advice re: renting part furnished plus landlord leaving his car at the property!

Erica_Norman

Hiya

Yes we have an address in Cheshire to serve notice to..I beleive this is the management companies address..

The landlord seems fairly affable and responds quickly to any email enquiries we have..one slight irk is that his parents live locally and although we took on the tenacy on Friday, we havent officially moved in, but we arrived at the house today and it was very obvious that someone had been in the house:eek: which we are not at all happy with..we assume its the parents as we have been told, they hold keys to the property..obviously Im assuming they wont be doing that after weds!!(when we officially move in)..but there are 2 large sheds in the garden which contain property of the landlords, we cant enter the sheds as his parents hold keys..the landlord has asked iof we are happy with his parents coming onto the premesis from time to time to access the sheds..but Im pretty sure they have to give us 24 hours notice dont they?

Lavendyr

Yes they should give you 24 hours' notice, in writing, and then only by mutual agreement, otherwise it is affecting your right to quiet enjoyment. I would personally not be at all happy with the arrangement that his parents might come in 'from time to time' - for the time you are living there, it is to all intents and purposes your home and they should always request your permission to attend the property, for whatever reason.

I would drop your LL a friendly/polite email just replying to his query, to say something like "Thanks for asking - if your parents need to access the property occasionally, that is no problem, assuming that they will provide us with the required 24 hours' notice in writing on each occasion and will liaise with us as to a mutually convenient time."

I can't think of the best way to phrase it and I'm sure someone will be able to put it much more eloquently, but basically you need to get across to them that it's not OK for them to just turn up whenever they feel like it, and that you know your rights, while at the same time not coming across as too bolshy/pushy. If you see what I mean

Hope that helps anyway

barnaby-bear

Erica_Norman wrote: »

Hiya

Yes we have an address in Cheshire to serve notice to..I beleive this is the management companies address..

The landlord seems fairly affable and responds quickly to any email enquiries we have..one slight irk is that his parents live locally and although we took on the tenacy on Friday, we havent officially moved in, but we arrived at the house today and it was very obvious that someone had been in the house:eek: which we are not at all happy with..we assume its the parents as we have been told, they hold keys to the property..obviously Im assuming they wont be doing that after weds!!(when we officially move in)..but there are 2 large sheds in the garden which contain property of the landlords, we cant enter the sheds as his parents hold keys..the landlord has asked iof we are happy with his parents coming onto the premesis from time to time to access the sheds..but Im pretty sure they have to give us 24 hours notice dont they?

Get one of these for your hall/house
http://www.all-about-the-home.co.uk/yale-saa5010-pir-shed-alarm-with-keypad-saa-5010---free-delivery-601-p.asp
re-enforces the you shouldn't be here message if they forget....

Erica_Norman

Thanks for that link..strangely enough..I know the people that own the site..they live just down the road from us!..I like the idea of an intruder alarm..are we allowed to install one in a rental property?
We do have a burgular alarm but we are not allowed to change the code

tbs624

Erica_Norman wrote: »

.....We do have a burgular alarm but we are not allowed to change the code

Why not? Because the alarm would go off if an anyone, including the LL, the LL's parents or an LA, entered the property without your consent and you'd be fully aware that they had done so?

I would have no qualms at all about changing a burglar alarm code for the duration of my tenancy and would view it as a useful security measure to do so. LLs can put whatever clauses they like into their tenancy agreements but they'd need to be able to fully justify them in a court if the clause was challenged as an unfair contract term.

Erica_Norman

Thanks thats useful to know..its in our tenancy agreement that we cannot change the burgular alarm code in case anyone had to access the property in an emergency

tbs624

...and of course the burglar alarm sounding during a genuine emergency would not physically prevent access, merely draw people's attention to the fact that emergency access had been attempted

poppysarah

Erica_Norman wrote: »

Thanks thats useful to know..its in our tenancy agreement that we cannot change the burgular alarm code in case anyone had to access the property in an emergency

What sort of emergency do you expect? Unless your landlord lives next door they are never likely to be first on the scene.

Erica_Norman

I dont expect there to be any reason why they should need to access the house..but our tenancy agreement clearly states that we must agree not to change the code as the LA must be able to access the property in cases of burst pipes etc, for example if we were on holiday etc

The landlord himself lives in Dubai..so It might be a while before he got there!:rotfl:

poppysarah

Erica_Norman wrote: »

I dont expect there to be any reason why they should need to access the house..but our tenancy agreement clearly states that we must agree not to change the code as the LA must be able to access the property in cases of burst pipes etc, for example if we were on holiday etc

The landlord himself lives in Dubai..so It might be a while before he got there!:rotfl:

The landlord can ring you up whilst you're on holiday and ask you what the code is.
(give him a mobile number you take abroad)

Change it. And if he finds out it's because he's gone into your house without permission.