URGENT: Does a tenant have to allow a survey?

[Pricklypear12]

I'm a tenant and my LL has sold the house. She had 20-25 viewings over a period of about 6 weeks which I agreed to and facilitated. I even helped the EA take photos for Rightmove etc.

She only told us she was selling the house straight after we had signed a contract for another 6 months at the property (ends 1st Sep). At the time we asked if we could leave the contract early if we find elsewhere to live and the answer was a "yes but I might change my mind". If she hadn't sold the house we would've stayed long term. We always got on fine with LL and paid on time and keep property clean and tidy etc.

Fast forward to now and LL is refusing to let us leave the contract early and insists on us paying full rent until the very end. I'm obviously annoyed by this as I've essentially facilitated her house sale and now I'm effectively being forced to stay or pay 2 lots of rent. I appreciate that we signed a contract so not much we can do.

Now her buyers are wanting to do a survey on the property. Am I allowed to say no? I've put up with so many viewings and I'm fed up by the LL unreasonable behaviour and wish to be left alone for the last couple of months of my tenancy. My contract states I must allow viewings in the last 2 months of my tenancy (that starts 1st July - 1st Sep) but doesn't mention surveys. I've been going around in circles trying to get legal advice about this. Please help!

*It’ll allow you

You may find that if you refuse the surveyor entry they do the survey anyway as a drive by.

Yes you can say no, you are a paying tenant, the survey can be done when you have moved out, and at your LL request that will be in September!

@Melitza

Tell the LL you'll facilitate the surveyor if she gives written permission for you to leave early.

This. You are under no obligation to allow a survey to take place regardless of what the contract says. Sale for any other visits linked to the sale really, so buyer wanting to come by for another viewing, seller (landlord) wanting to clear out some things or do renovation work etc. As long as the work is not urgent (water leak for ex) you can say no. If she allows you (in writing!) to leave early then you can reconsider.

@PurBal

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you signed an agreement until 22 October. So yes, you have to pay until then. It would be kind for your LL to release you from the contract early, but they're not legally obliged to. The info you sent says you have to allow viewings to facilitate the sale in the last 2 months of your tenancy, so it was good of you to allow them so early. I would imagine you'd be within your rights to delay the survey until 22 August. I'm not an expert. I get that your LL is being a bit difficult, but I'd personally rise above it -easier said than done.

It would be kind for your LL to release you from the contract early, but they're not legally obliged to In the same way, the law says that a tenant doesn’t have to allow viewing to facilitate a sale, despite what the contract says.

@Pricklypear12

Is it a breach of data for that estate agent working for LL to have passed my phone number on to the valuation company (who have rang me and sent voicemails since yesterday) without my permission?

Yes if without consent.

I am a landlord and would never treat a good tenant like this. If I were you I would say 'apologies but won't be able to facilitate an inspection for the next few weeks, we have a very young child and sleeping has been disrupted so it's just not convenient'. If you get phone calls direct ask the person to speak to the agent. When you speak to the agent just say you will get back to them with a time. In effect, just give your landlord the run around. Her sale could fall through....that's on her but it might motivate her to have a reasonable conversation with you about leaving early.

Is it a breach of data for that estate agent working for LL to have passed my phone number on to the valuation company (who have rang me and sent voicemails since yesterday) without my permission?
Yes.
Block the number, tell your LL you've done so and say you'll be asking a solicitor about it.

So the only people contacting me right now are the LLs estate agents selling the house and the survey company who have rang me 3 times and left 2 voicemails and 3 texts in less than 24 hours. I did not give permission for my number to be shared. I literally got a text yesterday from the EA saying *valuation company** will be contacting you shortly to arrange survey.

I've not been able to get through to Shelter, their online chat isn't working and I can't seem to find an email? The phone line is only for urgent matters like homelessness

Also, I've had no contact directly with LL since she started being nasty as any issues I go to the lettings agent with instead. So I'm not sure I should contact her directly? On the other hand, not sure my lettings agent would be interested in dealing with this as it's completely irrelevant to them?

Let them do it.

Then have been in contact with someone with covid and be self isolating for ten days everytime they're due to come round. Doing it three or four times should do the trick.

Yes, I am that petty.

I would respond to the survey company and estate agent that you didn't give consent for them to share your phone number or any personal details so please delete them under right to be forgotten in GDPR.

You don't necessarily need to decline/refuse just yet. You can just be hard to contact/slow or not responding. Then it is not you refusing just being "busy" with pregnancy and trying to find a new property.

I thinks she being very unreasonable (I have experience of this). She should be as accommodating on your leaving as you’ve been to allow her to sell. You have a right to live quietly and without stress (as does the LL), you’ve accommodated her, she should accommodate you, I suggest you tell her you’re pregnant, there should be a bit in your contract about the right to live quietly.

So the only people contacting me right now are the LLs estate agents selling the house and the survey company who have rang me 3 times and left 2 voicemails and 3 texts in less than 24 hours. I did not give permission for my number to be shared. I literally got a text yesterday from the EA saying valuation company will be contacting you shortly to arrange survey*

Bloody hell OP. You are managing her sale for her!!

