How often is too often?

i think its a malta thing .. our landlord always wants to come in when he collects the rent ..

Protect your privacy rights. One of the most common and emotion-filled misunderstandings between tenants and landlords arises over the tension between a landlord's right to enter a rental unit and a tenant's right to be left alone. If you understand your privacy rights, such as the amount of notice your landlord must provide before entering, it will be easier to protect them.frank salt website Hoowever i have looked and cannot find much information on privacy rights according to Maltese Law , though EU law says you have a right to peaceful enjoyment of your property and so

i would suggest that you talk to your landlord  and come to an agreement with them as to what happens in terms of visiting the property , explain to them that whilst your happy for them to visit occasional  you would like them to give the notice as agreed in your contract and that whilst you appreciate they are the owners of the property that you have a contract with them to let out the place and they have told you they will give you x notice and you feel that unless its an emergency situation you would like for them to stick to that .

I don't think they mean any malice by it and you do have the right to say no to people you don't want to visit and i guess they are new to renting a property and  are just taking it a bit personal.

Im sure someone who is more experienced in maltese property law will come along and offer their insight

stick to your guns and only allow pre-arranged visits.

once a month is too much.. in my opinion.

Well, they can (and do) easily comply with the contract and every month give me 2 weeks notice for an inspection at the same time as they collect the rent.
I also think an inspection every month is too often, so I now ask to know their grounds for inspection, your guess is as good as mine, there is no grounds!!

in my experiences of 6 yrs there.. its usually nosyness to see what you have got....  and to then establish whether you can afford to pay more.....

In my experience Maltese are very inquisitively curious people.
They want to know everything about you and in turn will tell you everything about themselves.
Many also 'fuss' too much but that can also be very nice though one irritation is sometimes they think they know best and treat adults as children.
Once a month for an 'inspection' however, is in my view, excessive but the people referred to are elderly and this is their first time of renting out so they are probably seeking a lot of reassurance for themselves.
This also explains why they attend when remedials need to be carried out.
They need to learn so stick to what you are doing whilst staying within the conditions of your contract. You will get some peace and they will eventually (one hopes) learn that thing as are OK and you are caring for their property.
Just for info, our landlady at the most visits one every 3 months, sometimes not and does so for social contact really, rather than inspecting.

As a last resort, change the locks! 

HI,ALL HAPPY NEWYEAR,our landlord never comes in unless invited  he never calls for the rent I take it to him,and have a couple of beers with them,not all landlords are bad, hope you sort yours out,   dave

maltadave1 wrote:

HI,ALL HAPPY NEWYEAR,our landlord never comes in unless invited  he never calls for the rent I take it to him,and have a couple of beers with them,not all landlords are bad, hope you sort yours out,   dave

a can of cisk and the maltese are sold on anything lol:)

welcome to Malta. Mentalities are difficult to change. You can still find another place, they will never change, no way. Except if you propose to pay double rent but still they will want to inspect the flat.

Thank you for your comments. All interesting and insightful: please keep them coming.

Just to clarify again in case I wasn't clear:

They are not bad people. They aren't aggressive or bullies.
They are nice, polite, caring and helpful people. Just listen to this:
A couple of days after Christmas my washing machine stopped working. As it was the festive season and they were due to come in a few days, I didn't inform them about it; I waited. They arrived before lunch per previous agreement and after they looked around, I showed them the problem. They wondered why I didn't tell them about it. By 15:30, they arranged their technician to pay me a visit and fix it same afternoon. Need I say more?

To my knowledge they haven't let themselves in without my permission so changing the locks is perhaps not necessary!

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have this dilemma if they were ill mannered or nasty: I would know how to deal with that kind of people very well: I would stand up to them and if necessary, wouldn't hesitate to tell them to f**k off. I would still pay them on time and treat their flat with care.

I asked these questions because I wish to know if their regular inspections is a culturally accepted norm here. What is good or bad, what is an acceptable behaviour or not, often depends on the cultural context. When we travel to another country, we should respect their ways and culture even if it goes against our grain.

Thank you once again folks for your comments

Russell

I've had about 3 or 4 different Maltese landlords/landladies so far and to be honest, never had any issues like that. They normally come to collect the rent money and that's it. If can remember, never any of my formers or actual landlords ever requested a visit to inspect the apartment. IMHO, check the apartment on a monthly basis, it's way too much.

