Will My Landlord Visit Our House?

No tenant wants to be sat at home, worrying about unexpected visitors turning up at the door. You also don’t want to be disturbed by your landlord popping over unannounced. You may have friends’ round or a mound of washing all over the bedroom floor. If you are worried about an unexpected Landlord visit, read all about what you can expect during your tenancy.

As a tenant, you have the right to a decent, warm and safe place in which to live. To ensure this happens, your Letting Agent or Landlord will visit your house. There will also be with essential maintenance visits needed throughout your tenancy. But don’t worry, you must be told in writing at least 24 hours before any visit. This will give you enough time and peace of mind that you can relax and forget about surprise visits.

What visits can I expect?

If Prolet manages the home you live in, there are several reasons why someone will need to visit your property.

An initial check
- We will visit around 4 to 6 weeks after you have moved in. This happens to ensure everything is going ok and to check that tenants and landlords are fulfilling their contractual responsibilities. It also provides an opportunity to bring attention to something which might result in charges or deductions when the time comes to return deposits. If anything comes to light, we can then work together to avoid any unexpected costs.

Scheduled inspections
- These take place a couple of times a year to keep a regular check on the property. They allow us to spot any general deterioration before it becomes a problem, such as a small leak in the roof that as a tenant, you might not have noticed.

Routine maintenance visits
- For example the annual gas safety check.

Specific maintenance visits
- Visits relating to any issue you have raised. This could be to mend or replace furniture, change a faulty electrical item or sort out a misbehaving boiler.

Viewings
- Towards the end of the tenancy, we will start to look for new tenants who will understandably want to view the property. For student tenants, this can begin quite far in advance of a tenancy ending, around November and December time, when students start to research their options for the next academic year.

Will I always be told when a visit is going to happen?

Where it’s sensible, you will always be told, usually in an email that a visit is going to happen. The aim is always to provide as much notice as possible and with at least a day’s notice. Obviously, if you’ve pointed out that your boiler isn’t working and someone can come and fix it within the hour, you will probably be more than happy not to wait the whole 24 hours in a cold house! In this case, common sense kicks in and providing a conversation has taken place with at least one tenant, verbal agreement with a confirmation email keeps everyone happy.

The only times when a landlord or Letting Agent do not require permission to access the property is in the case of an emergency. These instances are rare and usually happen because lives are at risk, such as a fire, a gas leak or flooding.

Anything Else I Need to know?

Emails are the best way to ensure we let as many tenants within a property know of an upcoming visit. We have had instances of emails not being seen thanks to spam filters. To avoid missing out on important information, it’s a good idea to add the following Prolet email addresses as safe senders within your email address book.

letting-enquiries@prolet.co.uk

student-enquiries@prolet.co.uk

customer.services@prolet.co.uk

How to add an email as a safe sender >>

Finally, if you have a maintenance issue to report that is likely to result in a property visit, always please use our Report a Repair system as your first port of call.