Renters right... Property is for sale (California: house, tenant, landlords)

[sunflower1160]

Hi everyone,
Can anyone tell me what are my rights as a tenant in my single family home, as far as showings go? I am only finding laws in California. My landlord seems to have a very pushy agent. I have made it clear what times work best for me. However She tries to make me feel guilty when I say those times don't work. How many showing is reasonable in a week? Can I just outright refuse these showings? we have 2 months left on the lease.
Thanks

[Drover]

The owner has right of entry pretty much whenever they want within reasonable hours and they are not obligated to accommodate your schedule. If you've tried to reason with them and they don't feel like being accommodating, unfortunately your only realistic option at that point is to suck it up.

[Retiredcoach]

Generally, your rights will be spelled out in the lease that you have signed. Recheck your lease.... In the leases that I use, I specify a 24 hour notice before a showing. If I sell the property, the lease specifies that the lease will be honored by a future owner through conclusion.

On a side note, most landlords will want to be very considerate in scheduling for showings with the tenant. No landlord/seller will want to agitate the tenant when a property is for sale/for rent. It may be passive aggressive, but what will be the tenant's motivation to make the unit "showable" when the landlord/realtor lacks the consideration of infringing upon the tenant's life? That dirty laundry dispersed throughout the house, the unkempt living areas, unflushed toilets, dirty dishes around the home.... will definitely not help in the sale, and most landlords should appreciate it when you are considerate of their desires to sell. Maybe your landlord might need to be gently reminded how challenging it is for you to keep his house prepped to sell at his best times, not yours.

[PghREA]

The generally accepted practice is to give 24 hours notice for a showing. When I list a rental property, I talk to the tenant and find out what hours work best for him. The more cooperative a tenant is - the sooner we can get the property under agreement and then the showings stop.

[Bong477]

The agent's job is to sell the property, not accomodate your schedule. Look at it from your landlords perspective, she/he has a lot of financial risk here versus your temporary inconveince. Unless your lease spells out something specific, you don't really have any rights. General practice is to show the proprety to everyone interested and to give you 24 hours notice before doing so. Realize a lot of people seeing the property may be from out of town and can't just come whenever it is best for you. If you have some extraordinary circumstances (hypothetically say a birthday party for your daughter) they should be willing to work with you.

As long as the agent isn't being ridicoulous like showing the property at 11pm and showing up unannounced, you should really just suck it up and deal.

[aveojohn]

Originally Posted by Drover

The owner has right of entry pretty much whenever they want within reasonable hours and they are not obligated to accommodate your schedule. If you've tried to reason with them and they don't feel like being accommodating, unfortunately your only realistic option at that point is to suck it up.

You are wrong.---Tenant Rights

[Drover]

Originally Posted by aveojohn

You are wrong.---Tenant Rights

I didn't see anything in there that contradicts what I said. Perhaps you could be more specific?

[sunflower1160]

Its funny you say birthday parties etc.. I have a party for my son at 11am, and the agent is insisting on bringing in people at 10:30. My landlords response you have 24 hr notice, therefore deal.What an Ass!

[aveojohn]

Originally Posted by Drover

I didn't see anything in there that contradicts what I said. Perhaps you could be more specific?

The landlord must give at least 24 hrs notice before entering your home. He cannot enter your home at will, unless it's an emergency.

[hempfield mania]

Originally Posted by sunflower1160

Its funny you say birthday parties etc.. I have a party for my son at 11am, and the agent is insisting on bringing in people at 10:30. My landlords response you have 24 hr notice, therefore deal.What an Ass!

If it were me, I'd go on as normal and get ready for the party and tell the Agent that you can make no guarantees of how the place will look or how accommodating you can be when they are there. I'd totally ignore them while they were there and before they made their way through, tell the agent the party starts promptly at 11 am and you expect them to be out of the house by 10:50am. 20 min. should be plenty of time to look at the interior (for a first look) and they can look outside after that.

Most people know within the first 5 min. if it is a place they will be interested in and they won't be doing a detailed inspection at this point anyhow.