UK Landlord Forum / Life

I am landlord to a flat in London. The tenants gave me notice on 22 Dec 12 that they would be leaving the flat on 3rd Feb 13. But on the same day they gave notice thye went on holidays and will not be back until January 13th 2013. They have also requested that I do not organise any viewing until they will be back after the 13th JAN. I do have a clause in our signed contract that ensures that I as a landlord have the right to organise viewings to the flat with or without their consent or them being present at the property. But I also checked the web and can see that these contract clauses can be overriden by normal law. The office of fair trading document oft356 reads as follows:

"3.32 We would object to a provision giving the landlord an excessive right to enter the rented property. Under any kind of lease or tenancy, a landlord is required by common law to allow his tenants 'exclusive possession' and 'quiet enjoyment' of the premises during the tenancy. In other words, tenants must be free from unwarranted intrusion by anyone, including the landlord. Landlords are unfairly disregarding that basic obligation if they reserve a right to enter the property without giving reasonable notice or getting the tenant's consent, except for good reason."

My question is: I do believe that i have good reason to enter the property given the fact that the tenancy is already under notice to vacate from the tenants themselves. But I would not like to make a wrong move either.

What would this forum recommend?

Hello giorgio2002uk,

My advice is that you can not enter the flat for marketing viewings without the express consent of your tenants.  The OFT would consider good reason to include things like doing a gas safety check; fixing a hole in the roof; dealing with vermin where the tenant is mucking you about by either point blank refusal to allow you in or constantly breaking arrangments with no notice.  They would not consider marketing viewings pressing enough reason to breach the highly prized principle of quiet posession.

You've done a lot of resaerch before coming here (thank you - so many people don't bother) and I think in your heart you know:
+ The tenant has acted reasonably by giving you enough notice, so there's no right to go in without permision arising from this action;
+ Tenans are allowed to go on holiday during any stage of a tenancy, , so there's no right to go in without permision arising from this action;
+ Being "under notice" does not dilute the right to quiet posession.

Also, who gave you this contract?  They've done you no favours here at all.  There's a legal principe which says if the person drafting a contract puts in something which is "overridden" by common or statute law then the whole clause is struck from the contract.  It's possible that you don't have a right to demand any viewings, even those which your tenants are aware of.  So your tenants could say "No" to all viewings.  So it looks like the person who drafted the contract has done you no favours at all: They have left you in a weaker legal position than if they had a much less strident clause.  I have a clause along the lines of "Viewings to be permitted during final x weeks of tenancy, to be arranged by mutual convenience" which puts me in a stronger position than you.

Please let us know how you got on.