Here is a question to the blog clinic from Christine whose daughter is a tenant
My daughter is a student sharing a 6-bedroom house in Birmingham.
The agent is using the “24 hr” rule to book entire days on the basis that there “may” be a viewing – this week alone they have “booked” 3 viewing days.
Whilst they say the tenants do not need to be there my daughter and her friends are not happy that the agents and other students (6 of them) could be entering the property, including their personal bedrooms, while they are still in bed, in the shower or while they are out.
Do they have to allow this? Can they insist on timed visits?
Answer
To a certain extent, it will depend on what is said in the tenancy agreement and your daughter should check this and see what is there. For example, if it does not mention allowing access for viewings then they cannot do this at all.
However, even if it does provide for viewings this must be done in a reasonable manner. ‘Booking’ a while day for possible viewings when they do not actually know whether they will be attending or not sounds wholly unreasonable to me.
I think your daughter and her co-tenants are entitled to write to the agent insisting on timed appointments.
If the agents refuse to do this then the students may want to speak to their college or university accommodation office. They may be able to help particularly if the property is registered with them.
The other alternative is to register a complaint with the agent’s Property Redress Scheme.
All agents should be registered with a scheme, you can find out which scheme from the agent’s website, plus it should be set out on their letters and emails. Both the schemes have guidance on how to make a complaint on their websites.