenancy:

11 Repairing obligations in short leases.
(1)In a lease to which this section applies (as to which, see sections 13 and 14) there is implied a covenant by the lessor—
(a)to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house (including drains, gutters and external pipes),
(b)to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation (including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences, but not other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water, gas or electricity), and
(c)to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and heating water.
[F1(1A)If a lease to which this section applies is a lease of a dwelling-house which forms part only of a building, then, subject to subsection (1B), the covenant implied by subsection (1) shall have effect as if—
(a)the reference in paragraph (a) of that subsection to the dwelling-house included a reference to any part of the building in which the lessor has an estate or interest; and
(b)any reference in paragraphs (b) and (c) of that subsection to an installation in the dwelling-house included a reference to an installation which, directly or indirectly, serves the dwelling-house and which either—
(i)forms part of any part of a building in which the lessor has an estate or interest; or
(ii)is owned by the lessor or under his control.
(1B)Nothing in subsection (1A) shall be construed as requiring the lessor to carry out any works or repairs unless the disrepair (or failure to maintain in working order) is such as to affect the lessee’s enjoyment of the dwelling-house or of any common parts, as defined in section 60(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act M11987, which the lessee, as such, is entitled to use.]
(2)The covenant implied by subsection (1) (“the lessor’s repairing covenant”) shall not be construed as requiring the lessor—
(a)to carry out works or repairs for which the lessee is liable by virtue of his duty to use the premises in a tenant-like manner, or would be so liable but for an express covenant on his part,
(b)to rebuild or reinstate the premises in the case of destruction or damage by fire, or by tempest, flood or other inevitable accident, or
(c)to keep in repair or maintain anything which the lessee is entitled to remove from the dwelling-house.
(3)In determining the standard of repair required by the lessor’s repairing covenant, regard shall be had to the age, character and prospective life of the dwelling-house and the locality in which it is situated.
[F2(3A)In any case where—
(a)the lessor’s repairing covenant has effect as mentioned in subsection (1A), and
(b)in order to comply with the covenant the lessor needs to carry out works or repairs otherwise than in, or to an installation in, the dwelling-house, and
(c)the lessor does not have a sufficient right in the part of the building or the installation concerned to enable him to carry out the required works or repairs,then, in any proceedings relating to a failure to comply with the lessor’s repairing covenant, so far as it requires the lessor to carry out the works or repairs in question, it shall be a defence for the lessor to prove that he used all reasonable endeavours to obtain, but was unable to obtain, such rights as would be adequate to enable him to carry out the works or repairs.]
(4)A covenant by the lessee for the repair of the premises is of no effect so far as it relates to the matters mentioned in subsection (1)(a) to (c), except so far as it imposes on the lessee any of the requirements mentioned in subsection (2)(a) or (c).
(5)The reference in subsection (4) to a convenant by the lessee for the repair of the premises includes a covenant—
(a)to put in repair or deliver up in repair,
(b)to paint, point or render,
(c)to pay money in lieu of repairs by the lessee, or
(d)to pay money on account of repairs by the lessor.
(6)In a lease in which the lessor’s repairing covenant is implied there is also implied a covenant by the lessee that the lessor, or any person authorised by him in writing, may at reasonable times of the day and on giving 24 hours’ notice in writing to the occupier, enter the premises comprised in the lease for the purpose of viewing their condition and state of repair.

I used to show houses on behalf of my god awful landlord. He owned a big lettings company in Nottingham and had estates in Scotland, one of which I lived in. He refused a hell of a lot of repairs in the Scottish estates houses because he was always quoted local prices. He even said to me that his "Polish plumbers down here would never charge anything near that!" Sorry mate, no Foreign plumbers here to take advantage of you underpaying arsehole! So repairs would go untouched with flimsy excuses. One family went without heating Oct-Jan in an old farm house so it was cold as fuck. He kept claiming that he couldn't find a plumber to come out.

My own cottage had a leak under the boiler for 3 years. I used to empty a bucket every few days. I actually gave up calling the office about it.

