Tenants need to read their lease

Q:

For the past six years we have rented a house. Our lease runs from Aug. 1 to July 31. Last month our landlord informed us that he was going to put the house on the market.

We were talking about finding our own home so this was not really a problem or a surprise because we had talked about this being our last year here when we renewed our lease last year.

But then, with a little over a week’s notice, we were suddenly thrust into a situation where realtors were all over the house. My concern was for our possessions.

We have some valuable collections and I called the landlord to ask him for a few weeks so we could pack up our stuff. He said that he wouldn’t do that.

The tension was starting to grow between us. We have had a wonderful landlord/tenant relationship for the past six years. We never missed a payment and took very good care of the house, which was hard as we have two young children.

We felt like we had no control over our own possessions and our privacy. I realize it is his house and he has the right to show it, but do the tenants have rights in this situation?

We were told by some other realtors that we could basically set the times for which the house could be shown. That lasted about two days and when the landlord found out we had set limits he was angry.

He told us that he has to be able to show the house when the buyers are in the mood and that we were restricting him too much. We had given the realtor a schedule of weekdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The landlord wanted from 11 am. to 4 p.m. on the weekends. This is 10 hours out of our weekend that we have to be inconvenienced and basically restricted from the use of the house for which we still have more than three months left. This seems very intrusive.

The other thing that got us into a major fight was when the realtor informed us that he was going to video our house while we were at work to film the interior so they could put it on the Internet for virtual walk-throughs. I was beside myself.

How do they have the right to put our possessions on public display? After talking with some realtors and others, we were told that they could not do this without our consent.

I refused and the landlord got really mad with me. He said that I had no right to tell him what he could do with his house.

 I told him that there was no way that I was going to allow the realtor to come in and video the house. After a heated argument he gave in and said that he would not video the house.

His lack of understanding has amazed me. What are our rights as tenants? I was told by a realtor that we have more rights than we know, but what are they?

A:

You have a very long question about your rights as tenants. I have a very short answer: Look at your lease.

Generally, a lease will address when a landlord may enter the premises for things like collecting the rent, making repairs and showing the premises to a prospective new tenant or buyer.

As technology changes, the definition of showing has also changed, and I suppose one could argue that showing the house could include videotaping it for electronic walk-throughs.

But you need to look to your lease to find out your rights and your landlord’s rights in this situation.