Can my landlord or agent enter without permission?

The right you have

Every tenancy carries a right to quiet enjoyment. In plain terms, once you are living there, the property is your home and the landlord's ownership does not include a right of free access.

In Scotland this sits alongside the statutory Letting Agent Code of Practice, which governs how an agent communicates and arranges access and is enforceable at the First-tier Tribunal for free. In England, the equivalent route is the agency's redress scheme, membership of which is compulsory.

What proper notice looks like

• At least twenty four hours, in writing. A text or email is fine, a voicemail is weaker, a knock on the door is not notice.
• A reasonable time of day.
• A stated purpose. Inspection, repair, gas safety check, viewing.
• Who will attend. A named contractor is better than somebody will come.

Twenty four hours is a floor rather than a target. A well run agency gives several days for a routine inspection and reserves short notice for things that genuinely cannot wait.

Refusing a time

You can decline a proposed time and offer another. That is not obstruction and it should not be treated as such. Put it in writing, propose two or three alternatives, and keep the exchange.

Where this matters most is viewings when a landlord is selling or re-letting. There is no obligation to accept unlimited access, and a clause purporting to require it does not defeat quiet enjoyment. A fixed schedule, two afternoons a week for example, usually works better for everyone than refusing outright.

The emergency exception

Entry without notice is justified where there is a genuine emergency: fire, a serious escape of water, a suspected gas leak, a structural danger, or reasonable grounds to believe someone inside is at risk.

The test is whether waiting would cause real harm. A boiler that has stopped working is not an emergency justifying entry without notice. Water coming through a ceiling into the flat below is. If entry does happen this way, expect a written explanation afterwards, and ask for one if it does not arrive.

When it becomes harassment

A single visit without notice is usually poor practice rather than anything worse. A pattern is different. Repeated entry without notice, letting themselves in while you are out, turning up unannounced with prospective tenants, or using access as pressure can amount to harassment, which is a criminal offence in both countries.

If that is happening, write it down as it occurs with dates and times, complain in writing to the agency, and escalate. In England, the redress scheme after eight weeks, and the local authority's tenancy relations or housing team, which has enforcement powers. In Scotland, the First-tier Tribunal, which handles code of practice breaches and costs nothing to apply to. Where you feel unsafe, that is a matter for the police.

The other side of it

Landlords reading this have a genuine interest here too, because access is where most inspection and repair failures start.

The annual gas safety check is a legal duty on the landlord, and a tenant blocking it creates a compliance problem the landlord cannot solve by ignoring. The workable approach is the same one that works everywhere else in letting: request in writing, offer options, record what was offered and what was refused, and keep the tone unremarkable. A written trail showing reasonable attempts is worth a great deal if it ever gets as far as a tribunal.