Tenant's rights when property being sold

sacha28

Yesterday a friend of mine found out, purely by accident, that the house she has lived in for 6 years is up for sale. By "accident" I mean her friend was scouring right move and stumbled across her house, there has been no notification from her LL, nor has she had any communication from her LL that they were even thinking of selling.

Finding out this way has upset her however she is more upset at the fact the pictures on Rightmove are very recent, meaning an agent has entered her home without prior warning or permission. She wants the agent to take the pictures down as she feels, in her words, violated and she wasn't asked if it was ok. Is she within her rights to do this?

Ozzuk

Change the locks...

pmlindyloo

Time to give the landlord a telephone call/email/letter and saying in the strongest terms that:

1. Entering your property without permission is a violation of your right to quiet enjoyment. Tenant needs to check tenancy agreement and see what it says about entering property - usually 24 hrs notice is required.
If she is concerned that this will happen again then I suggest that she changes the locks.
2. Putting the property up for sale without notifying the tenant is , at the very least, very bad manners/lack of common courtesy. Ask for details of whether it is going to be on a buy to let basis (ie new landlord) or not and whether tenant eventually needs to leave and how tenant will be affected.
3. No permission was given to photograph tenant's possessions and you require the photographs to be taken down immediately.
Presumably there are the original photographs when the house was advertised that could have been used.
At the very least, the photographs need to be taken down and then retaken (if tenant agrees) after tenant has removed any personal possessions that she/ does not wish to be included in the photos. Am thinking pictures of children clearly visible/valuable possessions etc etc

Tenant may also wish to report letting agent (if involved) to their landlord's association - should say on website - member of ........

I would be furious.

G_M

Her rights are no more, and no less, than before the property was being sold. Her tenancy (it's obligations and rights) remains unchanged, both before, during and after an actual sale.

All that woud change is the name of her landlord.

As for the LL's access rights, again this remains unchanged. Read the tenancy agreement. But in most cases, (other than an emergency) 24 hours (written?) notice is required. If a tenant denies access, a LL wuld need to apply for a court order for access, and explain to the court the purpose. The tenant could claim it breaches their 'quet enjoyyment' of the property, and the court would decide which right over-rode the other.

Ifthe LL appears to be ignoring the tenat's rights, change the lock and force the LL to negotiate reasonable access or go to court.

Keep the old lock and replace it when the tenancy ends or face a charge against the deposit.

pinkshoes

Clearly the LL has no manners...

I would just change the locks and leave it at that. As the LL should not be entering the property, then how would they know the locks have been changed?

I would then notify the letting agent/landlord that they did not have your permission to take photographs of your posessions, so they have 24 hours to remove all photos from their advert.

sacha28

Thank you for your input, I had advised her to change the locks.

What will happen if they refuse to remove the pictures? Who would she contact then? And yes, she is furious! This is totally out of the blue but has already been on Rightmove for 3 weeks.....

harshitguptaiitr

Has your "friend" downloaded a copy of the advert on the rightmove for evidence, if needed in future?
I wouldn't advise changing locks as doing any work to the house without permission could potentialy violate tenancy agreement.

I would contact landlord / letting agent and
1) ask when these pictures were taken
2) why permission was not sought?
3) take down pictures immediately from all property portals including print and online.
4) ask how does the landlord plan to compensate for privacy violation and violation of data protection act?
5) ask how does the landlord plan to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he/she or their representatives took only those pictures which are on the website and did not take any additional pictures or had a browse through personal possessions.

fairy_lights

harshitguptaiitr wrote: »

I wouldn't advise changing locks as doing any work to the house without permission could potentialy violate tenancy agreement.

The only way they will ever know is if they try to let themselves in again without permission.


Change the locks.

Cheeky_Monkey

If it's been on RM for 3 weeks, I wonder whether they have had viewings whilst your friend was out? :eek:

The advice to change the front door lock is totally right as your friend is perfectly entitled to do so, providing of course she keeps the old lock and puts it back when she leaves.

gettingtheresometime

I'd also ask them has there been any viewings?

HouseBuyer77

Letting agents are fond of stating 'data protection' as a reason when there's something they don't want to do.

So I'd suggest contacting the agent and saying by putting these photos online they are in violation of the data protection act and if they are not removed immediately you will be making a complaint to the ICO (no idea if it actually is a violation of the DPA, you may be able to claim knowledge of your specific belongings is 'personal data' *). You could also try contacting RightMove directly and ask them to remove the photographs for similar reasons.

Personally I'd change the locks and let my landlord know that after this violation of quiet enjoyment I have lost all trust in them and only allow viewings at specific times when I am able to supervise.

* See the ICO document on the subject here: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1554/determining-what-is-personal-data.pdf