Landlord access without my knowledge or permission

[Mackerz]

Hello, currently renting for the first time in years. The landlord showed up on Friday to do an inspection. He showed me an email from the estate agency saying I had given permission for the inspection to go ahead. I hadn’t been contacted by the agency. This is the 2nd time this has happened. The agency are claiming that they contacted me and I gave them permission for the inspection to go ahead (which I didn’t) but they won’t forward me the emails they claim to have in which I apparently gave my permission, due to data protection.

What are my next steps?

Report the agent to their professional body! You are totally entitled to change the locks too.

I’m just going through the shelter website. Is reporting them to my local council worth it too?

Might as well! And I'd strongly suggest to your landlord he move his business elsewhere- their lies have put HIM in breach of the law for trespassing!

(And data protection gives you the right to see your own data. So due to data protection they need to show you the emails )

Thanks Dusty. How do I go about forcing them to show me my alleged emails giving them permission?

To be honest I'd leave it to the regulator at this point. I was saying more as an indication of quite how much bullS they are spouting.

According to their website, they aren’t registered with any governing body.

Subject Access Request.

You know you can just deny access without prior agreement (regardless of what the agent is saying, they won't have the proof as you say).

I'd politely explain the situation to landlord and explain if he wishes to stay with that agent then you'd like him to email you directly to arrange any visits first. Then send a copy of this exchange to the agent and copy in Landlord.

Agree. Report to local bodies as poor practice by your agents.

As others have said, report report report. A landlord demanding access with no notice is illegal. Ask him for your emails giving permission as proof. Otherwise he can come back again later at a mutually agreed time and date.

And although certain landlord on this site will disagree, change your damn locks! There is no way you should be forced to allow an almost complete stranger to hold a key to your house. Some home contents insurance policies will not pay out if people unknown to you hold a key to your house.

If it is in your lease that you can't change the locks, the only a landlord would find out you have is if they illegally tried to gain access to your home. If this was to happen I wouldn't be staying anyway.

Am I not at risk of revenge eviction if I complain?

We’re only renting short term as we’re looking to buy. Could do without the hassle of moving twice in a short period.

I thought revenge eviction was illegal?

If you're not planning on staying long and intend to buy, you presumably won't need a landlord reference. You shouldn't worry about a revenge eviction in your position. Any eviction would take a good few months. It also sounds like the problem is the agency rather than the landlord. We had similar problems with our agency, who were lying to us and to the landlord. We resolved it by dealing directly with the landlord. I doubt the landlord will want to evict you because of agency cock ups.

Complain in writing to the agents. Unless it's an emergency, landlord or agent has no right to enter without your permission. Ask that they give you prior written notice of any inspections or other non urgent visits.

@timshelthechoice Revenge eviction still goes on. The whole thing about banning revenge eviction is very misleading. If a tenant has reported a landlord to council environmental health for not doing essential repairs - and the council then order the landlord to take action, the landlord can't serve a no fault (section 21) eviction for the next six months. Its not indefinite, and the landlord will get the tenant out in the end if they want to.

If you want to keep your head down, then just change the locks. Keep the old barrel to return at the end of the tenancy, and get complaining once you've given notice (if you have the energy at that point!!!) the agency are clearly total cowboys!!!!