Renting question - broken bathroom sink, whose responsibility?

emilybean

My landlady is responsible for repairs to our boiler... brb just going to take a hammer to it.

theartfullodger

It is always the landlord's respondibily to fix & pay. If be believes it is fault of tenant allcan ask t yo pay or take him to court.

monkey_writer

Okeydoke, I guess that's a consensus then. The wife asked that I check with the agency again, so I'm doing that. Like I said, my sister's landlord felt he was responsible in a similar situation.

I do wonder how a sink would ever need repairing, if not broken by someone? Does that just cover if the tap washer goes, or something?

G_M and Phill99, really, there's no need to be rude. Your tone makes me suspect you are landlords. But thanks all for your input.

Phill99 - if I hired a lawnmower and broke the blade, but the hire agreement said that the hire company is responsible for repairing the blades, then I would not expect to have to pay for the blade.

Likewise if a car hire agreement said that the hirer is not responsible for fixing damage to the windscreen, I would not expect to have to pay for a chip in the windscreen.

That's why I'm asking on here if there's a detail I've missed - because the LLs agency are asking me to pay for something which my contract says is -due to an act of parliament- the obligation of the LL to maintain. I'm paying for a service, and the contract is the terms of the service.

retepetsir

The landlord would replace it if it had a manufacturing defect for example, or an installation problem which caused a failure. If it's damaged by yourself, either on purpose or accident, then hopefully the outcome and action to take would be fairly obvious.

The LL must maintain it but shouldn't have to fix it if broken by someone!

Halle71

Your sister had a generous landlord.
Of course you are responsible for the cost.

If landlords were responsible for all damage by tenants I would expect hefty increases in rent to make allowance for this!

Annabee

OP - do you have contents insurance? Because we had a similar problem in the house we're renting and were able to claim for accidental damage - tenants liability. We only had to pay the £50 excess. See if you have this.

monkey_writer

Unfortunately we just have insurance for our electronical gizmos. We've had to move a few times recently so haven't gotten any contents insurance, but will think about it in case something like this happens again as we should be here a while. Who are you with and would you recommend them? Thanks!

jbainbridge

You dropped something into the sink and broke it. Seriously ... how hard is it to work out who is responsible for that!

GwylimT

As others have said as you broke you are liable, the landlord is only obliged to really do something if the item has a flaw, it breaks on its own, or if wear and tear makes something unusable.

I know my tenants have broken a few things, all either repaired or replaced by them and their cost, I know I can trust them so I don't have any issues with them arranging their own repairs for items in the house. The only time I pay for replacement/repair that is the tenants fault is anything that compromises the security of the property, e.g. broken window or door.

SerialRenter

I suggest you inform your landlord so he may make repairs, as per the contract.
The landlord will then bill you for the cost of repair, less fair wear and tear.

Although sinks tend to last a long time with standard wear and tear, so in reality you'll probably get close to the full cost passed onto you. If any discount at all as the cost of labour will be added.

A=Item original cost
B=Item age in years
C=Years item can reasonably be expected to last
D=Labour to assemble/fit item

Cost=A-(A*(B/C))+D