Short assured tenancy-repairs

Are the appliances supplied by the landlord? If so it is his responsibility to maintain them. My guess is it is a try on by the landlord. I am one and I don't have this in my contracts.

Simple answer is: you supply it, you maintain it

The landlord must supply a gas certificate to prove that everything has been checked by a corgi registered person. I believe the electrics must have a certificate issued, but I am less clear about this. Our flats were new builds, and we got an electrical cert. Others will, I am sure, provide more info

John

Agreed, but you break it, you repair it (or pay for the repair).

Yes, every year.

No, this is not true. But some agents are doing them "voluntarily", either because they think nanny state will make them a requirement in due course, or because they reckon it makes the punters feel safer, which in turn gives their flats a competitive edge over others, and so reduces the length of voids between tenants.

In message , John Bishop writes

Or it might be a standard clause in his agents agreements, and he may not be aware of it?

Querying it with the agents, and asking them to refer it to the landlord is probably the way to go - or if there is direct contact with the landlord, discuss it with him.

Like you, if I supply something, I maintain it.

Thanks folks

no agents involved. Flat was found through a friend of a workmate. Couple seem very pleasant. Lease was drawn up by a firm of solicitors. It may be landlord has not requested that clause. Landlord had his daughter living in it as a student, so may not have let before. Searching advice sites for tenants certainly appears to say that landlords must take responsibility for boiler. All white goods, cooker, boiler etc supplied by landlord.

She will contact landlord or solicitor today.

Neb

What they say is irrelevant as it's covered by the underlying law; in this case the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 - . If items which are the landlords responsibility ever fall into disrepair Section 604 of the Housing Act 1985 will come into play

They have simply copied Section 11(1)b (L&T85) into the contract, but omitted Section 11(1)c. It makes no difference as no contract can reduce a parties legal rights below that of the underlying law.

AST contracts are standard and can be bought for £10 online or from legal stationers. The fact that the landlord has wasted money going to a solicitor indicates that they don't know what they're doing. Beware of strange requests or negligence in future. If she reads the government guides and the Shelter website this won't be a problem as she'll have a better understanding of the subject than the landlord and maybe the solicitor as well ! Links on my webpage

hth

Daytona (Landlord & tenant)

Mostly it's to be seen to discharge their responsibilities under law . A PIR satisfies this

Daytona

In message , Nebulous writes

Solicitors are possibly the worst people to use to draw up a lease like this. There is a strong chance that they will have cobbled it together from a previous agreement, and it may not even be up to date. There is also a strong chance that the landlord will not be aware of this, and other clauses.

Whilst it is difficult to convince a landlord to do something which goes against his solicitors advice, (and even if they agree that it may not be an appropriate clause, they may not be prepared to admit it), I would suggest visiting the Residential Landlords Association, (RLA), web site,

join as a guest, and download their tenancy agreement as a tried and tested model.

All the best.

Good one; I'd forgotten about that. It's an excellent example of a plain English agreement.

Daytona

You've hit it spot on. The wording is exactly the same as 11(1)b but they have tacked 11(1)c onto the end of it. So it reads electricity), or the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and heating water. So it has reversed the meaning.

Anyway she spoke to the landlord today and he hadn't read it. He agreed to change it and accepts he is responsible for maintaining everything he supplied.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Neb

When we bought new properties ( all were flats), the builders gave us an electrical certificate on completion. Can't remember if there was a specific reason for this, but we have never been asked for it.

John

Oh ffs, a cut'n'paste solicitor who can't even cut'n'paste correctly and hasn't got the intelligence to buy a standard contract and claim it as their own work. Dunno whether to laugh or cry.....

Glad to here it. At least she knows of a good source of information on these issues. Hope she enjoys herself!

Daytona

That'll be a requirement of the Building Regs.

It's not cut and dried, but it should cover you against negligence claims for 10 years unless you re-let where there's obvious damage to the electrics and the tenant electrocutes themselves.

Daytona

I suppose the inexperienced landlord feels they have some comeback if something goes wrong with the agreement, if they use a solicitor (notwithstanding that it may mean that 'something going wrong' is more likely as a result!).

I agree, it's a good agreement, and I use it; however I notice that as of very recently they've imposed a 5.00 GBP downloading fee for non-members.

David

"Daytona" wrote

Sounds like that would be a Copyright infringement??

It has got to be worth any new landlord joining the RLA, (or something similar), and going to various meetings, and using the various sources of advice - even if they only have 1 property.

Just to say that URL for the RLA takes me to a weird site called the temple of freedom. A quick google and I found the RLA on

Neb

I'd say so, too: they also provide a very competitive buildings insurance scheme for landlords (which is how I found them); saved the cost of my annual premium instantly.

David