Weekend Open House Allowed For Tenant-Occupied Properties

by | Oct 8, 2013 | C.A.R., Legal, TSBOR, TSMLS | 0 comments

A listing agent of tenant-occupied property can hold an open house over the weekend during reasonable hours (as explained below), according to a recent California court decision. A landlord’s right to enter leased premises during “normal business hours,” as authorized under section 1954 of the California Civil Code, means “objectively reasonable hours under the facts and circumstances of the case, keeping in mind the right of tenants to quiet enjoyment and the right of landlords to sell their property” (Dromy v. Lukovsky (2013 WL 4654568)).

In the Dromy case, a residential tenant refused to allow the landlord, who was trying to sell his property, to conduct open houses on weekends. The landlord, frustrated by what he believed was an undue barrier to selling, sought court intervention. To support the landlord’s position, the landlord’s listing agent submitted an uncontroverted statement to the court that the custom and practice of the residential real estate community is to conduct open houses on weekends.

No published court decision in California has previously considered whether a landlord’s right, under California Civil Code section 1954, to enter leased premises to show the property to prospective buyers during “normal business hours” includes weekends. In arriving at its decision, the appellate court in Dromy observed that “normal business hours” are generally those hours when persons in the community keep their places open for business. The court also noted that, in this situation, “the relevant community consists of licensed professionals working in the residential real estate sales business” who customarily conduct open houses on weekends. Weekends, after all, are more convenient for prospective buyers who mostly work on weekdays. As a result, the Dromy court ruled that a landlord seeking to exhibit a leased dwelling unit to prospective buyers may only enter the property during reasonable hours, unless the tenant consents to another time.

In light of the Dromy decision, landlords and their listing agents who want to arrange weekend open houses should obtain the tenant’s consent or comply with the reasonableness standard required by the Dromy court. To help ensure that what you schedule is objectively reasonable, landlords and their agents are strongly encouraged to, depending on the circumstances, pattern your weekend open house arrangements in a similar fashion to what the trial court ordered in Dromy as follows:

  1. Listing agent could hold 2 open houses per month;
  2. Open houses could be on weekend days between 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.;
  3. Listing agent must be present during any open house; and
  4. Listing agent must give 10-day advance email notice to the tenant of proposed weekend open house dates, and give the tenant 48-hours to acknowledge or provide an alternative weekend date.