Agent Liability

Landlord's and Agent's Liability

Dangerous defects are not necessarily by law, the Landlord's responsibility or in legalistic terms their LIABILITY. However Section 4 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 places a duty of care and responsibility on the Landlord (which would include the Agent) or any person or tenant that has been directly affected or injured by a defect of, or item in the property. ' To take such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances to see that they are reasonably safe from personal injury and from damage to their property caused by a relevant defect’.

When is a Landlord liable for faults with the property and contents supplied with it?

If the Landlord is aware of them.
If the Landlord should know about them.
If the Landlord fails to carry out inspections on the property, which they should be contractually obliged to, to find out if anything is wrong with the property or contents supplied within the Tenancy Agreement (recommended to be every three or six months).
Even if faults are not reported to the Landlord, it is still their responsibility to make themselves aware of these by carrying out regular inspections (loose tiles on the roof and leaks etc).

Section 4 rules that tenants or any person that has been affected by defects or items supplied in the property have a legal right to claim damages for personal injury or damages to the property that they have to incur costs to rectify.

The implications for liability makes this so important that Landlords (or their agents acting contractually on their behalf) should carry out regular inspections of the properties.