The council had a duty under s. 4 Defective Premises Act 1972 to repair a broken step in a tenanted property, and their failure to do so constituted a breach of this duty.
A tenant of a council house slipped when a step she was standing on in her garden rocked under her weight.
The tenant argued that the landlord council had a duty of care to maintain the steps, either due to a clause in the tenancy agreement obliging the council to maintain the structure and exterior of the property in good repair or at common law. The tenant argued that the council had breached this duty by failing to repair the step after receiving a complaint about it from the tenant’s husband. The council disputed this duty, and also the making of the complaint. The council asked the tenant for the details of any implied term or statutory provision that the tenants were relying on, and the tenant said that the term in the tenancy agreement was an express term, or alternatively it was implied by operation of law.
The council’s legal representatives were aware of the possible relevance of s. 4 Defective Premises Act 1972, so again asked the tenant to state whether she was relying on a term implied by statute and, if so, to identify it. The tenant’s reply again did not mention the 1972 Act, but contended that the council’s repairing obligation was to be implied at common law, or under s. 32 of the Housing Act 1961. (These provisions are now contained in s. 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985).
The case then went to trial, where
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