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Apartment being sold while am tenant
I just received a letter form a housing agent informing me that the landlord has contacted them to sell the apartment the house and i should avail myself minimum thrice a week including weekends for the viewing by potential buyers (signed contract directly with landlord not agent). Am in the 8th year of my 9 year contract and the last time the landlord visited the house (early January) he assured me that he is not selling but was inspecting the house for insurance purposes.I have not communication yet from landlord that house is being sold. I travel a lot for work purposes and only home after 7pm on weekdays.Who exactly should be informing me of the house sale, the landlord or agent? Should the agent oblige me to sell open the house for viewing or i should get a letter from the landlord directly? Can i "up and leave" as i feel my privacy is being infringed and look for another place to rent sighting inconvenience by the agent - i work and study in the evenings so need peace and quiet minimum 3 evenings a week wants to come soonest possible to place the sales notices on the windows facing the street).
Take a look at your lease. Most likely it has something like the following (this is a standard clause):
"Le Bailleur ou son représentant pris dans le sens le plus large, sera en droit de faire procéder, dans les trois mois précédant la fin du contrat, celle-ci opérant par l'effet d'un congé ou l'échéance d'un terme, à la visite du bien par des amateurs, trois jours par semaine, à raison de deux heures consécutives, à convenir avec le preneur.
Ce qui précède s'applique également en cas de mise en vente du bien, même si celleci est faite plus de trois mois avant le terme du bail."
(Or equivalent in Dutch if you are renting in Flanders).
If your lease has such a clause then yes you are obliged to agree to three periods of visits each week; two hours each time. One of these should be on the weekend.
The agency is acting on behalf of the landlord so they have the right to organize everything related to the sale with you; including the house visits. It does not have to be the landlord that informs you.
Unfortunately the selling of the house and the subsequent visits are not considered to be a reason enough for you to be able to leave without giving the usual notice of three full calendar months. So if you decide to "up and leave", give notice still during January, and then you can leave from 1 May (of course you can leave earlier if find a place before that but you are liable for the rent until the end of April). Of course you should check with your landlord, he might be willing to negotiate on this (it might be easier for him to sell the house without a sitting tenant).
It is annoying when this happens but it is in your interests to cooperate with the agency; the sooner the house sells the sooner you don't have to deal with the visits any more. After the sale has been completed, it is up to the new owner to break the lease with you if they want to move in themselves (and have not bought it as an investment); they must give you a notice of six months.
