Consultation Paper on the General Law of the Landlord and Tenant

of the Residential Tenancies Bill 2003 proposes imposing onlandlords of dwellings a direct obligation 59 to carry out all repairsnecessary from time to time to the structure of the dwelling and to theinterior and fittings so that they are maintained in at least thecondition in which they were at the commencement of the tenancy. 60Tenants will be able, in certain circumstances, 61 to carry out therepairs and claim reimbursement of the expenses from the landlord. 626.16 The Commission considers it inappropriate to suggest anymodifications to such recent legislation, and proposed legislation,relating to residential tenancies. The issue remains, however, whetherany of it should be extended or adapted to other categories, such ascommercial tenancies. The Commission’s inclination is to answergenerally in the negative for two reasons. One is that, outside thecategory of residential tenancies, the issue of repairing obligations is,apart from the rent and other payments to be made, the one mostlikely to be the subject of express provisions in the lease. The other isthat, as mentioned earlier, 63 the allocation of responsibility for repairsas between landlord and tenant is likely to vary according to thecircumstances of the particular case and is, therefore, best left tonegotiation between the parties with the outcome being reflected inthe lease executed. The Commission provisionally recommends that itis not appropriate in general to make further statutory provision, overand above those proposed in the Residential Tenancies Bill 2003imposing repairing obligations on landlords.5960616263Which cannot be contracted out of: section 18.The Private Residential Tenancies Board to be established under Part 8 ofthe Bill will be empowered to make regulations specifying what parts ofdwellings are to be regarded as the interior and structure of dwellings:section 13(1).Where the landlord has refused or failed to respond to the tenant’s requestto the landlord to carry out the repairs and a postponement would beunreasonable having regard to significant health or safety risks orreduction in the quality of the living environment: section 12(1)(g)(i) and(ii).Section 12(1)(g). Cf the right of set-off which exists in respect of anyletting of a tenement under section 87 of the Landlord and Tenant(Amendment) Act 1980: see paragraph 10.17 below.Paragraph 6.11 above.103