This is day 23 of my 31 days of tips on tenancy agreements series. To see the rest of the series click here.
Access for inspections and repairs
If you are to keep a property in repair (see Day 20), you need to be able to go and take a look at it every now and again, to see whether there is anything which needs repairing. Also you can’t always rely on tenants to tell you things, and if repairs are not done quickly they can get out of hand and become a lot more expensive.
Section 11 (6) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 therefore allows for this:
In a lease in which the lessor’s repairing covenant is implied there is also implied a covenant by the lessee that the lessor, or any person authorised by him in writing, may at reasonable times of the day and on giving 24 hours’ notice in writing to the occupier, enter the premises comprised in the lease for the purpose of viewing their condition and state of repair.
Although this is implied into all tenancy agreements to which s11 applies, it is considered good practice to include a clause on access for inspections in your tenancy agreements.
Note though that even though this is a legal right, the tenants right to keep everyone out of his property will override it, and if he does not want to let you in, you will be trespassing if you use your keys to go in anyway. The only time you are entitled to go in without specific consent is in case of emergency (and that means something serious, such as a fire).
Tenants do sometimes get upset about landlords coming round to look at their property and consider it to be an invasion of their privacy. You therefore need to be careful to be polite and not intrude too much.
Frequency of inspection visits can be an issue. How often should you go round? Yearly is not really enough, weekly is definitely too often! Quarterly is probably about right, with perhaps monthly visits if there are problems at the property which you need to keep an eye on.
Some landlords have told me that they write the inspection days into the tenancy agreement so that there will be no argument. However if the tenant decides that he doesn’t want you there, it still won’t entitle you to use your keys and go in when he is not there.
The covenant of quiet enjoyment
I should probably mention here that this is a term or concept which is implied into all tenancy agreements. It does not mean that tenants have to be quiet or enjoy themselves (!) it just means that the landlord should leave tenants to live in the property in peace.
Generally tenancy agreements will have a specific clause for this, but it will still apply even if the clause is missing. For example a tenancy agreement clause saying that the landlord can enter the property whenever he likes will be unfair and therefore void.
Inspections and keys
Talking about keys, it is a good idea to provide in the tenancy agreement that you are entitled to have and hold keys to the property. I generally add in my tenancy agreements that the landlord shall not use them to enter the property without the tenants permission (which is just stating the law). However if the tenant decides that he does not want you interfering and changes the locks, there is not much you can do about this, other than perhaps charge him for new locks at checkout.
If the reason the tenant has changed the locks though is because you have been using your keys to enter the property without asking permission first (which will be in breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment), then he will be justified in doing this and you will not be entitled to any compensation.
Do you have any comments on this section? Have you had problems with inspections? Do you have any special clauses about keys?
Tomorrow I will be looking at clauses ending the tenancy.
Related posts:
The Landlord Law Blog from Tessa Shepperson