Tenant has any rights when house being sold?

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#1233596 9-Feb-2015 17:22

IMHO reasonable would be an immediate refund of the agency fees you paid & a $50 a week reduction in rent,and one open home a week is reasonable.

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networkn

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#1233598 9-Feb-2015 17:23

TeaLeaf: its your tone, its the way you speak to people not your opinion. your opinion is that it is unreasonable for me to ask for fornightly viewings when im paying the full rent. the contract i signed is not what i am getting now. so i will ask you keep the patronising to yourself. having tact applies to the net just as it does in real life, that was my point.

if you took a job for $10po, then 2 weeks later the business is doing badly, you think its fair they pay you $9po?

of course im open to being reasonable, but the nature of my lease has changed and i am risking losing my valuables. that seems fair to you, you are a VERY open minded person.

Your tone is as much a problem, I have remained calm and I think you need to look up condescending in the dictionary as I am not being condescending, I am trying to help you resolve your issue in a way that works for both parties. (Contrary to your belief, your landlord has rights too).

I've been involved in having houses I've rented being sold on multiple occasions, so I know how it works.

The nature of your lease has not changed in any significant way. (If your employer offered you a 1/168th payrise, I am sure you'd be unimpressed. The more co-operative you are, the likely faster the situation will be resolved.

You need to take the emotion out of the situation, I know it can seem stressful, but it's actually a situation that occurs every single day and there are fair guidelines. If you take an immediately hostile approach to this, something I detected in your original post), then your landlord is just as likely to take a reactionary position and this will be
way worse than it needs to be.

You may want to consider that the landlord probably isn't out to get you, and it's possible and even likely they are even less happy about the situation than you are.

SATTV

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#1233620 9-Feb-2015 17:53

I have had this happen to me before.

Always be on site when there is an open home.

Always be present when a real estate agent is showing a client around.

For us we found the real estate agents could not do a simple thing like set the alarm when they leave and we came home so many times and the alarm was off.

As a former landlord selling a tenanted house I know it is an issue having open homes every week and expecting the tenant to keep the house tidy for those open homes and inspections. A 5% - 10% rent reduction is reasonable.

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Glassboy

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#1233659 9-Feb-2015 18:46

TeaLeaf: well as a prior landlord i disagree, i think they are extremely favoured toward the landlord. nz needs housing reform. but thats another topic.

all i want to know is if i have to let them through my house tomorrow morning to take photos and look around. i would have thought more than 24 hours notice required.

The fact of the matter is that most landlords and property agents have a poor knowledge of the Residential Tenancy act and what the are entitled to do, so there is no correlation between being a landlord and being an expert. Your claim is also made a little bit more absurd by the fact that you have demonstrated no knowledge so far, and have asked a basic question that anyone who'd even read their tenancy would know the answer to.

Networkn has made some reasonable points and you seem to be going out of your way to be rude to him. It would seem - being the great expert - that you have just posted because you wanted to have a whine and anyone disagreeing with you is inconvenient.

Also in the NZ context "housing reform" refers to social housing. It pretty much means that in other jurisdictions as well. The govt is currently putting a lot of work into it. I'm sure there will be a select committee or consultation that you can impact your wisdom to.

trig42

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#1233929 10-Feb-2015 09:47

If you are on a periodic lease, just hand in your notice.
The Landlord then misses out on your rent for the weeks that it is on the market and not sold, they wont find new tenants if it is on the market.

When you hand in your notice, tell them that you would stay on in return for reduced rent in lieu of having to be there and keep the place tidy for Open Homes.

networkn

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#1233955 10-Feb-2015 09:55

trig42: If you are on a periodic lease, just hand in your notice.
The Landlord then misses out on your rent for the weeks that it is on the market and not sold, they wont find new tenants if it is on the market. When you hand in your notice, tell them that you would stay on in return for reduced rent in lieu of having to be there and keep the place tidy for Open Homes.

You forget to mention he needs to find a new place (tried the rental market lately), relocate, and move his disabled companion. Hardly seems lack a comparable inconvenience to me. Not to mention the cost.

If giving up an hour a week is too much of an inconvenience, I can't see him moving. It could just as easily happen in any new location (owner sells).

It seems to me that a lot of the suggestions not just in this thread but many others, are focused on "rights" and "getting everything that is owed me" and completely ignore the common sense factor.

