Tenant Obligations Post Reply

[FromNYCtoBalhamMum]

Hello

Is anyone an estate agent or married to one? I am wondering what my obligations are as a tenant. We have decided not to renew our lease and are moving out at the end of July. Our landlord has decided to sell. Does he have to wait until we move out before he can show the house or are we obligated to let people tromp through it while we still live here?

Thanks

[mrs_pavlova]

I'm no expert, but I'm a landlord myself. Albeit a nice one!

Your landlord is allowed to show the property for sale as long as you are within notice period. That said, he must give proper warning to you of each viewing and they must, of course be accompanied by the estate agent. As a tenant you are expected to make allowances for this and keep the place generally in a viewable state. You could request (as anyone would) that viewings are conducted during office hours (if you work) and that they group together viewings at the weekend, so that you are inconvenienced in the smallest way possible. Just politeness really.

Not ideal at all, but unfortunately just the way it is.

Estate agents - pls correct me if I'm wrong!! Good luck.

[FromNYCtoBalhamMum]

Thanks Mrs Pavlova

The problem is I am at home with a 3 yr old and a 6 month old and my husband is currently away on business so you can imagine the state the house is in. On top of that I am trying to go through our things in order to weed out what we don't need so there are bags all around that need to go to the charity shop

[Mum2two2012]

As an ex letting agent if I was going to show a property that might be a little untidy I usually pre -warned the applicants before hand so hopefully the agents selling willl do the same.
Unfortunately, your Landlord is in his right to show the property whilst you are still living there and he is probably trying to sell asap.Just pre-warn the agents and give them the times you are available. Remember until you move out it is still your home

[mlm]

I'm not sure legally how flexible you need to be when providing viewing times but as an example when we bought our house, the tenants living here refused any viewings after 6pm in the week and not on weekends at all. It was also really untidy. Any house in this area will still sell quickly but I would imagine the estate agent and the owner were not pleased!

[jonathan @ hamptons]

Hi there,

As Mrs Pavlova says, and as long as it's stated in your contract, you have to allow your landlord access to show the property during your notice period. Usually the clause will refer to being given "reasonable" notice which agents generally translate into 24 hours.

As for what condition the property should be in, there is usually no provision for this (if there was it would potentially breach the tenants "quiet enjoyment" clause) so theoretically you could leave the property exactly how you like it and there's very little the agent or landlord can do.

However...

Most estate agents (I've been one for 20 years) will be respectful of your situation and should try to work out with you viewing times which are mutually acceptable. Ultimately the better the property is presented the quicker it should sell and therefore the less the agent or landlord will need to bother you. Given the age of your children (I have two myself) I would try sitting down with the agents and work out good times and bad times around feeds, nursery runs, nap times etc. That way everyone understands each other’s positions and will fit in around each other as much as possible. Saturdays are more tricky as this is our busiest day of the week however again, I would try to agree a slot of say a couple of hours where they can have access. That way at least it's all over pretty quickly.

As a shameless plug perhaps you should ask your landlord to give us a call - we have a very experienced team and always work with tenants to ensure that the whole experience is as painless as possible...!!

Jonathan