Consultation Paper on the General Law of the Landlord and Tenant

the sense that they need not be confined to particular categories oftenants. Examples are mooted in the following chapters. 24(3) Default Provisions5.08 Many leases are drawn up by professional experts on behalfof the parties, often following extensive negotiation, and will containdetailed provisions covering most, if not all, matters likely to ariseduring the continuance of the lease. This is especially the case withcommercial leases which tend to be very comprehensive documents. 25However, on occasion the drafting proves to be defective and aparticular lease may not deal with certain important matters. Thissuggests that there may be a need for statutory “default” provisions, tofill the gap in particular cases. Such a need may be even greaterwhere a less comprehensive lease is executed, and, of course, greaterstill where no lease or other written document at all is entered into.This will often arise in the case of short-term tenancies or periodictenancies. 26 This need for “default” provisions 27 is considered inrelation to various matters discussed in the ensuing chapters.(4) Nature of Statutory Obligations5.09 It is clear from the above discussion of the purposes oflegislation dealing with landlord and tenant obligations that thestatutory provisions will fall into two categories. One category iswhat may be referred to as “overriding” obligations imposed on alandlord or tenant. These would be statutory obligations which areimposed regardless of what the parties may provide in the lease oragree to as part of the tenancy arrangement, ie, it would not bepossible to contract out of them. The Commission envisages thatthere would be few such overriding obligations in the statutoryscheme proposed. This is partly due to the fact that the area in whichthere is probably most need of them, especially from the consumerprotection point of view, 28 is that of residential tenancies, which is2425262728Eg in relation to repairs (see paragraph 6.19), insurance (see paragraph11.09) and service charges (see paragraph 9.04).Note the precedents in Division L2 of Laffoy’s Irish ConveyancingPrecedents (Looseleaf Butterworths).See Chapter 2 above.An early example is the implied agreements contained in sections 41 and42 of Deasy’s Act: see paragraphs 6.02, 6.04, 8.03 and 10.06 below.See paragraphs 5.04-5.06 above.89