Some tenants are very aware of their rights. They are renting because it suits them and they expect to be treated appropriately by the LL whom they are laying large rent to each month. This means that they expect repairs to be done to property and don’t expect LL to be interfering in their life or interrupting their quiet enjoyment of the property. If an agent or LL starts pressuring them to do viewings etc, they give them short sheriff snd confidently point out that this isn’t a requirement and they won’t be accommodating it, or ask about what compensation there will be in return.
Unfortuantely lots of tenants are not so aware and are often rather bullied by LLs or agents. It can feel like a very unequal relationship with lots of tenants not having read their contracts or being aware of what their rent and contract entitles them to in terms of property maintenance, notice periods, quiet enjoyment and rights to a legal eviction if they choose to remain. Too many tenants feel they have to bend over backwards to accommodate the agent or LL who speaks to them in a condescending manner or makes them feel like living in the property is some kind of favour which can be withdrawn at a moments notice, rather than a contractual agreement which applies both ways.
Too many of the public think those renting are second class citizens. Loads who aren’t tenants or LLs on the many MN threads seem to think a LL should be able to sell at any point or ask a tenant to leave at any point ‘because it’s their house’. They don’t understand that when you let your house for rent, that tenant rightly gains rights to live in the property and to legal notice periods and eviction processes. They have paid for these rights and by receiving rent, the LL is legally bound (not something from the goodness of their hearts that they are free to choose to ‘generously’ give to their lowly tenant or with-hold depending on their whim) to deliver what is legally their rights and they have paid for.
It is not expecting too much to be left in the property you’ve paid to be in, without other people traipsing round to look. The LL can wait until the property is empty to show it. It is wrong and often exploitative and abusive of LLs and agents to pressure tenants to open up the home for people to view, especially when they pressure them to allow access at inconvenient times. Lies can be told about tenants being required to do this, or threats made about deposits etc.
As property purchasers, just do t go and look at tenanted properties, unless you’re a LL wanting to take the tenant on. There are regular threads on MN from property buyers bewailing the fact they can’t exchange because the bloody tenants are still there and won’t leave. They fail to realise that sometimes these tenants haven’t even been served notice and that they are perfectly entitled to remain until it fully expires and if they choose to remain behind this, legal methods are in place for eviction which they are entitled to. They are not being bloody tenants obstructing the sale, simply tenants living in the property they have paid for and have contractual rights to. More fool the buyer who offers on such a property and who hasn’t understood those rights, or who thinks that as a buyer, their desire to buy the property somehow trumps the rights and entitlements of someone who is contracted to be in that property. But, often the world sees it like this….the owner who is selling and the person who wants to buy must be right. They are those with money wanting to trade property and the tenant is merely a renter who can’t afford to buy and who surely should evacuate and accommodate those who wish to buy and sell and sacrifice any rights or entitlements to them. Quite simply NO.
And again I say it as a LL.