Please bear with me, i will try to give as much detail as possible.
We live in a rented house. All fine until now. Landlord seems reasonable, as did agents.
I have been ill for the past 10 days (head injury, severe concussion) - this by way of background.
agents have been trying to make an appointment to service fire extinguishers. All well and good, happy to let people in, etc. For various reasons, we prefer this to be when we are at home - do we have a right to prefer this? (generally, I am available most of the time, as am sahm. obviously, this last week, I havenn't been as contactable as I usually am, with hospital appointments, etc)
So, agents left a message last week with a suggested appt time of this morning, 9am. dh said he couldn't confirm this, as didn't know my movements/whether I would be well enough for this week, and to confirm with me.
I had messages on my phone, and rang back a few times - we all kept missing each other, and chasing around in circles.
I was out all day yesterday, and agents left a message yesterday, at 5.30pm, saying that the appt had been made, and that the fire extinguisher company would be here at 9am this morning, despite no confirmation from us at all (I last rang the agent on Saturday, saying I was happy to make an appt for this to go ahead, please ring back to confirm times, etc)
I didn't see this message, and left to take dd1 to school as usual this morning. I got a call from dh at 9.30, saying that the alarms had gone off at home, and the agents were panicking about it (alarms linked to the police, on a callback contract).
so, the agents had sent the fire extinguisher people round, with keys, to let themselves in, despite no confirmed appt time from us.
I thought the agents had to give 24hours notice of intent to enter a property?
btw, the message left was not an intent to enter, either. It said "just confirming appt for tomorrow at 9am". no mention of entering if we were not there/if time unsuitable.
anyway, long story short, the fire extinguisher people buggered up the alarm. it went off, and they could not cancel/reset it. interestingly, the alarm company did not call to check what was up. so it appears we are not on the serviced contract that we have been told we are on.
where do we stand wrt the agents entering the property?
we are happy, btw, generally speaking to provide access, and have never withheld access. but no appt time was agreed, let alone confirmed, and at no point did the agent say (either in person or in a message) that they intended to enter at X time, let alone give 24 hours notice.