After some considerable concern within the residential lettings industry, the Property Ombudsman has clarified its Code of Conduct about how access to a property should be obtained. The Rules came into force on 1 October 2016, but have been amended so that the wording of Rule 8f is now:“Access to a property may be required by you, or an authorised third party on behalf of the landlord (e.g. a surveyor, builder, tradesman etc) for the purpose of viewing the condition, state of repair and/or to fulfil related statutory obligations and/or to carry out repairs. If, you hold the key but are not able to accompany that person, the tenant must be given the appropriate minimum notice of 24 hours or that prescribed by law, of the appointment, (unless agreed otherwise with the tenant beforehand), except in cases of genuine emergency. Notwithstanding providing the tenant with reasonable notice to access a property, express consent from the tenant to do so should be obtained.”
Until this clarification was produced, the Rule appeared to impose an absolute requirement on obtaining tenant consent to the visit. Now, the wording is that such permission “should” be obtained. That allows flexibility where there is an unco-operative occupier or suspected abandonment.
So, the agent must write to a tenant and request access and do so with a minimum of 24 hours before the access is to occur. Tthe tenant should be asked to confirm if access is acceptable. However, the absence of response does not mean that the access may not happen – whereas under the previous position the agent was at risk of being in breach of the Ombudsman Rules if there was entry without a tenant’s written consent.
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