I would say once a year or at renewal of contract should be enough!

If you want to invite them in once a month then that's up to you.

Terry

It seems it is a very particular case, at least my landlady doesn't come very often, and she nevers seem to be interested to enter in house, she just collects the rent from outside the building. And she doesn't come very often, once she didn't came for 4 months. I, in turn, pay 2 months in advance if she asks so.

As somebody's already said, I think your situation is somewhat unique.

I neither see or hear from my landlord from one month to the next unless I contact him to report a problem. In fact a little more contact would be nice.

Sometimes older people don't have much to do. They get lonely and try to remain relevant. Bear with them, it costs so little.

When I read the original post I agreed with everyone that once a month is too intrusive, but this week we're just trying to finalise a contract where the original lease stated access for inspection at a minimum twice a month - we pushed back so now worded to a minimum every 3 months.

coolcamp wrote:

Sometimes older people don't have much to do. They get lonely and try to remain relevant. Bear with them, it costs so little.

How condescending!

Ray (an 'older person')

Absolutely ........ you know the saying ..... " if you haven't got anything sensible to say , often better to not say anything at all " !!!!!!😳
From a not so old person !!! ( not that young either )😢

Hi F0xgl0ve and Moyes14:

My impression is that coolcamp has good intentions and be considerate towards others.

Darrylv wrote:

When I read the original post I agreed with everyone that once a month is too intrusive, but this week we're just trying to finalise a contract where the original lease stated access for inspection at a minimum twice a month - we pushed back so now worded to a minimum every 3 months.

Good thinking and well done!
I'm very glad that this post has been helpful and informative in ways I didn't imagine....

It was a patronising and ignorant comment to post on a public forum and I'm sure greatly appreciated by our older bloggers 😳 !!!!

A million apologies. It may not have come out as I intended.  My mother is over involved in our lives. My siblings get irritated. I understand where she's coming from. Apologies again. Didn't mean to offend anyone. Especially the elderly.

Yes, a patronising comment from someone in Nairobi! Why comment on here?

coolcamp wrote:

A million apologies. It may not have come out as I intended.  My mother is over involved in our lives. My siblings get irritated. I understand where she's coming from. Apologies again. Didn't mean to offend anyone. Especially the elderly.

your mother is not renting appartments in malta though ,

whilst you may have issues with her , it really is not the same thing  taking a contractual agreement out with someone and expecting them to abide by common courtesy and terms laid out in the formation of said contract is a lot different from having an overbearing mother. Elderly or not when you rent your home to someone you are expected to do things properly and thus the original poster has every right to object to someone coming to their house more often than is neccescary

New Horizonz wrote:

Hi F0xgl0ve and Moyes14:

My impression is that coolcamp has good intentions and be considerate towards others.

You get it. I hope somewhere within the posts you were able to solve your problem with your landlord.

robpw2 wrote:

coolcamp wrote:

A million apologies. It may not have come out as I intended.  My mother is over involved in our lives. My siblings get irritated. I understand where she's coming from. Apologies again. Didn't mean to offend anyone. Especially the elderly.

your mother is not renting appartments in malta though ,

whilst you may have issues with her , it
really is not the same thing  taking a
contractual agreement out with someone
and expecting them to abide by common
courtesy and terms laid out in the
formation of said contract is a lot
different from having an overbearing
mother. Elderly or not when you rent your
home to someone you are expected to do
things properly and thus the original
poster has every right to object to
someone coming to their house more
often than is neccescary

we were taught from a very early age to respect our elders from all walks of life. Thats why I would never use the word
overbearing to describe my mother. You still don't get it. I guess its because of our cultural differences. Elderly or otherwise. People do get idle, lonely and would like to remain relevant.

Coolcamp, why are you on here?

redmik wrote:

Coolcamp, why are you on here?

To remain relevant

coolcamp wrote:

redmik wrote:

Coolcamp, why are you on here?

To remain relevant

How relevant to the subject matter of this post is running a holiday camp in Kenya   

stumpy wrote:

coolcamp wrote:

redmik wrote:

Coolcamp, why are you on here?

To remain relevant

How relevant to the subject matter of this post is running a holiday camp in Kenya   

To Russell; I hope you got the help you desired. This is just a side show. Please ignore it. As I'm about to. Happy 2015 y'all.