Housing Repairs and Rents Act 1954

30Responsibility of landlord for repairs

(1)For the purposes of this Part of this Act and the Second Schedule thereto and of paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section two of the Act of 1920 the landlord shall be deemed, as between himself and the tenant, to be wholly responsible for the repair of a dwelling-house in any case where the tenant is under no express liability to carry out any repairs.

(2)Subject to the provisions of the last foregoing subsection,—

(a)the landlord shall be deemed for the purposes aforesaid to be responsible, as between himself and the tenant, for any repairs which he is under an express liability to carry out, and for any other repairs (whether of the dwelling-house or of other premises) from time to time required for securing that the dwelling-house is in good repair, not being repairs which the tenant is under an express liability to carry out; and

(b)the extent to which the landlord is to be deemed responsible as aforesaid for the repair of the dwelling-house shall be determined by the proportion which the burden of carrying out the repairs for which the landlord is deemed to be responsible bears to the burden of carrying out all the repairs required for securing that the dwelling-house is in good repair, together with any other repairs which either the landlord or the tenant is under an express liability to carry out.

(3)Where neither the landlord nor the tenant is under an express liability to carry out internal decorative repairs, then if not later than the service as respects the dwelling-house of a notice of increase under section twenty-five of this Act the landlord serves on the tenant a notice in the prescribed form electing that this subsection shall apply to the dwelling-house—

(a)the amount of any repairs increase recoverable by the landlord in respect of the dwelling-house shall be reduced by one-third;

(b)the value of work required by the Second Schedule to this Act shall be reduced in like manner;

(c)in determining for the purposes of this Part of this Act whether the dwelling-house is or was at any time in good repair, the state of internal decorative repair of the dwelling-house and any other premises shall be disregarded unless it is or was at the time in question such as to make the dwelling-house not reasonably suitable for occupation.

(4)Any form prescribed for the purposes of the last foregoing subsection may contain such information as appears to the Minister expedient for informing the tenant of the effect of the notice.