This is day 20 of my 31 days of tips on tenancy agreements series. To see the rest of the series click here.
Repairing obligations and tenancy agreements
As mentioned on Day 12, tenancies with a term of less than 7 years have to comply with’ statutory repairing covenants’. These are set out in section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Under these you must :
(a) keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house, including drains, gutters and external pipes,
(b) keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation (including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences, but not other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water, gas or electricity), and
(c) keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and heating water.
These rules are implied into all tenancies (where the fixed term is under seven years) and cannot be excluded by any clause in the tenancy agreement. So if, for example your tenancy agreement says that the tenant will be responsible for the repair of the boiler, this will be invalid.
As most tenants (any also many landlords) do not know about these rules, it is good practice to include a summary of the law in the tenancy agreement, so everyone knows where they stand. However you need to be careful how this is worded so as to avoid taking on any extra liability by mistake (as has been known to happen).
Prohibitions against alterations in tenancy agreements
As regards repair work not covered by the implied terms, this is something you should agree on separately. Generally you will not want tenants to start doing any alterations to the property, particularly structural alternations, and it is all right to forbid this. In fact this is already covered in the law, as section 81 of the Housing Act 1980 says that a tenant should not carry out any improvements or alterations to a property without the landlords written consent. This will apply even if there is no written tenancy agreement.
Dealing with redecoration in tenancy agreements
So far as redecoration is concerned, in a long tenancy, this is often down to the tenant. However for shorter lets where you are going to have to re-let the property to someone else before long, you is going to want to have some control over the colours and materials used. Not only will this affect your ability to re-let the property (as some colours are proven to be more popular), if the tenant uses dark colours (for example paints the walls black), these can be very difficult to cover up.
It is normal therefore, either for landlords to prohibit re-decoration altogether (unless permission has been obtained in writing, not to be unreasonably refused – see Day 16), or to specify that any re-decoration must be in the same colours and style as the existing decor.
Do you have any comments on this section? Do you allow tenants to re-decorate in your rented property? What is the most horrendous re-decoration of properties by tenants that you have seen?
Tomorrow I am going to be looking at insurance
NB Read about my tenancy agreements service here.
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That’s interesting. Repairs to taps: replacing washers came up and I thought it was the LL who bore responsibility. Apparently not so then!
What about glass? A shed window mysteriously broke a small piece off itself: is that the T’s or the LL’s responsibility?
And what about the garden? Our AST has a clause for the garden to be returned in the state that it was initially let. what I’m interested in implementing, and the Agent said was ok, was to make a condition that a contractor was employed if the tenant failed to keep the basic maintenance done, say £15 every two weeks during the growing months.
If it is nobody’s fault then it is up to the tenant to get it done during the tenancy. If it is not done, whether the landlord can make a deduction from the deposit will depend on whether it comes under ‘fair wear and tear’ or not.
You can’t force a tenant to agree to a gardener unless it is in the tenancy agreement – we have a clause for this if you use the Landlord Law tenancy agreements: http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/landlords/tenancy-agreements
If the tenant does agree to let the gardener in, you will normally have to pay for it.
Thanks very much for that Tessa
There is a clause in the AST about keeping the garden maintained, but not about the gardener. but when the Tenant signed up to let, they chose to pay less and maintain the garden themselves. Can we do anything to act upon that if they don’t maintain the garden?
and just to clarify, as I’m reading the official quote from the 1985 act differently in the cold light of day! …is the maiintenance of the taps the Landlords or the Tanants responsibility to repair?
Many thanks again.
You can’t really change the tenancy once it has been signed but if the property is left in a mess no doubt you will be able to claim under the deposit.
As regards taps it would probably depend on the circumstances of the particular case, but general ‘looking after the property’ type maintenance such as replacing worn washers etc is I think generally down to tenants.
I guess as there’s a clause to return the garden in it’s original state that we shouldn’t be worried…
We feel really let down by our agent. They didn’t do an inventory and I’m sure photographs just before the tenancy started wouldn’t stand up as evidence. We’re going to arrange to visit and ask if we can take photographs and do an inventory now so we at least have a point to refer to.
I tried to learn all I should about becoming a landlord and was advised that an agent would be the safest route. I’m learning more now that we’re looking to let a new property and do it all ourselves. It’s worth a lot to know you’ve done everything properly.
A good tool for landlords is my Landlord Law service – many of my members have been with me for years and say that they could not manage their properties themselves without it. Why not take a look? http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/information-about-landlord-law-landlords