This is not normal. You are not expected to do this.

Just stop picking up the phone to them all. I'm sure your LL will soon be in touch, and then you can suggest you might be able to help if she agrees you leave early.

Your Landlord has to serve you a Section 21 Notice to quit ~ 4 months' notice if after 1st June 2021, 6 months' notice if it was between 20th August 2020 and 31st May 2021 [due to covid] . You can leave at any time, you do not need to pay rent up till the end of your contract/notice date.

I know this because this happened to me. Contact Shelter.

Hi all, this was the response I received from Housing Options:

"NHAs advised me you can refuse the survey but if the landlord then asked to judge to grant access would he see your refusal as reasonable? So I think what they mean is do you have a reasonable reason why you would not allow it to happen?

Also you are held to term until 1st Sept however your notice if it is valid does not run out until October so you can reasonably remain in your home after 1st September and then also remain in your home after the end of the notice as the landlord would then need to take 2 further steps to evict you, the first is to go to court in front of a judge for notice seeking possession and then again at the end of the notice seeking possession for a bailiff warrant

All this will take considerable time and perhaps you could use this to negotiate leaving the tenancy early if you find some thing you like soon

Make sure you get everything in writing from your landlord what ever is agreed

I hope this helps you make some informed decisions"

A private landlord can go to court for an access order, but in such a scenario they would usually just go for an eviction. In any case it would take months.

When these viewings were hapenning, did the estate agent ever give less than 24 hours notice before turning up? If so then the landlord was acting unlawfully. The landlord is responsible for the behaviour of the people they employ or contract. If you want to go down that route you could claim compensation for this.

I'd be playing hard ball now, you've nothing to loose, you're going anyway.

@safariboot I don't think they did give less than 24 hours from what I remember. I used to just agree to all of them pretty much anyway. I realise I have been far too much of a push over.

Haven't read it all apologies. However as someone else said for the rent you pay you are entitled to unfettered peaceful use of the house. My son had similar to you. They owner sold his flat to a relative and they kept wanting access. He said no but they then made up a story about wanting to check the front door so they needed access to maintain it. They also made appointments for access without him agreeing as if he would just accept it. Anyway my son felt he had been disturbed enough and told them he was entitled to unfettered access and they were not getting in. He told them he wanted the last months rent free if they continued to want access. Otherwise he was reserving his right to access, and they could wait until he moved out, he was setting up a camera facing the front door and if they accessed the flat it would be without permission (he stated that continually) and he would phone the police. He got his last months rent free and they got access. Not without emails flying between them for a long time though, them quoting the law and him quoting his rights to peaceful use of the flat. This was a large London estate agents. He won but not without a lot of determination on his part. He looked at advice on the internet and quoted laws back at them. He was continually asked to allow people in to his flat and he was told it was a peaceful flat and a long let. The downstairs neighbour did major renovation immediately after he took the flat, a fact that he proved the estate agents knew of and lied about it being a quiet flat. It was also supposed to be a long let and he got 3 months. So his hackles were up with them. Ask for a rent reduction or they wait till you leave.

Let's face it you are not getting what you are paying for, you are not getting full and peaceful use of this flat.

Goodness you have really bent over backwards to help your LL and this is what you get in return.

As stated above there is a clause in the contract to allow inspection so she could theoretically sue you for breach if you refused and it lost her the sale as she would incur loses.

However, have you returned the notice form, signed etc agreeing to the 22 October timescale? You don't have to. You can write a letter stating you'd be happy to agree to a shorted notice period of say 2 weeks given any time from now. State that it is impossible for you to agree that you will vacate by a particular date because of the scarcity of housing stock available to rent and that you cannot make yourself and your family homeless. You will of course do your best to vacate but will need her flexibility. Send this letter to her, the letting agents and the selling agents so they are all aware there could be an issue with exchange and completion. The buyers solicitor will advise to only exchange after you have left. In fact her solicitor will do too as there is no guarantee a tenant will be gone by completion.

I would suspect that this letter (be polite and factual) will inform the agents and solicitors who should give her a nudge to tell her to be flexible or she may lose the sale. Unless the new owners are planning to rent out? No one wants to waste money on having to evict a tenant and it will take ages.*

Excellent Post, and I'd follow this advice.
Your landlord is being very stupid and risks losing the sale or at least not being able to complete as scheduled due to you having nowhere to move to.
Your landlord needs to give you some flexibility and to ensure you won't be out of pocket due to her greed. I'm a landlord and think she deserves to have her sale completion delayed. It may not feel like it to you at the moment, but you actually hold the trump card as you can just refuse to move out after September until you've found a new property, and there's little that she can do about it.
I'd also make it clear now that you won't be moving x amount of months either side of the birth of the baby.
You may find she'll end up offering you financial incentives to move out!

Sorry- bold fail in my post above!

@MadinMarch I think she is completely unaware of possible ramifications of us potentially being a nuisance and staying on. Not long ago we asked her directly, "so what do we do if we can't find anywhere to live last minute because you've not let us leave?" Thinking this would make her realise she should be flexible and allow us to leave or it will jeopardise her sale. Her response instead was "go live with your parents if you can't find anything on time" ??????