It is a longstanding principle of landlord and tenant law that a tenant may be liable to 'repair' the premises that he is letting but that this does not involve a duty to 'improve' the property.
In most leases, the tenant will have an obligation to 'repair' the premises. In addition, some leases may give the landlord the right to recover the cost of 'improvements'. These are known as a 'tenant covenants'. If a tenant does not comply with the covenants in the lease, often the landlord has the right to do the works and to recover the cost from the tenant. If there is a disagreement between the landlord and the tenant, the landlord will have to show that his works and the cost come within the wording of the lease.
If a tenant is unhappy about receiving a claim for work that may be 'improvements', he can try to use Section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 which broadly states that the cost of works can only be recovered if they are 'reasonably' incurred and the works must be of a 'reasonable' standard.
In a recent case, a failure to properly deal with the possibility that works would be considered 'improvements' proved costly for a landlord of a block which housed 990 tenants.
The landlord wanted to replace the window units but in doing so also had to replace the exterior cladding of the buildings and had to remove old asbestos. The landlord tried to claim £55,000 from the tenants under leases which allowed the landlord to recover the cost of 'a fair proportion of the cost of the improvements'. The landlords failed the Section 19 'reasonableness' test.
It can be seen that these are complex and potentially very expensive issues. If you are thinking of entering into a lease either as a landlord or a tenant, you should take proper legal advice on the costs that you may be liable for during the term of the lease.
To discuss this or other landlord and tenant related issues, contact us.
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