Churchill v Nottingham CC (1999)

The tenant of a council house claimed damages for injury caused by fumes from a gas fire. At the date of the letting the property had a living room gas fire which was set into an ordinary fire place venting out through a chimney. However, the chimney had become blocked and the fumes could not escape.

HELD: In the County Court the judge held that pursuant to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 the landlord was responsible for keeping the chimney repaired and in working order.
Although in the case of Warren v Keen (see Case Law Library) the tenant had been held to have a duty to clean the chimney of a small cottage on the moors where wood or coal were burned and the chimney used in the old-fashioned way, in modern housing the tenant was not responsible for keeping the chimney in repair and working order. It was the landlord’s duty to disconnect the fixed gas fire, remove the back plate, inspect the flue behind it and clean the chimney of any blockages.