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#1233959 10-Feb-2015 09:59

networkn:
trig42: If you are on a periodic lease, just hand in your notice.
The Landlord then misses out on your rent for the weeks that it is on the market and not sold, they wont find new tenants if it is on the market. When you hand in your notice, tell them that you would stay on in return for reduced rent in lieu of having to be there and keep the place tidy for Open Homes.

You forget to mention he needs to find a new place (tried the rental market lately), relocate, and move his disabled companion. Hardly seems lack a comparable inconvenience to me. Not to mention the cost.

If giving up an hour a week is too much of an inconvenience, I can't see him moving. It could just as easily happen in any new location (owner sells).

It seems to me that a lot of the suggestions not just in this thread but many others, are focused on "rights" and "getting everything that is owed me" and completely ignore the common sense factor.

I fully agree, I was just putting that up to give them an idea that maybe an hour a week isn't so inconvenient. The other thing would be paying a new letting fee...

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#1233960 10-Feb-2015 10:00

networkn:
It seems to me that a lot of the suggestions not just in this thread but many others, are focused on "rights" and "getting everything that is owed me" and completely ignore the common sense factor.

Well the internet these days is about OUTRAGE.

networkn

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#1233961 10-Feb-2015 10:01

Glassboy:
networkn:
It seems to me that a lot of the suggestions not just in this thread but many others, are focused on "rights" and "getting everything that is owed me" and completely ignore the common sense factor.

Well the internet these days is about OUTRAGE.

Hahah you are so right. It's tiring.

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#1233988 10-Feb-2015 10:50

networkn:
Glassboy:

Well the internet these days is about OUTRAGE.

Hahah you are so right. It's tiring.

This guy has a good take on it https://medium.com/@djamiestanton/hashtag-mythology-dbddb49a83fa

Wade

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#1234001 10-Feb-2015 11:05

TeaLeaf: Situation is they wanted us to sign up to a periodic lease, we thought fine

Assuming this period has already been realized so I doubt there is any scope to return any letting fee as presumably the agents have meet their obligations?

I think i would be putting my energy into finding a new place rather than taking the current landlord to task. Assuming he prices it right it could be sold within a month and you might be lucky to get 6 weeks notice.

In the current climate that might not be long enough to find a suitable replacement rental, start looking now and make your problems the landlords problems i.e.trying to market an empty house :P

cr250bromo

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#1234009 10-Feb-2015 11:17

trig42: The open homes are nothing, wait until the Real Estate Agent shows up on your doorstep unannounced, or rings you 10 minutes before, or comes in while you are out (and leaves a card on the kitchen bench).

Then you can feel violated.

I'd agree to open homes 9half an hour a week isn't too bad) and tell them no to visits at other times. You can't have it all your way - the Landlord has rights too.

I had a situation like this about 10 years ago when I rented an apartment that was for sale. I knew it was for sale and they gave me "discounted" rent in light of that. I was happy to allow access at any reasonable time with prior notice, but I had the real estate agent appear with people wanting to look at the place with no notice at all (putting me in a difficult situation if I said no), and also simply entering the apartment whenever he felt like it to show people around, again with no prior notice when I wasn't there (I wouldn't have known if he hadn't left his card so I guess I should be thankful for that!). I didn't feel the discounted rent compensated me for this.

Then when he thought he had some potential buyers he tried to bully me into agreeing to $100 extra on the rent on the spot so he could make the sale. This was a real estate agent who should have been aware of the RTA. It's not always unreasonable tenants holding landlords to ransom...

/ben

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#1234010 10-Feb-2015 11:17

Glassboy:
Networkn has made some reasonable points and you seem to be going out of your way to be rude to him. It would seem - being the great expert - that you have just posted because you wanted to have a whine and anyone disagreeing with you is inconvenient

hold on you are putting words in my mouth and assuming to inflame the situation. all i was saying is that assuming i am hostile or upset is an assumption and rude. i am not. quite the opposite. i simply wanted to know my rights, not what someone interpreted my response as. and contrary to your "input" I appreciate networkns opinion because like myself I suspect he has been on the other side as a landlord himself.

when you rent a house by moral, you are handing over right to access. otherwise how is a tenant expected to gain any benefit from a tenancy, especially in an overly inflated market.

my point is a hostile agent demanding immediate access and photographing my belongings and demanding weekly open homes is not inline with what i signed up for. of course things can change. but renegotiation is required prior to this change not just an assumption. on a personal level its is extremely inconvenient with a person in the house requiring expert care to be removed from the house weekly. it is not an option for this person to remain in the house due to personal reasons.

