Q. I rent out a first floor flat. Occasionally, accidental water spillage by the tenants has caused staining on the ceiling of the flat below, which is owned by someone else. Am I legally responsible for the re-decoration of the ceiling of the flat below?
A. A claim for water damage is usually dealt with under the tort of nuisance, and liability mainly depends of the precise cause of the problem.
In some cases, the damage is caused by something that the landlord has agreed to repair under the letting agreement for the flat. For example, under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, it is an implied term of all residential tenancies that the landlord is responsible for repairs to water pipes and heating systems.
If the leak in your case had been caused by a hole in a water pipe in the flat, you would therefore almost certainly have been responsible for any resulting damage to the neighbours. In other cases, it is the tenant who will be liable for nuisance damage as the occupier of the land. A landlord would be liable as well if he or she specifically authorised the tenant to commit a nuisance, but this requires the landlord to participate directly.
It is not enough for the landlord to be aware that his or her tenant is causing problems and to take no steps to stop it. For example, in the 1972 case of Smith v Scott, a local authority granted a tenancy to a rowdy family whose noise and vandalism eventually forced one of their neighbours out of his home.
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The High Court struck out a claim for nuisance against the Council because the only people legally responsible were the problem family that occupied the house.
You are therefore unlikely to have to pay for repairs to the ceiling if the damage occurred as a result of a nuisance caused by your tenants.
The writer is a barrister at Tanfield Chambers.
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