.. 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 am a LL and put it in the contract that if tenant gives notice to quit we can show prospective new tenants around property with 24 hours notice. It’s meaningless though.

YANBU. Leaving aside the fact that we are in a pandemic- you pay good money to live there, you do not owe them any favours. If the landlord wants to minimise the time they have between tenants, they should offer you an incentive like a reduction in rent. Otherwise you are just putting yourself out to save them money, which would not be expected in any other business transaction.

@caringcarer but why should I be inconvenienced even for 10 minutes and be made to stay outside MY home that I pay a lot of money for? That in itself invaded on quiet enjoyment, and that 19 minutes doesn’t include the time I’d have to spend tidying each time they decide they want to visit.

You don’t have to allow access. However, life happens and it would be nice of you to allow people in so they can make plans and the landlord minimises the void period. I would accommodate a reasonable request to allow viewings and call the shots on times & expectations of them not touching things etc.

I have to say I’m very surprised by the amount of people who seem to think the risk to our health is worth it “just for 10 minutes” during this pandemic. I wonder how many if you would allow strangers to come in and walk around your homes right now every 24 hours (which could happen, given the contract statement) - thats around 60 days with several people each time so potentially (yes exaggerated, but you see my point?) that’s over 100 people coming through before we leave? Yet if I was in hospital, even my Hubby couldn’t visit me right now??

Doesn’t seem right or fair to me.

And the LL can pursue damages through deposit scheme for breach of contract or through the civil courts

If you were an expert @PlanDeRaccordement you would know that the deposit schemes (plural) can only adjudicate on a limited matters, such as deductions for rent arrears or damage to the property. They cannot award damages or make deductions for breach of contract, only the courts can do that.

@Lola528 There should be no need to quote the law if your letting agent is a reputable agency, they will know that it is an unenforceable clause and will just accept it. Just explain why you don't want viewings. If you want to compromise because your landlord has been a good landlord, you could offer to do a limited number of live video viewings but there is no obligation.

There isn't actually a specific law eg the Housing Act 1988 that grants a tenant the right to quiet enjoyment. However, tenants have a right to quiet enjoyment under common law or case law. In laymans terms, some laws in the UK are made by an Act of Parliament, but common law is law that has been created by the historical decisions of the courts, tribunals and judges. You have a statutory right to quiet enjoyment and where a clause in a contract is in conflict with a statutory right, the statutory right takes precedence.

If needs be just say exactly that:

Tenants have a statutory right to quiet enjoyment. Where a clause in a contract is in conflict with a statutory right, the statutory right takes precedence.

@Lola528
You're right it's completely unfair and unreasonable of your LL to expect. Stand your ground and say no to the visits

@orangenasturtium thank you for your advice, good to know.

Thanks everyone!

I also forgot to say, as well as the deposit schemes not having the power to award damages for breach of contract, even if they had that power, they can't adjudicate on a dispute at all unless you agree to it.

Legally and morally, at this difficult time, that you don't need to allow viewings. Unless @PlanDeRaccordement wants to prove me wrong and quote case law where a landlord has successfully sued for breach of contract because a tenant has refused viewings? There is definitely no legal requirement (or contractual clause from what you have said) requiring you to tidy up and make the place look nice for viewings, if you agree to them, so forget about that. If you were living in filth and attracting vermin, my sympathies would be with the landlord but if you are boxing up ready for a move, drying laundry or your kids are building a lego empire on the floor, that it is totally your right. You don't have an obligation to brew fresh coffee and put out vases of flowers in an immaculate home, or put your life on hold to help your landlord let the property while you are in situ.

Just to clarify, even if there were a contractual clause requiring you to make the place beautiful, it would be unenforceable.

Ordinarily, Y would be BU to object to 24 hr notice, but during a pandemic I don't think so. Would your landlords agree one set day of the week that viewings can be arranged for to enable you to disinfect/make preparations? I'm afraid expecting them to do all viewings in one week at end of tenancy is U as tenants don't present themselves all at once and occupancy can take weeks to arrange.

You've said he'll have a week. Stand your ground.

YANBU.

By law, if your landlord, or their agent or tradesperson or whoever, wants to visit your home, they must give at least 24 hours notice and you must agree.

If the landlord comes in without your permission that's unlawful harassment.

A contract term might give the landlord the ability to pursue compensation if you break it, but it can never let the landlord just walk in when they feel like!

OP, assuming you do decline to host viewings, secure your home and watch out for the LL or the letting agents trying to let themselves in anyway!

Wow so many selfish greedy landlords on here. Like pps said, your business model should allow for voids. Also have you missed that the OP has very real health concerns and that we are in the middle of a bloody pandemic? I hardly think she is is being 'an arsehole' (as one delightful specimen amongst you puts it) to not want viewings in the circumstances.

I can only hope that some of these responses just haven't been thought through, rather than there are so many utterly selfish twats out there.

Thanks to the few decent professional landlords who have been helpful and given a more thoughtful response.

@caringcarer

I am a LL and put it in the contract that if tenant gives notice to quit we can show prospective new tenants around property with 24 hours notice. You could go out or wait in garden if you felt unsafe. If we were to give tenant notice to quit we would wait until they left before viewings. We have never had to ask anyone to leave.