on a financial note, im paying top dollar for a pretty shoddy house (typical NZ sub par build made to make money not last the test of time). to then hand over money to an agency who did no advertising for the house as we walked in prior to them advertising, then have that agency become hostile and rude 10 weeks later when we find out the landlord (who are good people) want to sell the house is a bit rich. i have no doubt in my mind they knew prior to taking us on they were looking to sell the house in the near future, which is not he landlord's fault, but to take a letting fee knowing this is pretty immoral imo. and of course with all the above logistics it is a breach of privacy and a right royal PITA to be demanded to do this weekly without regard to who is paying for the property whilst they have access and Im expected to do so at a loss weekly financially (it will cost medical as well as general costs).

then there is the issue of insurance. who is covering my property whilst strangers are left to roam my home and my belongings unsupervised?

so excsuse me, I dont feel I am being unreasonable and to suggest so is simply churlish.

i just want what is fair and within my rights, to find this Im guessing I need to speak to a lawyer or tenancy tribunal.

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#1234012 10-Feb-2015 11:22

Some landlords can be great others not so great

Our last place was put on the market, the landlord gave us 2 options, 1 x open home each week for an hour or 24 hours notice with unlimited. We agreed to the 1 open home but with someone home while people were looking at it. We asked about a reduction on rent but he came back yes because of the open homes, but that then changed to "only if you don't give notice to move" after he found out we were looking. In the end we found a new place in a few days and handed in the notice, he then wanted all the bond "to fix things" when there was nothing wrong and was just going to sell it as is.
Found out from the people next door he tried to take the bond of the last lot of people there as well for the same issue.

In the end I made a deal that he could have 1/2 the bond but no other money would change hands after the end of tenancy, he agreed. So he got around $550.
A few weeks later he emailed about a water bill and how the power was turned off and expected us to pay to get it turned back on (because he never transferred the power back to his name).
I told him no we would not pay anything else as per the agreement to 1/2 of the bond, and if he really wanted to push it then I would see him at tenancy tribunal as he "forgot" to lodge the bond with the bond center, which may have awarded us damages.

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#1234015 10-Feb-2015 11:26

TeaLeaf:
Glassboy:
Networkn has made some reasonable points and you seem to be going out of your way to be rude to him. It would seem - being the great expert - that you have just posted because you wanted to have a whine and anyone disagreeing with you is inconvenient

hold on you are putting words in my mouth and assuming to inflame the situation. all i was saying is that assuming i am hostile or upset is an assumption and rude. i am not. quite the opposite. i simply wanted to know my rights, not what someone interpreted my response as. and contrary to your "input" I appreciate networkns opinion because like myself I suspect he has been on the other side as a landlord himself.

when you rent a house by moral, you are handing over right to access. otherwise how is a tenant expected to gain any benefit from a tenancy, especially in an overly inflated market.

my point is a hostile agent demanding immediate access and photographing my belongings and demanding weekly open homes is not inline with what i signed up for. of course things can change. but renegotiation is required prior to this change not just an assumption. on a personal level its is extremely inconvenient with a person in the house requiring expert care to be removed from the house weekly. it is not an option for this person to remain in the house due to personal reasons.

on a financial note, im paying top dollar for a pretty shoddy house (typical NZ sub par build made to make money not last the test of time). to then hand over money to an agency who did no advertising for the house as we walked in prior to them advertising, then have that agency become hostile and rude 10 weeks later when we find out the landlord (who are good people) want to sell the house is a bit rich. i have no doubt in my mind they knew prior to taking us on they were looking to sell the house in the near future, which is not he landlord's fault, but to take a letting fee knowing this is pretty immoral imo. and of course with all the above logistics it is a breach of privacy and a right royal PITA to be demanded to do this weekly without regard to who is paying for the property whilst they have access and Im expected to do so at a loss weekly financially (it will cost medical as well as general costs).

then there is the issue of insurance. who is covering my property whilst strangers are left to roam my home and my belongings unsupervised?

so excsuse me, I dont feel I am being unreasonable and to suggest so is simply churlish.

i just want what is fair and within my rights, to find this Im guessing I need to speak to a lawyer or tenancy tribunal.

In the end its just easier to let them have an hour on saturday or sunday for open homes, otherwise they will started the "24 hours is reasonable notice" as there have been a number of TT orders saying 24 hours notice is reasonable.

Also if you are upset about the letting fee talk to the landlord and ask for refund of that (not a rent reduction) if the place sells in the next 6 months, point out to them that you would have never taken it if you knew they would put it on the market and that you are already out of pocket for letting fee/moving etc.

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