A recent case heard in the Court of Appeal means landlords may have to pay for internal repairs, says ARMA.
An important decision has been made in the Court of Appeal in the case of Grand v Gill. The case revolved around the question of whether or not internal walls class as part of the structure of flats. The Court ruled that “plaster forming part of or applied to walls and ceilings is part of the structure of the relevant premises” and unanimously agreed that an obligation to repair “structure” (such as the obligation contained in section11 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985) included plasterwork. This decision is important to local authorities, social landlords and housing lawyers as well as leaseholders, because the issue of whether landlords are liable to repair damage to internal plasterwork has been unclear for a number of years.
So what does this mean for leaseholders? ARMA says that, despite the judgment in Grand v Gill, if the lease clearly puts the internal plaster on walls of flats in the ownership and repairing responsibilities of the lessee, then the landlord cannot be held liable. If the lease is not explicit and simply states that the landlord is responsible for structure and exterior then the responsibility for repairs could be his. And what if the damage to the plaster work was caused by an external leak from the structure? That would be classed as ‘consequential’ damage that the landlord should be responsible for.
