So a new letting agency took over the property I am renting a room in.
I will be moving out soon.
They have told me they intend to come in next week and start redecorating the entire property.
I’ve asked them to not do this work until I’ve left the property, as I work from home and the noise will be very disruptive to my life and ability to do work.
The letting agency have completely ignored my request and insist they are coming to do the work next week.
Surely this breaches my right to peaceful enjoyment of the property?
Do I have any way to stop them? I don’t think it’s fair I should have to live in a building site so they can get ahead on their plans to redecorate the property.
They will be trespassers if they enter your property without your permission. Inform them of that and if they do visit and insist on entry, call the police to remove them.
They are not trespassing in the communal area because the OPs tenancy will be for their room. The landlord can’t come into their room, but they can come into the communal areas.
If this is a licensed HMO then you could involve the Council as it will likely put the landlord in breach of their licence conditions to deprive you of the other services. Even if its not licensed, you could involve them as it would in any case be a breach of the HMO Management Regulations.
Sorry, I did not notice it was a room only situation. Your room(s) are safe from intrusion.
I suggest you write to the agent, ask them for thier schedule of work so that you know what is being done and when, hence the duration of the job, and point out that you are entitled to most of your day being left in peace, and if too noisy for you, or the communal area becomes a health and safety risk, you will call in the Council Environmental Department to intervene. Such action is unlikely as the work should be completed fairly quickly, but the threat may be helpful.
You could also suggest that if unwarranted noise is likely, then perhaps that can take place at agreed times when you have a break, or on the weekend only: you need breaks in any case for personal efficiency. If it is only redecorating, you can ask that the work personnel be quiet and not use music or other noise making devices.
If decorating only, then that should not take too long. Depending on staff resourcing, about 2 to 3 days per ‘room’ (hall + kitchen + TV room, etc). Think of this as an unexpected opportunity to do something different: you could give yourself a well deserved break for the week - visit friends, or clients!
Of course, at worst, see if you can work at the local library or a friend’s place, or even in a quiet place that the agent can provide, otherwise you expect a significant reduction in your rent if noise is expected during the work lasting several days.
Reduction in rent? Denial of access to other services? What is wrong with people. The landlord wants to decorate, there’s never a convenient time that suits everyone.
Why can’t people be decent enough to accommodate? Landlords are damned if they do and damned if they don’t!
The council would say it’s more than reasonable. Just let them get on with it, use some initiative to work around it.
Haha. Painters could tip toe round in slippers and not even be seen and tenants would still find a reason as to why their lives have been ruined. Me me me.
Hi. I am no legal eagle but I am a landlord who has always valued good tenants. Having read the responses of the other contributors to this thread, I thought the obvious answer is of course the letting agency would be guilty of trespass if they insist on carrying out such non-emergency work without the tenants consent. English law is very clear about the rights of tenants in these circumstances and any clause which gave the landlord this right would be highly questionable in any case. All those who arguing against the tenants right to peacefully enjoy their property are doing so on what grounds? I cant afford to to lose a days rent by waiting until the tenants have left? Sorry but last time I checked Boris was in charge of the UK not Vladimir Putin.
Oh. Further to my last reply, the situation is different for room only properties with communal areas. I think it would be reasonable to seek the consent of all those sharing those areas and agreeing to some kind of schedule. Reduction in rent should be offered if any major disruption was to occur.
Sounds like you have a good HMO landlord who is willing to invest in decorating his property. It is only fair & reasonable that he should be allowed access to do so. Certianly the tenants at my HMO have been very accomodating of my visits and works by my contractors
I think everyone should be aware that this is not a “good HMO landlord”.
I’ve been served notice to leave and the letting agency has harassed me on multiple occasions.
She entered the property without notice and was caught rifling through tenants property.
Threatened to take me to court. But said wouldn’t if I left within 2 weeks rather than stay the entire notice period. Trying to force a tenant out before a notice period is up is harrassment and also a crime isn’t it?
And she has provided no schedule of work, no end date. Vague details on what work will be done. No information whether water or electricity will be cut off. Just says the work is starting this week.
And she has refused to provide a cleaner to clean the communal areas, which is a breach of her HMO obligations.
Given the threats to take me to court, the harrassment and the extremely unprofessional and bullying behaviour of this letting agency, I don’t see how anyone could consider this person a “good HMO landlord”.
In a room only HMO the landlord retains possession of and responsibility for the communal areas. The landlord is therefore responsible for ensuring they are maintained in a clean condition.
Thank you David122. I have read the HMO regulations for the borough I live in and it says just that.
I told the letting agency on Sunday if the cleaning wasn’t done by Thursday of this week, I’d report the property to the council.
That would be 3 weeks she’s been in charge of the property. And from day 1 of her taking over I’d told her it was her hmo responsiblity to clean the communal areas. And it was already over a month since it had last been done by the previous agency. So no cleaning for 7 weeks.
It worked, because she turned up with a cleaner yesterday. And a builder.
They arrived at 1pm and was continuous noise until 8pm. So clearly no respect given to the tenants to work those unsocial hour.
Around 6:30pm, after 5 1/2 hours of constant noise, the power goes out and my computer goes off and I lose half an hours work.
Then I find the letting agency woman hurling some cut hedge branches over a 6ft wall into my garden, breaking my solar lights and damaging my garden bench.
Which part of the HMO regulations gave her the authority to do that Karl2?
It does sound as though they are not keeping to the letter of the law.
Building work and the noise generated should be between the hours of 8am-6pm Monday to Friday and 8am-1pm on Saturdays.
Have you contacted the council as David122 suggested?
I don’t know about the general decorating and any associated noise but not being able to use the kitchen and bathroom surely can’t be right?
