Bardrick v Haycock (1976)

A landlord who lived in an extension to the main property (which was rented out as six flats) was not a resident landlord as the landlord and tenants could all live entirely separate lives despite being in close proximity.

The landlord owned a large detached house that had been converted into six self-contained flats. The landlord demolished a garage and in its place built a two-storey residential extension. The extension was structurally tied into the main hoa use, but there were no internal communications between it and the main house and it had its own front door.
The landlord let out the flats in the main house and lived in the extension.

HELD: The Court of Appeal held that the tenants’ flats were not part of the same building as the landlord’s extension, because the two were unconnected internally and the landlord and tenants could ‘live separate lives without embarrassment although physically they are in close proximity to each other’. (Scarman L.J.)
Citation: Bardrick v Haycock (1976) 31 P & CR 420