Can EA carry out viewings without my consent?

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Lived in our property for 7 years, found out in November that the landlord is selling. Came as a shock but we started looking for somewhere to go.

We're in the process of buying a small place so will be out of there as soon as possible but we have no dates yet so haven't given notice, nor have we been served notice.

I'm clearing stuff out and packing ready to downsize. The Estate agent selling the property arranged a viewing for Sunday afternoon. It wasn't convenient so told them this.

They are now saying that we're obstructing the marketing of the property and that as they hold keys, they will enter the property regardless to show around potential buyers.

I'm really not happy about this. I have ME and arranging a move is exhausting, especially when I'm having to get rid of so much stuff. I have to sleep during the day at some point and i can't relax at all worrying that they may just walk in.

I understand that they can enter a property after giving advance notice of 24/48 hours? I'm not being difficult, I want to get out of there as quickly as I can now.

I said that there would be no problems with viewings when we have some dates regarding our own purchase and have given our months' notice to vacate but apparently this is no good, they say they will show people around whether I'm there or not.

Any advice please on what they can do by law? Having to move when we weren't expecting it is stressful enough without feeling intimidated by the Estate agent.

You do not have to allow viewings, they need permission to access and you have right of enjoyment of your home, even after notice is served.

According to Shelter, anything about permitting viewings should be in your contract. Can you have a look?

You have a right of quiet enjoyment which means that whatever your contract says, your landlord is not able to enter without your permission, whether or not notice has been served unless it is an emergency.

You can change the locks, provided you keep the old lock barrel and replace it when you leave. If you're at home, can you have a chain fitted?

Our contract does say that they can give 24/48 (can't remember which) hours notice and show prospective buyers or tenants round which as I said, won't be a problem when I know for sure I have a date for moving or at least an indication of a date.

I'm knackered, stressed and the house is quite frankly a tip right now and I just don't want strangers traipsing around my home at the moment. A couple of the rooms are barely accessible due to packing boxes and I just don't have the energy to tidy up to make showing people round easier for them.

The Estate agents just said that they have been instructed to sell the property and they can enter it. I thought they had to have my permission to do so but they gave the impression that what I thought or wanted is irrelevant.

They do not have the right to enter your property without your permission except in an emergency (ie, a gas leak). Even if it says they can in your contract, the contract does not trump the law.

I would change the licks, but keep the old ones to put back on before you leave.

*locks ffs

The 24 hour notice doesn't override your right to quiet enjoyment of the property. If you don't allow them access, they can claim breach of contract and serve a S8 notice on you requiring you to leave (but you're leaving anyway) or withhold a reference (entirely irrelevant if you're buying your next house).

Write an email to the agents saying that you do not give consent for viewing and any attempt to enter your house without express permission will constitute trespass and you will seek compensation accordingly.

If you can bear it, just let them in no what state the place is in. If it puts potential buyers off, it's not your problem, is it?

Or just put a bolt on the door to stop them coming in whilst you're in/resting, then they won't be able to get in. They're hardly going to break the door down.

Agree with Fizzy, you can usually just change the barrels which is not very costly and fairly easy to do using youtube videos for guidance. The law is in your side but it doesn't sound like the EA cares much about that so I would take steps to physically stop them entering your home. Hope you can get out of there soon

As a landlord I would ask you to allow the visit. You say yourself that you're half packed up, so it's not like you're living in normal circumstances is it? It just seems a bit different than if you weren't already putting half the house away in boxes. It just seems like a nice goodwill gesture, and I appreciate EA's can be real pricks (I don't use them) but please don't let your understandable annoyance at them, effect how you are towards the landlord.
The truth is they'll need more than your one month's notice to sell the place and to make them wait when you're half packed up... I dunno. Just seems a bit off to me. And I have MS so I really get your ME situation. Can you just nip to the shop for 20 minutes if you don't want to be seen?

Is the bit in the contract about entering the property with 24hours notice not enforceable? As in, it would be illegal for them to enter the property without my consent even if I'm not there?

Sunday afternoon just wasn't a good time. And I don't think the agent works Sundays so I'd have to have been there to show them round.

As for not upsetting the landlord, I really don't care any more. Everything has always been dealt with via the letting agent rather than the landlord and when told repeatedly by British gas that the boiler was broken and so old that the parts are obsolete, its had to be patched up several times as they wouldn't approve a new one.

They do not have the right to enter without your permission, even with 24 hours notice. Your right to quiet enjoyment of your property trumps any contractual terms.

It may be easiest though to tell the agent when you WILL allow viewings, and that they will not be permitted access outside these times.

Regardless of the contract you can deny access. If you deny access and they turn up they are in infringement of the Landlord and tenant act, the protection from eviction act and the harassment act.

Thanks. I'll be firmer with them when they ring again.

England?

read your how to rent guide, especially the section on 'when things go wrong'.

WRITE to the agent, keeping a copy, stating that they are not to enter without permission granted at AT LEAST 24 hours notice, and that if they try again you WILL report them to the redress scheme. Send by ordinary post, keeping the proof of posting - that means it is deemed delivered. Copy to your landlord, whose address you can demand from the agent.

change locks if you want, change back and make good when you leave.

the house is not proceedable until you are out, anyway, so they are wasting time. And you are under no obligation to tidy up.

I'm a landlord. You sell a property once it is vacant and take the hit.

Yes, England. I'm not aware of a 'how to rent guide' , I'll check my tenancy documents again (or are they available online?).

I can't believe I feel so intimidated by them. Right now I hate being in this house and just want everything sorted quickly.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-rent

I'm not sure when the law came in on this, but it now has to be given to all tenants on move in day.

many on here are not aware of it. Shelter should concentrate efforts on publicising it, because not having it is a 100% marker of a bad landlord. Plus it tells you all your rights.

Op said she's been renting for 7 years and the law only changed a few years ago, for NEW tenancies. So not a bad landlord, the landlord might have pissed OP off for mending a boiler that OP wanted to have replaced but in this case she or he did no wrong.

That's not the issue at all here @TwoPointFourKidsAndADog. I couldn't give a rat's ass about the boiler, I've managed perfectly fine. My question was about the Estate agent so there's no need to jump to a landlord's defence .

I’m a LL and I wouldn’t put a property on the market until the tenants had left. Until then it’s their home, and their legal right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ does not include random strangers traipsing round their home with arsey estate agents.

AFAIK these clauses saying you have to allow viewings hold no water under the law. But plenty of letting agents do like to try it on.

That's not the issue at all here @TwoPointFourKidsAndADog. I couldn't give a rat's ass about the boiler, I've managed perfectly fine. My question was about the Estate agent so there's no need to jump to a landlord's defence

I was only going by what you'd written previously:

As for not upsetting the landlord, I really don't care any more. Everything has always been dealt with via the letting agent rather than the landlord and when told repeatedly by British gas that the boiler was broken and so old that the parts are obsolete, its had to be patched up several times as they wouldn't approve a new one.

And (understandably) linking it in answer to someone else's query.

I have never had any direct contact with the landlord, hence why I have no connection to him. The point I made that you have quoted states that the letting agents have dealt with everything but obviously they don't have the final say on what repairs are carried out on the property. It was British gas that recommended a new boiler, every year that they've carried out checks or repairs, not me just wanting one for the sake of it:
"the landlord might have pissed OP off for mending a boiler that OP wanted to have replaced".

You'll soon learn when you're paying for it yourself, that British Gas are rather keen to install new boilers!

We had about 10 years of bg recommending a new boiler as "parts would be difficult to get" or for better efficiency before we finally decided to. It was perfectly functional and reasonably reliable in the meantime and there is little change in bills since.