+44 (0)20 7408 5155 enquiries@residentialland.com

Louise Savage, Sales & Marketing Director at Residential Land writes a monthly column for City AM offering readers advice on renting properties in the capital. Some of the most recent questions include:

Dear Louise, my neighbours make a lot of noise. Do my rights as a tenant mean that the landlord should deal with this?

This intrusive problem is very common and causes a huge amount of distress to thousands of people. Visit your neighbour first. They may not even realise how loud they are or that they are disturbing you and a polite chat may be enough to solve the problem without antagonising them and starting a feud.

If this doesn’t work, you can contact your landlord, but he is only likely to get involved if your neighbours are tenants of his and there is a clause in their contract relating to noise disturbance.

The next step would be to approach your local council.  Usually the environmental health department deal with noise issues. Prepare your case before you go so they can take the best possible action in the shortest space of time. You will need a note of regular times, dates and types of noise that have occurred. Action can vary from a council representative visiting the noise makers to a mediation company getting involved to help everyone come to a suitable agreement.

Dear Louise, our landlord has decided to sell our flat in Whitechapel. What are our rights?

You are entitled to stay in the property for the full fixed period of your tenancy agreement subject to any break clauses that are agreed before you move in. If your landlord decides to sell the property during this time, he must sell the flat as an occupied premises with you as a ‘tenant in place’. A change of landlord does not affect your tenancy in any way and you have exactly the same rights with the new owner as you did with the previous one.

If he wants to sell the flat as a vacant unit, he can ask you if you would be willing to leave before the end of your tenancy and may be willing to offer you compensation if you agree. If you don’t want to go, there are strict rules to protect you from harassment.

You will need to allow your landlord access to the property to show prospective purchasers around. Check your tenancy agreement but he usually has to give between 24 and 48 hours notice.  This can be disruptive and you are entitled to ‘quiet enjoyment’ of your home so the landlord has to be reasonable.

I suggest that you agree set times every week when you are happy for viewings to take place.  If this includes at least one weekday evening up to say 7.30pm and a morning or afternoon on a Saturday then everyone should be happy. I suggest you don’t agree to carrying out any viewings yourself and try to be strict with the times.

If you stay in the property and get a new landlord, make sure your security deposit has been transferred and speak to the new landlord or their managing agent before changing your rental payment method, both to introduce yourself and to provide yourself with comfort that you know what is going on.

——————————————————–

Residential Land are prime central London’s largest private landlord.  Properties to rent througout the capital with flats available in Bayswater, Marylebone, Pimlico, South Kensington and many more.