You know you can’t enforce this though right?

I’ll be moving out my flat soon. I have had one person in my flat since February. I don’t want to get covid, I don’t have underlying health issues but I know people who had it who were fit and healthy and have still not recovered.
This has got me thinking - I’m not going to say no to viewings but I’m going to ask that they only take place on one or two days or the week so I can clean properly before and after, that anyone coming to view the flat wears a mask and that time in the flat is minimised so if the prospective tenants have any questions they ask them outside and have any chats there. My health and life is way more important than an estate agents business model but I don’t want to say no completely.

OP ignore all the knobs on your thread. Most people on MN don't seem to think that renters have a soul and can be bullied into anything a LL wants (even if not technically legal) because you 'don't own the house'. You've done the right thing for your family and I wish you luck in your move!

I wish people would banging on another the OP allowing a stranger into their home for 10 minutes! I've never been to a viewing less than 45mins-1hour long and most likely they would be doing multiple viewings! It's not just 10 minutes!

Years ago we were renting a flat. We decided to buy a property and were hoping to complete on the house and renovate it a little whilst remaining in the flat. We were on a rolling 1 month contract by this point. The Landlord asked us to enter into a 12 month contract and my DH, in his wisdom, told the LL of our plans. The notice letter plopped through the letterbox that evening giving us 1 month notice (the law has since changed and I believe 2 months is now required). That left us with two weeks with no home at all and we would have to move into the house which needed central heating and a new roof, in November.
We asked if we could stay for another 3 months, they said no. We asked if we could at least stay for the two weeks we would be homeless, again they said no.
Then the viewing requests started. At first I was ok with it, the agent was doing the viewings. I didn't want to be there and so would go out when they came. Until one day, the agent called and asked to do a viewing and I said no - we had started packing and there were boxes everywhere plus I was fed up of it - there had been loads of viewings, probably around 20 in a week. I also said I was out and so couldn't tidy up.
The agent let himself in anyway and was very surprised to find me there. I told him where to go and said that we would not be allowing any more viewings.
The LL called me directly and I explained - I said that we would have happily paid rent for 3 more months even though we only needed 2 and I was happy to have viewings but the agent crossed a line.

After we left the flat remained empty until January, we would have paid rent until February. Very shortsighted.

Yanbu. Apart from the legalities, it always seems to me that landlords who don't allow for any void periods are only interested in the money - not in keeping the property in any form of repair. There would generally need to be some bits of repair and painting done between tenants that just isn't possible if you have people moving in the minute the previous tenant has vacated so the house gradually falls into disrepair.

YANBU it's their property but your home. Barring emergency access for gas/water/electricity issues or advance schedule (more than 24 hours) inspections you have the right to enjoy your home.

This is without adding the complication of possibly infected people entering your home during a pandemic. You don't need to be vulnerable/shielding for it to be an issue. A friend of mine caught it, incredibly and healthy beforehand...suffered terribly and is now looking at long term lung damage.

We're long term renters and have never viewed an occupied property as prospective tenants.

Only one of our landlords so far asked to arrange viewing while we were occupying the property...he's also the landlord that issued a section 21 to co-incide with my due date after we informed him I was expecting (let as a family property in the first instance). Frankly his behaviour matched that of the evidently arsehole landlords on this thread!

We were partially cooperative. We offered viewings in the last 4 weeks of tenancy only and made clear that the place would not be neat for viewings as we would be in the process of decluttering and packing our things. We also confirmed that the small jobs we had raised as an issue during tenancy that had been ignored we would tell prospective tenants about.

Oddly enough we had no viewings arranged and the arsehole didn't take us to court for breach of anything.

There's no way in hell that I'd be permitting viewings now if we were moving.

My DD has just signed a contract on a house in London with her buddies. None of them have seen the property in person. That's not to say others havent of course; there could have been viewings. But the four of them have viewed from afar.
I definitely think it reasonable fir the landlord or agent to be able to come and film a virtual tour.
Op can be out, masks can be worn and windows can be open.
But not a stream of random people coming in. I'd offer that as a friendly compromise if I was the OP

yanbu. if your landlord is a decent person they will need more than a week to assess and organise the maintenance work needed before new tenants move in. so plenty of time for viewings then. if they are intending to skip this stage due to not being a decent person, that's not something you should suffer for. you would not be unreasonable to refuse viewings even if there wasn't a pandemic. it is quadruply true at the moment.

OP I think you've attracted a lot of shit small-time landlords to this thread.
We rented out a property and I would certainly not have pulled a stunt like viewings with current tenants in situ. At the same time I had the misfortune of a particularly overbearing landlady myself.

Nonsense like 2155User questioning your health issues sounds like just the kind of thing she would have done.

Particularly if you don't need a reference you're in a very good position, I wouldn't give it another seconds thought.

I do put in last 8 weeks if tenant gives notice to leave to allow viewing with 24 hours notice. I point this out as it is written in bold and tenant signed it and signature was witnessed. They entered into contract willingly and agreeing to terms of let. I would not expect more than one or two viewings and have never had a tenant object. Some tenants have asked me to show prospective tenant around when they are at work. I do have good relationship with tenants in our properties though. A contract that both parties enter into willingly is legally binding.