House Viewing: No notice to tenant

Father Hernandez

Our house is currently up for sale and after going round to the shops this morning, returned home to find 3 families and an agent in my home.

My housemate who was in bed at the time (11am) rang to ask did I know about the viewings. Obviously quite phished off, I approached the agent who quite smugly said oh sorry didn't the landlord notify you? We've never so much as even said hello to the landlord as everything has gone through agency.

I actually spoke to a family and told them in a jokingly way we hadn't been notified about it then bigging up the property, location, etc

Agent apologised after, again it didn't seem too genuine who said these will be happening some Saturdays. I refused this and said we need a week and needs to be on our time. Annoyed as put me back an hour when I had things to do on a day off.

Biggest concern at the moment is getting our deposit back at the end of the year, no reason why we shouldn't but I'm reluctant to send an 'angry' email about the incident in the fear they mightn't give it back to us. Can we request it now as we'll be put out for viewings, etc in the coming weeks/months. Any thoughts?

_brendand_

Father Hernandez wrote: »

Our house is currently up for sale and after going round to the shops this morning, returned home to find 3 families and an agent in my home.

My housemate who was in bed at the time (11am) rang to ask did I know about the viewings. Obviously quite phished off, I approached the agent who quite smugly said oh sorry didn't the landlord notify you? We've never so much as even said hello to the landlord as everything has gone through agency.

I actually spoke to a family and told them in a jokingly way we hadn't been notified about it then bigging up the property, location, etc

Agent apologised after, again it didn't seem too genuine who said these will be happening some Saturdays. I refused this and said we need a week and needs to be on our time. Annoyed as put me back an hour when I had things to do on a day off.

Biggest concern at the moment is getting our deposit back at the end of the year, no reason why we shouldn't but I'm reluctant to send an 'angry' email about the incident in the fear they mightn't give it back to us. Can we request it now as we'll be put out for viewings, etc in the coming weeks/months. Any thoughts?

It should be in your contract that the landlord is required to give you reasonable notice of access to the house, but the definition of reasonable is not that strict. I would say anything less than 24 hours for a house viewing is definitely not reasonable.

Regarding the deposit, I wouldn't worry too much about that. It's either registered with the RTB in which case your landlord can only withold for a specific set of reasons (of which complaining about contract breaches is definitely not one), or it's not registered with the RTB and you can throw them under the bus if they so much as think about retaliating (there are heavy penalties for failing to register the deposit).

4ensic15

O/p you should have told the viewers they were trespassers and to get out of the property immediately. If the agent was there you should have told him the same.
That lazy git of a flatmate should have done it as he was there when they turned up but you should have taken over when you got back. You should write a letter to the agent, start a complaint with the RTB and complain to the PSRA.

mdebets

_brendand_ wrote: »

It should be in your contract that the landlord is required to give you reasonable notice of access to the house, but the definition of reasonable is not that strict. I would say anything less than 24 hours for a house viewing is definitely not reasonable.

The landlord has not only to give notice to a tenant, they have to agree on a time that suits the tenant.

4ensic15

4ensic15 wrote: »

That lazy git of a flatmate should have done it as he was there when they turned up .

Sorry but what the hell? Why is his flatmate a “lazy git”?

dudara

As the tenants, you can go so far as to refuse access to the house for viewing. That might be a bit extreme but it illustrates that the tenant has strong rights. If the landlord wishes to show the house, they will have to agree it with you in advance and with reasonable notice.

It’s up to you how you want to play it. Being flexible and accommodating with the landlord might be a good point to negotiate a small rent discount.

_brendand_

dudara wrote: »

As the tenants, you can go so far as to refuse access to the house for viewing. That might be a bit extreme but it illustrates that the tenant has strong rights. If the landlord wishes to show the house, they will have to agree it with you in advance and with reasonable notice.

It’s up to you how you want to play it. Being flexible and accommodating with the landlord might be a good point to negotiate a small rent discount.

Not sure it's a good idea to go down this route. He can just serve notice if the intent is really to sell.

dudara

_brendand_ wrote: »

Not sure it's a good idea to go down this route. He can just serve notice if the intent is really to sell.

I’m assuming that he has already had served intent to sell, otherwise this is a double news shock to the tenants.

