Photographs taken of personal possessions during routine house inspection of private rented property

[11cocopops]

Hi,

We have a routine house inspection planned for this coming week which has happened every six months for the last 5 years.

 

During the last inspection the estate agent said it is now part of their procedure to take pictures of every room, which they then forward onto the landlord to show them what their property is currently like to give an impression of the type of people living in it. We agreed because we felt very on the spot but rang up later to say we weren't happy & they said this is the case with many of their tenants and they will have to rethink.

 

Now, they have hired an external agency called Pinstripe to carry out inspections. On their website it says they too take pictures of the house. We have rang them to say you can take as many pictures as you like of the walls/doors/curtains everything that belongs to the landlord & the landlord is welcome round in person anytime, but we don't want our personal possessions in the pictures. They said we (as tenants) have no choice that is what they do and we have no right to stop them.

 

If we had young children would we have more rights? Or can random people come and take pictures of their bedrooms? We will have all of our electrical goods and personal items on display to a number of people who have access to our house!

Please can someone provide any info on this subject and of any rights we do/don't have.

Thank you

Edited December 7, 2013 by citizenB

[renegadeimp]

You have every right to stop them. Simply deny them entry,. The letting agent can always come round and perform a written report.

[BankFodder]

I think that one approach would be to write to them and tell them that if you suffer any burglaries, you will begin a claim against their insurers as you will consider that by publicising the contents of your home, they have contributed to the risk.

Ask them for the name of their insurers immediately so that you can put them on notice.

This might cause them to have a further rethink.