Rented house, sweeping the chimney

theartfullodger

The great Lord Denning ruled on this matter many years ago in Warren V Keen, 1953.  See..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v_Keen
- about how a tenant should act...
###Tenant-like manner

Lord Denning's words on using the property in a tenant-like manner, often quoted, were as follows:

But what does it mean, "to use the premises in a tenant-like manner"? It can, I think, best be shown by some illustrations. 

The tenant must take proper care of the place. He must, if he is going away for the winter, turn off the water and empty the boiler. 

He must clean the chimneys, when necessary, and also the windows. 

He must mend the electric light when it fuses. He must unstop the sink when it is blocked by his waste. 

In short, he must do the little jobs about the place which a reasonable tenant would do. 

In addition, he must, of course, not damage the house, wilfully or negligently; 

and he must see that his family and guests do not damage it; and if they do, he must repair it. 

But apart from such things, if the house falls into disrepair through fair wear and tear or lapse of time or for any reason 

not caused by him, then the tenant is not liable to repair it.  ####

So I think the tenancy clause is wrong.  If, eg, tenant only uses the chimney once a year at Christmas then it doesn't necessarily need cleaning every 9 months, but if used weekly probably does.  

Typical landlord's/agent's daft clause trying to dump responsibility onto tenant.

Artful: Landlord since 2000.

greensalad

theartfullodger said:

The great Lord Denning ruled on this matter many years ago in Warren V Keen, 1953.  See..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v_Keen
- about how a tenant should act...

Thanks, this does seem reasonable and is how we handle the rest of the house. We keep it in a state that we would be happy with if we owned it, we repair small things, but we don't like to undertake big jobs not necessarily because it'd be at our expense, more we fear the wrath of a landlord who doesn't want things done the way we would do them! We'd have happily painted (and are quite good at it tbh) at our own expense but never have because we assume we'd get dinged for it even if it was a good job.

Either way, I've not heard back from the EA yet. I didn't actually quote the clause just explained we hadn't used it. If they come back saying we must I'll point to the tenancy.

vacheron

As others have said, it is more to do with insurance than anything else. If you have been burning green wood and all sorts in there daily for 5 years you could end up with a chimney fire, embers falling into the room risking a fire, or worse of all a blockage or restriction causing CO2 to accumulate with possibly fatal results. 

If any of the above were to happen, the landlord would ask you for your chimney sweep certificate as per your tenancy contract, and if you were unable to produce one this would absolve him of any of the consequences.

If you never light a fire, none of the above can occur, hence the "made use of " clause.