As I understand it, a landlord must give at least 24 hours notice to a tenant before they enter the property (In accordance with the Housing Act 1988).
However, the landlord must also obtain permission from the tenant before they enter the property.
My question is this:
A property company owns the flat I rent, and they (and their contractors) send me letters with the following wording.
We will be visiting your flat on “date” to perform “maintenance/safety checks/inspections”. You do not need to be in attendance, we have keys to access the property.
No “is this convenient for you, or, would you like to re-arrange?”.
They are not asking for my permission to enter the flat, they are just telling me when they are going to attend and they will let themselves regardless if I’m there or not.
Is this legal? If I don’t reply to the letter, does that imply I have given them permission?
Unfortunately I only receive these letters a few days in advance of the visit so if I’ve been away on business/holiday/visiting relatives, by the time I return, someone has already been in my flat. This is very undesirable because I do not trust tradespeople who I do not know to be in my flat when I’m not there (for security and privacy reasons).
I have tried to get the property company to increase the notice period but the response I get is that they only legally have to give me 24 hours notice.
Am I within my rights to say “you do not have permission (except for emergencies) to enter the flat unless I reply to your notification explicitly giving you permission, and if you do enter without my explicit permission then I will take you to court for trespass/harassment”?