Landlord selling the flat - Viewings

fairy_lights

paye wrote: »

probably get shot down.

The least you can do is keep the place tidy for viewings. People don't want to see your clothes hanging on the drying rack, or dirty dishes next to the sink, (you can't neatly stack dirty dishes)

You should tell the agent you need 48 hours notice for each viewings, this way it will give you plenty of time to tidy the place up.

I've been to quite a few viewings recently and I can honestly say, some people don't know how to live and it annoys me, as people leave dirty clothes around the house, some houses smells of !!!!, kitchen looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years, etc etc. what I am trying to get at is , if someone coming to your house at least make sure it's tidy and smells fresh.

And why on earth should a tenant, who probably doesn't want you nosing round their home anyway, give a damn what you think about their dirty dishes?

ruggedtoast

When we were house hunting I had a couple of viewings at a place that was tenanted. I found it extraordinarily awkward. We were renting ourselves and the woman who was living there was basically in the same predicament we would have been in if our landlord was selling up. Faced with being chucked out of her home and having to make accommodation for random strangers traipsing around her home at all hours of the day, before handing over a wad of cash to her landlord who would then gleefully kick her out.

She obviously loved living there and was proud of the place and I tried to have a gentle chat with her to see if she had anywhere lined up. It seemed she didn't and was just waiting to see what would happen. I then raised it with the estate agent who seemed genuinely stunned that I was worried about it. She was a tenant with no rights who would be kicked out when she was told to be kicked out and not a moment later.

I knew things were going to kick off then and it would be a long time before that house would be available to sell.

We didn't proceed with the house for other reasons but I later learnt from the EA that if we're calling about number 48 that it wasn't available to view for the foreseeable future due to some problem with the tenant and getting viewings, but that she'd be "sorted out" shortly. Well she wasn't and it ended up back on the market almost a year later advertised proudly as vacant possession.

Selling viewings are an awful imposition on a tenant and should be viewed as a favour not a right.

sniggings

the above post reminds me when I went to view a rental, I was asked to wait in the hallway, 2 mins later the agent comes back, telling me the present tenants needed a couple of minutes before I could go in, I said I could come back later, I didn't realise I would be viewing whilst the tenants were present, she said no they are more than happy to let me in! I declined the viewing as it was obvious they had just been told of the viewing, not nice for them or me.

Callie22

sniggings wrote: »

the above post reminds me when I went to view a rental, I was asked to wait in the hallway, 2 mins later the agent comes back, telling me the present tenants needed a couple of minutes before I could go in, I said I could come back later, I didn't realise I would be viewing whilst the tenants were present, she said no they are more than happy to let me in! I declined the viewing as it was obvious they had just been told of the viewing, not nice for them or me.

We bought a house last year and the same thing happened to us on more than one occasion. We looked at lots of houses, both owner-occupied and rented, and in at least four cases with the rented houses it was blatantly obvious that the tenants had either not been told of the viewing at all, or had been given very little notice. I really don't know why estate agents do this as it really doesn't help to sell the property. There's nothing more awkward than trying to look round a house when it's obvious that the tenant had no notice and really isn't happy to have you there (and there's nothing more uncomfortable when you're looking round a house and the residents are out, and it's clear that they weren't expecting viewings at all). I started to make a point of asking whether the house was tenanted and if it was, whether the tenant had agreed to the viewing, and I was really shocked at the number of agents who just told me that 'oh, they don't need notice, they HAVE to let us in'.

kiss_me_now9

Letter went off this morning so I am expecting a snotty phone call some time tomorrow about how this is all a misunderstanding and how they didn't mean to upset us. Watch this space!

ghostfinder

keeping an eye on this thread.

good luck op

[Deleted User]

Good luck from me too.

fairy_lights

Any response from the agents yet OP?

diamond_dave

As a landlord I have to make a comment about this - I would NEVER enter a property without asking first, and never if the tenant is absent. I feel that the tenant is entitled to "quiet enjoyment" -it's their home and although sometimes you may not like the way some people live, tough! I rented a property to a young couple with a couple of kids and then a baby. The place was like a S**t tip when I went to inspect it. Absolutely filthy, stuff piled high,dirty dishes left everywhere, etc,etc. The only time that I complained was when the gas engineer couldn't get to the boiler to service it because of all the rubbish and they had left rubbish on a shared area. When they eventually left, I had to completely refurbish the property - took me MONTHS to complete. They used the deposit to pay the final months rent so I had to get them to pay me for the damage by the month - and are still paying. That's the life of a landlord, some good, some bad. But don't let this agency get away with this kind of behaviour - it gives us good LLs a bad name. Contact the landlord direct.

kiss_me_now9

So the plot thickens...

I've had no response to my letter, bar a phone call the morning after it was posted which rang out as I was driving to work at the time. No further calls or letters regarding the issues.

I have however had an email today with a copy of our Section 21 attached, which states it was sent by first class post on the 20th February. As you will see from the previous posts we had not received this - So I phoned them and requested a second hard copy to be sent to us.

Got home today and found a letter from the EA... containing our Section 21... dated 20th February, post marked 21st Feb, with 'HCN MAIL CENTRE, DO NOT SURCHARGE TREAT AS FIRST CLASS' written over the post mark. The optimist in me says it's a coincidence, the cynic says they realised when I called them at 4pm this afternoon that they hadn't posted it and hand delivered it... Especially as when I phoned her she seemed very surprised that we hadn't received it. OH got in at ten past five and found it but didn't come home for lunch so no idea if it came this morning or not.

It's dated to end on the 6th May - But I thought our contract ran until the 3rd May? We moved in on the 3rd.