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Landlords and the Coronavirus Emergency – property viewings

April 14, 2020 by Tessa Shepperson

CoronavirusA series of posts giving advice and guidance to private residential landlords during this coronavirus emergency period.

4. Property viewings

Most people will want to view a property before they decide to rent it out. How are landlords and agents to deal with this during the lockdown?

In most cases where you would expect to be doing viewings, tenants will be staying put following government advice.  So situations, where you will be looking to re-let a property, should be few and far between.

What are the rules?

As we all should know by now, we should only leave our home during the lockdown for the following:

  • shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible
  • one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household
  • any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
  • travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home

This list does not include viewings for properties to rent.

How can viewings be done, therefore?

Viewings while tenants are in occupation

First – you should not be doing any viewings while the existing tenants are still living in the property.

If you are a tenant reading this, if your landlord suggests bringing prospective tenants round to view your property – perhaps when you are out doing exercise, you should refuse.

Even if social distancing is observed, bringing someone who is not a household member into a home should only be done in extreme circumstances – for example, to carry out an important repair or maybe to do the gas safety inspection.

Remember that anyone can be infected and not know it, and the virus can remain active on surfaces for 3 days or more.

If landlords try to enter a property or insist on holding viewings with prospective tenants, the existing tenants can if necessary, contact the police.

Viewings after tenants have vacated

The rules do not prohibit people from leaving home for their work and this work does not have to be essential or critical work – just so long as it is impossible to do from home.

So there is nothing to prevent a landlord or agent visiting a property after tenants have vacated (although ideally not immediately, to allow time for the virus on surfaces to die down) for the purpose of preparing it for re-letting (including cleaning it thoroughly) and showing it to prospective tenants.

As bringing new people into the property risks introducing infection, you should try to carry out viewings remotely, maybe by filming the property or by showing the property to prospective tenants using facetime or a similar service.

Remember though that under the consumer regulations, you should not misrepresent a property by doing this otherwise you could be liable for penalties.

Actual viewings of a property should only be done where tenants are serious about renting, for example if they have paid a holding deposit.  Social distancing must be observed at all times.

HMO Properties / shared houses

HMO properties where tenants share living accommodation are particularly problematic as you risk introducing the virus and infecting the other tenants.

It will be safest not to re-let rooms in shared properties until the emergency is over unless maybe all parties consent to the risk.

Landlords who suffer financial loss as a result of this may be eligible for government support.

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Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: coronavirus

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IMPORTANT: Please check the date of the post above - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

You should always get independent legal advice before taking any action.

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About Tessa Shepperson

Tessa is a specialist landlord & tenant solicitor and the creator of this site! She is a director of Landlord Law Services which now hosts Landlord Law and other services for landlords and property professionals.

« Free Accommodation Websites for NHS staff during the coronavirus emergency
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Posts

  • Government Guidance for Landlords and Tenants during the coronavirus emergency
  • The Lockdown Learning Project
  • Free Accommodation Websites for NHS staff during the coronavirus emergency

 

Information Posts on:

  • Keeping Records
  • Gas Safety
  • House moves
  • Property viewings
  • GDPR and Data Protection

 

Webinars

  • Landlord Law Webinar on Coronavirus and what Landlords need to Know (24 March 2020)
  • Letting Property during the Coronavirus Emergency – Two Webinars
  • Dealing with Lettings during the Coronavirus Emergency (9 April 2020)

 

Blog Clinic Posts

  • Do tenants risk penalties if they are unable to vacate at the end of their notice period?
  • Desperate landlord needs her home back but tenants are refusing to vacate
  • Accidental landlord asks what he can do when his tenants leave before the tenancy ends

Disclaimer

The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion.

Although Tessa, or guest bloggers, may from time to time, give helpful comments to readers' questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts.

Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa or any guest bloggers should not, therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute.

Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a lawyer-client relationship (apart from the Fast Track block clinic service - so far as the questioners only are concerned).

Please also note that any opinion expressed by a guest blogger is his or hers alone, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tessa Shepperson, or the other writers on this blog.

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