The Residential Landlords’ Association found themselves in hot water last month after publishing advice for its members to visit their prospective tenants without warning, before entering a tenancy agreement with them.

The RLA published a blog post of a list of top 10 tips for landlords who are trying to find new tenants. Strangely, they also listed to be cautious of people who live with their parents because ‘often they become a problem.’ The most controversial point, was that landlords should make an unexpected visit to where the prospective tenants are currently living in order to view how they treat the property and to confirm that they actually live there.

As letting agents Wirral, we work with a lot of landlords and are aware of the fact that the RLA represents around 18,000 landlords who combined let more than one million homes in Britain.

The blog post also said that landlords could serve a tenant notice to leave on the first day of a tenancy. This is so they won’t have any delay in leaving them at the end of the tenancy agreement. However, this practice is in fact soon to be illegal following the passing of the Deregulation Bill in Parliament.

Once a property has been rented, it is illegal for a landlord to visit without providing at least 24 hours notice in writing and checking on prospective tenants on more than one occasion would be a breach of their privacy.

For advice on what is and isn’t appropriate to check on with your tenants, as a landlord; feel free to contact us at Propeller, Wirral Letting Agents.