Landlord entering without notice/consent or with very little notice.

[Keziah2020]

Landlord did us a huge favour letting us rent when he wants to sell. I am very grateful as we had no where else to go at such short notice.

The issue is he has once let himself in without notice/consent and several times has told us viewers are coming to look at property with less than 4 hours notice. I have mentioned it to him but he doesn't get it. That we have a right to a private family life and that 24 hours notice is more reasonable. I am not messy but house can certainly look very lives in if not expecting visitors. I am sure most of us sometimes let things go whether busy, not bothered or just don't plain notice until you go to clean lol. The time he let himself in was to collect some stuff of his in the property as it is stored in front room, which has been locked for 6 months so we have no access. He wants to sell so I understand we are not the main priority and he did do us one heck of a favour!!

Just wanting to know where we stand and any advice to kindly explain to him that we do need 24 hour notice. It is hard to say no as fearful he may let himself in again. I don't have a lot of fancy stuff but what I do have means something to me, and I don't want someone else to have access without me there.

He really wants to sell so we are looking, but he said there is no rush to go - just feel with lack of notice that maybe he wants us gone. We haven't been any trouble, that I'm aware of lol.

Is he a friend? Do you have w proper tenancy agreement?

My instinct is that he's seeing this as being a favour to you, as in somewhere to put you up for a bit, but he's not slowing down his sale and he's not treating you like tenants. He's just letting you stay while it's empty.

I'm always worried about people who say to stay as long as you need, too, because I think they often underestimate how long this can take. His "as long as you need" could be a few weeks max, and yours could be a few months...

He wants to have his cake and eat it, does he? Have you paying rent and I am sure hoping you stay in until he sells. Does he at least gave you a rent reduction?
When you say he did you a favour, do you mean that he lets you stay or did he rent it out newly to you? If it is a rolling contract, then I think the notice is one month.
I am sorry that you are in this situation, it is awful not to have control over who enters when in your home.

We didn't know him before we moved in. He is family of another landlord we have known for years. Don't think he has rented before. We have a short term contract that is now month to month, pay full rent even with having no access to one room. Made all rent payments and never been late etc.

You can change the locks if he won't pay attention to your (reasonable!) request. Just change the barrels of the locks and keep the old ones to change back when you leave.

I'd strongly advise you speak to shelter ASAP. This isn't on at all neither is charging you full rent when you don't have full access to the property.