Tenant Rights - Landlord Access

Soldato
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Snorbans, UK
Evening folks,

Currently having a little issue with my landlords.

For context, I live in a shared house - each of us have an individual contract for our rooms - in which the “communal area” is referenced.

Our landlord is constantly “popping in”, or not giving 24 hours notice when visiting the house - then sending messages to all of us moaning about a dish or two left in the sink, or someone’s personal item left in a communal area. For example, a text at 7pm stating that they “need access tomorrow morning for a light switch to be fitted”.

My question is, is he allowed to just come into the house whenever he feels like it, given we each have a contract for our rooms only? Do our contracts cover the communal area also, especially considering we have use of all the amenities in this area, kitchen, tv, etc etc?

What say you, GD?

TIA :)
 
Soldato
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13 Aug 2008
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7,051
You have a landlord who is looking after the communal area, deal with it.

And wash up scruffy get.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
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Deep North
Sounds like a have-a-go landlord that has emotional attachment to the property and sees it as his "home" rather than a business.

A mate was renting a house a the landlord and his wife used to randomly turn up unannounced to cut the lawns etc and always tried to invite themselves in. He was more than capable of doing the lawns himself.
 
Soldato
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I have a house inspection every 3 months, but she gives me like week notice asking me for date/time to turn up. Just has quick poke around and leaves....

I give house a clean / spruce it up. But I admit I live messy when no inspection is due.... HOWEVER! that mess never includes anything that could damage the house or break anything.

Just few dishes clothes etc lying around.

Your landlord sounds pretty petty tbh...
 
Soldato
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Cheshire
Just ask him why he pops round so often. Perhaps next time he is round, just assure him you'll look after the place and respect it.

Sometimes that's all that is needed. It's good to talk.
 
Soldato
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Legally you can't stop him if you only rent a room, perhaps ask him to give you notice out of courtesy.

Why, he's not going in his room he's checking the communal areas for the good of everyone.

It's people seeing the entire communal house as theirs and behaving like pigs that creates the need for this.

Hmo rules are different to normal houses. You have to ensure that its sanitary and everyone is behaving. They are a pain to be fair because you get precious souls complaining to the council that there's pots in the sink and other sweeties complaining to the council that their privacy is being invaded as they are being asked to clean said pots which puts the licence at risk.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Nov 2002
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Snorbans, UK
Just ask him why he pops round so often. Perhaps next time he is round, just assure him you'll look after the place and respect it.

Sometimes that's all that is needed. It's good to talk.

I've had a discussion before with him, we had come to a verbal "quid pro quo" agreement, ie he stops coming in and commenting on every little thing and we won't enforce the 24 hour notice rule - this was to do with access to rooms for viewings etc. To be clear, these were comments about the odd cereal bowl in the sink, not piles and piles of dirty dishes.

Legally you can't stop him if you only rent a room, perhaps ask him to give you notice out of courtesy.

That's fair - however our contract also mentions the communal areas of the house. He does usually give us notice to be fair, but he's also been known to "pop in" and we regularly find contractors in the house fixing little things which we aren't informed about.

It's people seeing the entire communal house as theirs and behaving like pigs that creates the need for this.

I 100% agree - however as I said above, the odd cereal bowl in the sink isn't an issue. The communal areas are kept neat and tidy. Here's an example, by our hob/stove we have a small collection of oil and seasonings - maybe 3 or 4 items. These are kept neatly there as we all use them. When the landlord is conducting a viewing he puts them away in a random cupboard or throws them in the bin - he's expecting a show home rather than a house that's lived in. Like someone has commented above, he's quite petty like that.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2012
Posts
7,809
Evening folks,

Currently having a little issue with my landlords.

For context, I live in a shared house - each of us have an individual contract for our rooms - in which the “communal area” is referenced.

Our landlord is constantly “popping in”, or not giving 24 hours notice when visiting the house - then sending messages to all of us moaning about a dish or two left in the sink, or someone’s personal item left in a communal area. For example, a text at 7pm stating that they “need access tomorrow morning for a light switch to be fitted”.

My question is, is he allowed to just come into the house whenever he feels like it, given we each have a contract for our rooms only? Do our contracts cover the communal area also, especially considering we have use of all the amenities in this area, kitchen, tv, etc etc?

What say you, GD?

TIA :)

So basically you are living in an HMO.? Bedsits if you like.

ie are you lodgers rather that tenants? (Do your T&C's allow him to give you your marching orders on a whim, or do you have to be given notice?)

If you are lodgers then it is his house, his rules.
 