OP - have you received notice of intent to sell?

_brendand_

dudara wrote: »

I’m assuming that he has already had served intent to sell, otherwise this is a double news shock to the tenants.

OP - have you received notice of intent to sell?

Well the landlord can market the property with the intent of giving notice once he actually has a buyer and conveyancing is almost done. In that case they tenant would be able to stay on until such time as the landlord was actually ready to go and gave them notice. If they are going to obstruct the sale he may well give them notice now.

Father Hernandez

Thanks responses, on a few things.

Yes we have already been told by letting agent, the house was up for sale.

We've never had any dealings with LL as they live abroad so all communication has been through letting agent who I believe are at fault here.

Currently in the middle of sending email to agent and will be following up with RTB & PSRA

Graces7

Father Hernandez wrote: »

Thanks responses, on a few things.

Yes we have already been told by letting agent, the house was up for sale.

We've never had any dealings with LL as they live abroad so all communication has been through letting agent who I believe are at fault here.

Currently in the middle of sending email to agent and will be following up with RTB & PSRA

This has to be in writing and has to have a solicitors affidavit

Unless you have been given all the paperwork they cannot enter etc.

and it cannot be relet like that.

If not sold after 3 months they have to offer it back to you

Please call threshold? they are relying on your lack of knowledge?

GingerLily

Graces7 wrote: »

This has to be in writing and has to have a solicitors affidavit

Unless you have been given all the paperwork they cannot enter etc.

and it cannot be relet like that.

If not sold after 3 months they have to offer it back to you

Please call threshold? they are relying on your lack of knowledge?

He said they were told its for sale - not that they got notice to leave.

Father Hernandez

Graces7 wrote: »

This has to be in writing and has to have a solicitors affidavit

Unless you have been given all the paperwork they cannot enter etc.

and it cannot be relet like that.

If not sold after 3 months they have to offer it back to you

Please call threshold? they are relying on your lack of knowledge?

GingerLily wrote: »

He said they were told its for sale - not that they got notice to leave.

I should have been clear, we were told it's up for sale and that we have until the end of contract to move out (31st December)

Cash_Q

Father Hernandez wrote:

Yes we have already been told by letting agent, the house was up for sale.

Father Hernandez wrote:

I should have been clear, we were told it's up for sale and that we have until the end of contract to move out (31st December)

If it was only a verbal notice or even if it was written notice of the sale, neither is withstanding without a Statutory Declaration witnessed by a solicitor that it is being sold. Otherwise landlords can 'tell' tenants that they're selling a house and then just increase the rent once the original tenants are gone. The statutory declaration prevents this from happening and binds them to sell or they have no right to ask you to leave. Your notice period starts again once you receive the statutory declaration.

hmmm

I wouldn't assume the landlord knows what the agent has done, or even condones it. The purpose of appointing an agent is to make sure things go well, not get into fights with tenants. Any sensible landlord would know how much trouble a tenant could cause in the sale process.

We were renting a place once, and arrived home to unexpectedly find a workman working away in the kitchen (to rectify a problem we had raised). A quick note to the landlord about proper notification, and we received an apology attached to a bottle of wine

If it was me I'd email agent expressing your disapproval, and saying you want proper notice in future, and cc the landlord. See what happens then. If no apology, I'd throw the agent out in future and start thinking about strategies to recover the deposit.

Claw Hammer

Father Hernandez wrote: »

I should have been clear, we were told it's up for sale and that we have until the end of contract to move out (31st December)

The RTB take the view that notice given during the term of a fixed term is invalid. You can simply refused to leave at the end of the contract, the Landlord will have to commence proceedings in the RTB to get you out. It is noticed this foundry invalid, he will have to start again. Most likely by that time his purchaser will have vanished.

seagull

How long have you been in the property? Assuming you've been there over 6 months, then you have a load of rights over and above what's in your lease. It sound like the agent is playing on your not knowing all the rules. At this point, you have not received any kind of notice, so you can make his life very difficult.

spaceHopper

Em, that sounds fishy, he had to inform you in writing that it's for sale and give you valid notice, you could easily turn around and say, sorry we never got valid notice.... but that would be a mean thing to do however the agent should know this.