Landlady wants access to loft during tenancy

[Jarstastic]

Moving into rental to break a chain. Committing to 12 month rental (agent refused a 6-month break clause saying against their terms and conditions).

Whilst viewing the house, the agent mentioned that half the double shed and the padlocked loft would not be included in the rental. Not ideal but not unacceptable to us.

We paid the holding deposit and references all done.

Agent has now come saying will be in the tenancy agreement the landlady to have access to both the shed and the loft during the tenancy, giving 48 hours notice.

AIBU that the loft isn’t on and if the landlady wants access to storage she should be paying Big Yellow Storage or similar rather than have someone pay her £2,500pcm (plus the £120pcm she wants to have gardeners) to provide access to her things?

Or is this not that unusual?

@thedancingbear

^ This. Really instructive. There always seems to be a higher percentage of cock-posts when the subject matter is asserting the rights of landlords. I wonder how that could be?

And a contract clause that allows the LL unfettered access to the tenant's storage space, would be no more enforceable than one that allows her to shoot her tenants with a crossbow if rent is overdue.

The LL is not requesting unfettered access. She is requesting access with 48h notice. Personally I would not agree to what the LL wants, but her request is not _necessarily_incompatible with her obligation to provide the OP with quiet enjoyment.

Quiet enjoyment is defined in the AST as:
The right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ means that the tenant has the right to live in the property, as their home, without interference from the landlord or anybody else. The landlord cannot make unannounced visits and must comply with the terms of this agreement and the law in all dealings with the tenant. Even where the landlord or his agents give notice of visits to the property, if the visits are very frequent and/or are made for little good reason, this may amount to a breach of the tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment and could amount to harassment

It's not clear how frequently the LL wants to visit.

The LL cannot have access 'without good reason'. Regularly accessing storage in the loft would probably not be a good enough reason, if the LL sought to start doing this when the contract was already in place. However, with the tenant's prior agreement, it --might be. It's not nearly as clear-cut as some PPs are suggesting.

Contracts do have to be reasonable, but there is always room for interpretation on what this means. Prior agreement does not necessarily mean that an arrangement is reasonable, but the LL will have a much stronger argument that her visits are reasonable, if they are been agreed in advance.

Ultimately, though, the question of what is enforceable is usually irrelevant, because legal action is impractical - too expensive and the timescales are too slow. No one should enter a tenancy expecting to need to take legal action against their LL.

I've heard it all, really

I'm sure my old landlady wanted it wrote into my contract that she could shoot me at short range if I sat down on the carpet in the lounge.

Careful not to bleed on the carpet, or that will be your deposit gone

Jartastic, as said you have the right to peaceful enjoyment of your home. It's her house, but it's your home.

Whatever the contract says it cannot overnight your legal rights.

You could change the locks and re-instate the originals when you move out, that's perfectly legal.

I'm a LL, it's very common to have a locked area not included in the tenancy however the LL expecting free access at 48 hours notice is not usual.