It is very important for all landlords to understand that tenants have the right of “quiet enjoyment” of a rental property.

This means that the landlord must respect the tenancy, not turn up unannounced, or disturb the tenant in any way without first giving them sufficient and reasonable notice.

Typically, if you want to visit a rental property, you must give your tenants at least 24 hours notice in writing that you wish to attend.

This can be done by email, letter, and/or a text message.

Even then, the tenant may not agree to allow access, and that is their prerogative.

It is worth noting that, aside from the law, there are many legitimate reasons why a tenant may not wish to allow access and it may not be them simply being obstructive.

It could be that they have a health issue, or they have a newborn baby, or they work shifts and they do not wish to be disturbed. Whatever the reason, they are not obliged to give it.

Even if you have a clause written into the tenancy agreement allowing access and viewings, this is unenforceable.

Selling a tenanted property

The issue of allowing viewings often comes into play when a landlord wants to sell up and they need the co-operation of the tenant to allow prospective buyers to view the property.

Generally speaking, if the landlord has maintained a respectful and good communication with the tenant throughout the tenancy, the tenant is often agreeable.

However, some tenants, understandably, who realise they will be forced to leave their rental home due to the sale, may decide that they are not going to be co-operative.

They may take the view that they do not wish to be disturbed while working out their notice, and that is their legal right.

This causes a problem for the landlord as it means they cannot start marketing the property for sale until the property has been vacated.

As selling a property in the UK typically takes between 4 to 8 months (although there are signs that it is taking even longer in the current Brexit uncertainty), this means that the landlord will not be in receipt of any rent during this period. They may also be liable for council tax (depending on the policy of the local authority), they will have to pay standing utilities, and their insurance premium may increase as an empty property is regarded as higher risk.

The other issue about an empty property is that it can be subject to asset theft, criminal activity, and damage from something like water ingress, if there is no one in the property to report it.

When a property goes on the market, there is no guarantee it will sell and this leaves landlords with an open-ended time frame of how long they will have to pay the mortgage for without receiving any rent.

If this is not financially viable for you in your situation, then our professional property buying service might be the answer.

At LandlordBuyer, we specialise in buying tenanted properties in any condition, with any type of tenancy, throughout England and Wales.

In many cases, we do not even need to make an internal inspection, meaning your tenants will not even be aware of the property being sold.

They will receive notification of this from us, once the sale is complete, introducing ourselves as the new landlord.

This means no void for you and a guaranteed sale, as we have a cash fund, to offer certainty and speed of transaction with no disruption to your existing tenants.

If all the paperwork and documentation is to hand and all parties are pro-active, we can complete in as little as 7 days!

This discrete tenanted property buying service is becoming increasingly popular with landlords as it means a certain and guaranteed sale without disturbing the tenants with viewing requests.

We have made the process as simple as possible.

Contact us to sell your property with tenants

Contact us via phone, email, or contact form and we will revert back to you within 48 hours with an offer for your tenanted property.

This is completely at no obligation to you.

If you decide to take up our offer, we will then discuss the time-frame that you wish the sale to take place in.

We can agree a very quick completion or a longer completion, depending on what you wish.

Our aim is to be fast, flexible, friendly, and fair. So do get in touch with us - you have absolutely nothing to lose and a lot to gain - including peace of mind - and that is definitely worth putting a price on!

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