My tenant has provided two months’ notice as per our agreement. However, he is refusing to allow any viewings until he moves into his new house, which is one month from now. This leaves me with only one month to find a new tenant. I am concerned this is not enough time; what are my legal options or suggestions to resolve this?
I always let tenants move out and then do viewings . You can then tidy the place up and do any work. An untidy place can put off future tenants. If they do not move in time AND you have a person who wants to move in, you may be stitched up. This is all ,no doubt ,very obvious to you
Thank you for reply Colin but I think 1 month is not really enough to get a genuine tenant. And he asking to give a reference to the new landlord but I have not inspected the property any suggestions?
Tell him no inspection , no reference. You may want to say also no viewings, no reference. That is a chance you take. I am not bothered on my places if it takes 2 months to find a tenant. My tenants stay for years anyway. All landlords will have a different view of how to handle this.
1 Like
If that is your viewpoint, then you will have budgeted to allow for a void of more than one month.
As soon as Ts give notice, I do a pre-checkout inspection. During that, I flag any issues that may impact their full deposit being returned so that they have a chance to remedy them.
I’m not sure why he needs a reference if he’s already got a move in date. He’s already got a tenancy lined up.
My suspicion is that he possibly doesn’t actually have a tenancy and is worried that if things fall through with his application for a new place, he won’t have anywhere to go. That’s why he’s refusing viewings.
As Colin says, much, much better to wait until property is in tip top shape before you advertise it again anyway. I’d sit tight and wait until he hands back keys and be ready to move asap to get it back on the market.
Don’t think you can insist on access for viewings it’s not part of LL duties to maintain property so at their discretion. If place needs cleaning/work done may not be a good idea anyway. but if you can fit round their availability (people often want to be there if strangers in house) and say it will help if you can say they were co operative and helpful in your reference, they might be more amenable.
As @tatemono suggests, I’d get an inspection visit booked in asap use it to take photos and discuss with tenant anything needing fixing and cleaning so that (subject to moving out day photos) tenant can get property back to you in as good a state as possible and get as much of their deposit back as possible.
If property is actually in a reasonable state, maybe use some of those photos to advertise a week before they depart and line up viewing for when tenant has gone.
Good luck