Managing Agent inspections & COVID-19

Landlord Discussion
1

Hello there,

I am hoping you can help me with a question I have regarding property management agent rental inspections throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

We’re there any specific dates during the COVID outbreak in England which meant that managing agents could not visit a property in person for a letting inspection and we’re in effect deemed “non-essential”.

My agent is citing the Coronavirus Act 2020 for failing to undertake multiple inspections on my property and I’m just wondering if this is a valid reason for not carrying out any sort of inspection (including video inspections).

I am aware that an agent could not enter a property where the rule of 6 applied along with not entering a property whilst a household member is self-isolating but are there any other rules which restricted access and do these rules have specific dates applied to them?

The agent also continued to take their full management fee during this period.

Regards,
Jimbob

2

I cannot remember the exact dates but the government banned landlord entrance to rentals unless it was an emergency at the time of the first lockdown. The disease had just emerged and no one knew the risks so we were stopped from entering. However certificates were not delayed so gas engineers could enter.
I delayed all routine inspections until the summer, circa July.

1 Like