Hi,
I have served notice on a tenant and the property is up for sale. The tenant is now refusing access for potential buyers due to personal issues. I am trying to work with the tenant but this is making things very difficult. What are my rights with regards this?
1 Comment
Never an easy one.
The tenant has exclusive possession which means they have the right to exclude all persons including the landlord (and agent).
However, such a refusal to allow entry will most likely be a breach of tenancy (check the terms of the agreement to check you are allowed entry to show prospective purchasers).
Assuming it is a term of the tenancy (99% of agreements it will be), enforcing is difficult especially at this time.
You could serve a section 8 notice on ground 12 (breach of a term of the tenancy) but in reality that’s exceptionally difficult to use so you would realistically serve a section 21 notice without any reason being provided.
In addition, you could obtain a court injunction enforcing the contract term allowing entry but in reality that would be extremely lengthy and costly.
Other than negotiation and working as best you can, the only realistic way is obtaining possession after serving a section 21 notice. Unfortunately, at this time, the length of the notice is six months so it’s not so helpful.