How does openRent protect the rights of the tenant’s statutory right to ‘quiet enjoyment’? Can the landlord just ask builders to repaint the whole flat (nothing for maintenance but perhaps looks newer for viewers and new tenants) disturbing the tenants living in the property?
Nothing really to do with Openrent. Its between you and the landlord. You can protect your own quiet enjoyment by saying no and not letting the builders in. However, a compromise where they paint it whilst your out would be advisable especially as you will benefit to some extent.
Hi @Pui_Ying - Thanks for posting.
It sounds like you are potentially annoyed by a particular situation with your current landlord. As such we’d advise speaking to them directly, and telling them you aren’t happy with providing access for painting works. I suspect most landlords would be happy to accommodate or come to an agreement that suits all parties.
In terms of the legal question around access to a property and quiet enjoyment, we have an article on that exact topic here that might be helpful to you:
Not all landlords are reasonable, of course we have discussed with them. All they care is just money and new tenants.
I would suggest anyone avoid OpenRent if you are a tenant, their contracts sucks
It’s at the end of the tenancy, not sure how this would benefit my stay. And the wall actually looks fine, the landlord just want to make live difficult as we are leaving
Have you fallen out with the landlord prior to this about the painting ?
The landlord wants to makes things difficult as you are leaving?
It’s not unreasonable for a landlord to repaint their property periodically. Cant you show some goodwill?
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This is a ridiculous statement. And totally unreasonable. Suggesting the boycotting of openrent because you don’t like their contract!
Allowing landlord access to his own property to perform works is standard in tenancy agreements, and more than reasonable!
If you don’t like it buy your own property and be in control.
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It is not repairment work, the landlord is just doing decorative work which is totally unnecessary. If you are living in the property, would you go and repaint every single wall if they looks okay? If they are doing disruptive work and making the living place inhabitable, it’s the landlord problem apparently.
Of course not. If I am allowed to take any photo of the property, anyone would know how ridiculous it is to repainting the walls, there’s not even a single scratch on any of them.
You do realise Openrent are just a platform, don’t you? The contract is just a template that they offer, and they are quite limited in being able to enforce the terms of the contract. That is essentially up to you and the landlord, with escalation routes available to you in the form of various council departments, solicitors, Shelter / Citizens Advice, etc.
Boycotting Openrent because you don’t like their contracts is a bit like telling people not to use Google or Facebook because you don’t like the products that other people offer via these platforms.
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Yes, I realise it is just a platform, that’s why it is GOOD to let other potential tenants know about this pitfall in their contract that actually does not protect them. Is that what a platform should be? Allow people to voice out?
LL need protecting also. LL having access to their hard earned property to decorate or modify is acceptable to the vast majority of tenants. Didn’t you read the contract perform signing?
Good look continuing to rent as more and more LL sell up due to tougher legislation.
As others have pointed out, it’s up to yourself to protect your right to quiet enjoyment. This is a statutory right as you mentioned i.e. this is a codified legal right, so all tenants are entitled to this (unless an emergency) regardless of the contract. This isn’t a “pitfall” of the contract - I’ve seen lots of contracts by letting agents and they are all very similar. You can also see other AST contract templates by doing a quick search. Even if your contract didn’t include this specific wording, it would be superceded by these statutory rights. So I’m not sure why you think the issue is with the contract? You’re obviously welcome to “voice out” but you need to be aware that you’re “voicing out” to the right people i.e. your landlord in this case.
Don’t delete your message @Mark10 , you are suggesting:
- The contract from OpenRent actually allows landlords to do whatever work they want in the property
- While the tenant is still paying rent for the property
- and the landlord is doing unnecessary work when the tenant is still living in the property so he can decorate while someone is still paying him rent instead of doing this work after the tenant has left
- leaving the tenant going to a hotel to stay because of the work being done is too disruptive
Is a reasonable deal for any tenant totally ignoring the tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment ? And I am being unreasonable to voice it here ? I really do hope to keep this message here so all potential tenants planning to use OpenRent would be aware of this
Does the contract you read and signed say so?
You are able to answer your own question.
Give and take relationships work best. Consideration and compromise.
The scale of the landlord can affect their work schedule. IE booking contractors to do many properties may make it impossible to tie it in with empty periods. A landlord with one property can be more flexible than one with a hundred.
Some flats require periodic painting as part of the higher lease.
A lot we dont know here.
Personally I usually repaint between tenancies or sometimes during if in agreement.
Why do you think that the Openrent contract allows the landlord to enter for non-essential work against your wishes? It doesn’t. No contract can do that. There is only one person in control of whether your landlord is allowed in to paint the place and that’s you. You can say no. You can lock the door.
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Look at all those comments above, every LL thinks they have permission to do whatever they want in the property.
And I really appreciate how openRent keeps this thread, so transparent to see what type of people are here in this community and what kind of support you can actually get from here as a tenant. It’s the tenant to judge whether to use this platform after all
@Pui_Ying As mentioned multiple times you can allow landlord to do work in their property or not.
I notice how you choose to not respond to valid points that can affect the circumstances.
Its good how the thread remains active to expose those unwilling to look at the facts and not answer questions that can effect advice given, nor find out relevant info before making up their mind.
You were quick to advise everyone to boycott the platform without any understanding at all. Totally unreasonable.
Thousands and thousands of hours of credible advice has been given by many experienced landlords here, whereas all anyone can see of yourself is ignorance with attitude.
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You clearly have a landlord-bashing agenda and are not interested in the facts, which are that you failed to uphold your own rights as a tenant.
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