Tenant Rights - Landlord Access

[-westy-]

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

 

[-westy-]

Is this in the UK, or Courtenay, BC?

Apologies, it’s in the UK.

 

[-westy-]

Sounds like a have-a-go landlord that has emotional attachment to the property and sees it as his "home" rather than a business.

Yep, I’d agree with that.

 

[-westy-]

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.

 

[-westy-]

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.

 

[-westy-]

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 . 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?

 

[-westy-]

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.

I thought as much, re: room vs communal area.

Sadly I'm not exaggerating, we receive 4-5 messages a week about the house. Some of it is needed, ie letting us know about maintenance issues etc, the rest is just moaning about trivial things. The latest was threatening to charge us if a significant other stayed overnight at the house for more than 2 nights a month and demanding that we seek "approval" with 48 hours notice.

 

[-westy-]

An easy reply would be;

"Thank you for your text message. We have considered emptying the bin, but decided against it. Kind regards. Westy."

I also had a landlady who used to do this. Again, random people renting rooms from her but communal spaces were considered shared but not exclusively rented by us. She used to just appear several times a week and complain about things. I once had a text off her while I was at work saying something like 'I'm going to rearrange the furniture in your room today'. I very quickly informed her she did not have permission to go into my room, and my furniture was to stay where it was.

In my 11 months there, in the 4 bed house I saw 9 people come and go, excluding me. And she wondered why she had such a high turnover!

All of us that lived there received the message about SOs staying over. He received an array of sarcastic responses which were thinly veiled "**** off", so I think the overall message was received.