Soldato
OP
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7 Nov 2002
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Snorbans, UK
So basically you are living in an HMO.? Bedsits if you like.

ie are you lodgers rather that tenants? (Do your T&C's allow him to give you your marching orders on a whim, or do you have to be given notice?)

If you are lodgers then it is his house, his rules.

I'd need to check this - but as far as I'm aware we're tenants, not lodgers.

How long does it take to wash up a cereal bowl? 30 seconds maybe? That seems to be the obvious solution here.

I was merely giving an example. Not being so facetious would be an even easier solution.
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
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58,899
He can enter all communal areas whenever he likes.

^^this pretty much

I don't really see the privacy issue with regards to the communal area in this case if you're renting a room. One of the other rooms could become vacant an he can just move a stranger in there anyway, it isn't like you're all flatmates who are friends with each other or at least selected the other flatmates and are jointly renting the whole place.


anyway:

https://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2...rds-rights-to-go-into-their-tenants-property/

landlordlawblog said:
Rooms in a shared house
The situation is slightly different if the tenant rents his own room and has the use, together with the other tenants, of the shared parts of the property. Such as kitchen, bathroom, lounge, hallway, passages etc.

Here the tenants’ rights to keep out the landlord will apply to his room. They will not necessarily apply to the shared parts – as he does not have ‘exclusive occupation’ of those areas.

So a landlord will be able to enter the shared parts to inspect, do repairs and show round new tenants, preferably with notice, but possibly even without it.

My view has always been that the landlord will have the right to enter the shared parts to carry out any ‘lawful’ activities but not otherwise.

So a tenant will be entitled to complain, maybe to his local TRO, if the landlord is constantly coming into the property for apparently no good reason but to spy on the tenants, but not if the landlord has come in to fix the taps or do an inspection visit with a new tenant. Whats your view?

I think that sums everything up, but if you disagree or think I have left something out please leave a comment below.

OP - given that you mention the constant repairing/fixing of things it doesn't exactly sound too unreasonable tbh...

So basically you are living in an HMO.? Bedsits if you like.

ie are you lodgers rather that tenants? (Do your T&C's allow him to give you your marching orders on a whim, or do you have to be given notice?)

If you are lodgers then it is his house, his rules.

No. This is wrong, they're not lodgers just because they rent a room/live in an HMO.

A lodger/licensee involves a live in landlord.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
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12,306
OP - given that you mention the constant repairing/fixing of things it doesn't exactly sound too unreasonable tbh...

From the OPs description it sounds as though he is just popping in at times without a need to repair anything just to check/spy on the tenants.

I mean it's fantastic that he's repairing stuff, but is the house in that bad of a state that's requiring him to frequently repair stuff.

@-westy- if I were you I'd start a log/diary of everytime he comes round, the purpose of the visit and how much notice he gave.

At least this way you'll be able to see / have proof of unnecessary visits.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Nov 2002
Posts
12,474
Location
Snorbans, UK
From the OPs description it sounds as though he is just popping in at times without a need to repair anything just to check/spy on the tenants.

I mean it's fantastic that he's repairing stuff, but is the house in that bad of a state that's requiring him to frequently repair stuff.

@-westy- if I were you I'd start a log/diary of everytime he comes round, the purpose of the visit and how much notice he gave.

At least this way you'll be able to see / have proof of unnecessary visits.

I have all the text messages that we've received going back well over a year. The house is not in a state of disrepair - the most common reason for a visit has been the hot water boiler that's been playing up. However we will often receive messages over petty things, such as, "Your kitchen bin is a little full (it wasn't), please consider emptying it soon". Entirely pointless, we can clearly see when bins need emptying :confused:. I understand that notification is needed for major issues or if there is a health hazard for example, but letting us know about day to day stuff isn't needed tbh. Doesn't the constant risk of the landlord "popping in" disturb our right to "covenant for quiet enjoyment"? IMO it's not that reasonable to expect us to follow rules for the communal area such as "no personal items left in communal area", then expect to be able to come and go as they please and contacting us about it most days of the week?
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
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58,899
IMO it's not that reasonable to expect us to follow rules for the communal area such as "no personal items left in communal area", then expect to be able to come and go as they please and contacting us about it most days of the week?

The fact you're not leaving personal items in the common area does sort of indicate that the bits he's visiting are simply basic facilities provided for you to use. It is your room that you're renting and can expect to have quiet enjoyment of.

The text messages could well be excessive, especially over the trivial stuff - but are you exaggerating a bit there re: "most days of the week?"

I mean if you are literally getting a text message off him 4 or more days a week then that does seem rather needless and worth having a word with him about.
 
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