In his contracts he would charge for reference checks, credit checks and then had a £75 signing fee. His AST leases had so many clauses in that were legally unenforceable that they read like a fiction novel.
I used to show prospective tenants round and then show them a copy of a lease. In it I would tell them everything that was unenforceable and illegal. I would also mention that charging sign up fees and check fees was 100% illegal in Scotland so to make sure they didn't pay those. I'm surprised people even signed up but they were beautiful houses.

I was a terrible "estate agent". Ha ha ha!

I did tell the LL himself (and his son) that they weren't allowed to charge fees to let houses in Scotland and he said, "We're based in England and go by English law!" Scottish law doesn't care about English laws when it's Scottish houses ya fuckin melt!

He was a multi millionaire and rented houses to people who rarely had the means to take him to court. Those who did tended to win but with the amount of money he had, ripping off 10 families made up for the one who had the means to take him to court. And they only were ever awarded their legal costs and pretty much their own money back from LL.

I have rented for nearly 30 years and have never seen a lease without at least one unenforceable clause. It doesn't stop LLs putting them in and it doesn't stop renters from signing to get a home. It's a gamble that a renter won't know better.

Oh and many tenants just left after 6m to a year. It was easier than fighting to get their repairs. The LL always made money as he'd manage to keep most of the deposits but would never even decorate between tenants. Well, maybe bung a handyman £50 to paint over mould patches to hide them. Thanks to the rental deposit scheme he struggles to keep that money now.

Queit enjoyment does not trump the landlord's rights so YABU

How many more... 🙄

@HouchinBawbags - You sound like an awesome estate agent, good for you making sure prospective tenants knew the truth about that scumbag LL. I’m glad you don’t have to show his houses anymore he sounds appalling. Hopefully karma will bite him on his multi millionaire backside!

I wasn't exactly an estate agent but a fellow tenant who they asked to show prospective tenants round. I had all the keys and sort of acted on their behalf. My mum did too as she and stepdad lived in another cottage on the estate. We'd been there years so knew the estate and properties very well.

They refused to pay an actual estate agent to manage it 300 miles away from their office so would pay me £10 a viewing. I liked the extra cash, but more so liked to have a good look at my prospective neighbours. I made sure to let the LL know the day a local dealer came to view and we saved ourselves a lot of hassle. Shame he didn't listen to me one time when's well known rough family viewed. They made our lives hell, eventually trashed the place and nicked a neighbour's car.

Thanks again everyone. They did not appear last night, though I thought they might even though we’d sent an email and text Re our decision to cancel the viewings.

Hopefully we won’t get any further requests before we leave.

Appreciate everyone’s thoughts and advice.

Stay safe!

Incredibly unreasonable ll on here - as someone who has not rented for many years, I am astounded at their stubborn attitudes. What is more important - someone else's health or you needing more than a week when you are being paid for an empty flat anyway - in which to show other tenants? Unbelievable, particularly in themiddle of a dangerous pandemic and with a tenant with health vulnerabilities. Absolutely incredible - is this what being a LL does to a person?

So tenants should just blithely sign whatever the LL puts in front of them and not question anything?

Good luck in telling a letting agent that you want to negotiate the contract. Almost without exception (although @HouchinBawbags sounds like a rare honest one!) lettings agents are below cockroaches on the evolutionary scale - and somewhat less desirable in your house - and their answer would almost certainly be that the contract is non-negotiable because "it's their standard". Particularly in areas of high demand, they'll just bin you off for the next customer who won't question anything.

I read my entire contract before I signed it and I knew exactly what was and wasn't enforceable so the wording became somewhat irrelevant because clauses such as the granting of access for viewings are trumped by the law on quiet enjoyment of a property you legally rent. The lettings agent tried getting heavy when I handed in my notice and were told in no uncertain terms to sling their legal hook as their demands had no basis in law (I was buying a house so a future reference was irrelevant). Funny how quickly they backed down at that point...

And it was doubly irrelevant because the landlords were of the "It's OUR property and we can do as we please" variety.