Garage door

JCR

Hello, my sister rents out her house and was last night contacted by the tenant who asked that she get a tradesman out immediately as the garage door had come off its runner. My question is what exactly are the responsibilities of the landlord. Previously, the tenant has asked that my sister replace a washing line and install it for her.

The garage door may only need my sister and myself to put it back on its runner, and not need a tradesman. The door was in perfectly good working order the last time my sister was at the property and for all she knows it could have been damaged by the tenant herself. However, she wants to be a good landlord so if this is her responsibility to repair it even though it is likely to have been damaged by the tenant then she will do so.:o

Any advice would be appreciated.

pcwilkins

Unless you can prove that garage door has been damaged by T, then LL is probably responsible for repairing it. Garage doors should not come off their runners so that fact that it has implies that something was wrong before --- perhaps it was not fitted properly.

Regarding your more general question ("what exactly are the responsibilities of the landlord"), it depends
a) on the tenancy agreement,
b) on the inventory, and
c) on current property law.

LLs need to have a good understanding of all three of these and it is your sister's responsibility to gain this understanding.

Peter

silvercar

A landlord would have to act as reasonably as a home owner would. So for urgent repairs, eg no central heating I would expect a plumber to be called ASAP (though beare in mind landlords do not have magic wands).

For a garage door runner, I would expect the landlord to make an inspection and decide the course of action within a few days. Perfectly reasonable as it is not an urgent matter. A home owner would probably say they would look at it at the weekend. Certainly you can mend it yourself, no obligation to call in a professional garage door man.

As to who pays, it is going to be difficult to apportion blame, so a good landlord would probably pay, certainly the first time.

kunekune

When we broke the lock in the garage door (by rolling it up with the key in it, duh) we called a locksmith ourselves and just dealt with it. We let the landlord know later, as he keeps a key, and gave him the new spare.

On the other hand, when we had a problem with a sewage blockage, we called him. He did everything (and it was pretty yucky).

It depends on the nature of the problem, its urgency and, in our case, our perception of whether it was our fault.

JCR

Thanks for those replies. We have read the information regarding tenancy agreements, acts etc. It is just that sometimes it is not specific enough for certain criteria that affects the individual circumstances.

IveSeenTheLight

JCR wrote: »

Thanks for those replies. We have read the information regarding tenancy agreements, acts etc. It is just that sometimes it is not specific enough for certain criteria that affects the individual circumstances.

As a landlord, you should try and keep your tenants happy. If you have a good tenants who looks after your property and pays the rent on time then you are in a good situation and should try and maintain a good buisness relationship.

Like others have said, get round there as soon as you can to assess the fault and get it repaired as soon as you can

pcwilkins wrote:

Garage doors should not come off their runners so that fact that it has implies that something was wrong before --- perhaps it was not fitted properly.

It can be quite easy to take a garage door off its runners, even when fitted properly.
I have done so once before to my property by raising the door far too quickly.
After a quick assessment it took me 5 mins to re-fit.