MAINTENANCE

If you occupy premises you need to know that they will be maintained to a standard which suits you and that responsibility for carrying out the work is clearly attributed to landlord or tenant. You will also need to know who is going to pay for it.

Responsibility for repairs is a common area of dispute between landlord and tenant, especially if the issue is not clearly addressed in the lease.

In a short lease or an occupational licence, your obligations as tenant will generally be fairly limited e.g. internal repair only.
If you have a lease of part of a building, it is common for you and other tenants to be liable for internal non-structural repairs, with the landlord being responsible for the remainder, even though he may recover the costs through service charges.

If you have a longer lease for a whole building, you will generally be held to be fully responsible for internal repair and external repair including structural defects.

In practical terms, assessment of your liability will depend on the current state of the premises, the required standard of repair, whether you are required to renew or improve the premises and whether you are responsible for inherent defects in the property. All these issues should be investigated with the landlord and covered in the lease.

Decoration should also be addressed in the lease - you would usually be required to decorate at specified intervals. The decorative specifications may be more or less specific. If the landlord undertakes the work, the cost is likely to be recoverable from you through a service charge.

You will normally also be required at the end of the lease to restore the premises to their condition at the start. This can be particularly expensive and you should take care if you are acquiring the tail-end of a relatively long lease. It is also important to ensure that a schedule of the condition of the premises showing the state of repair at the start of the tenancy.

USE - MAINTENANCE & ALTERATION

No tenant may carry out improvements to his property - for example, add to or alter fixtures and fittings belonging to his landlord, without the landlord's consent.

However, this consent must not unreasonably be withheld, and it is up to the landlord to show that it was not. A landlord will not be regarded as withholding consent unreasonably if the effect of the tenant's proposals would be to make the house less safe, involve the landlord in increased expenditure or reduce the sale or letting value of the house.

If the landlord is asked for consent to an improvement and he does not reply, or if he does reply refusing consent but does not give his reasons in writing, the tenant can go ahead with the improvement.

As well as planning restrictions and other general restraints on your use of premises, the lease will also impose restrictions on your right as a tenant to use the premises for a particular use. These restrictions are imposed with a view to preventing you from lowering the value of the premises and others in the neighbourhood. However, the landlord will not want to restrict use excessively as that would limit the rental value of his premises.

You will need to consider carefully whether a restriction on the use of premises is consistent with your current and future requirements. Normally, a lease will state a permitted use e.g. offices, light industrial purposes or retail shop, often corresponding to planning classes. Sometimes this use may is limited to a specific business or trade or a type of business.
The restrictions may be absolute or the lease may provide that the tenant must first seek the landlord's consent to use the premises in a manner outside the permitted use. The lease will often state that the landlord may not withhold his consent unreasonably.

Try to make sure that where relevant you can prevent the landlord changing the use of neighbouring tenancies. If, for instance, you are the only chemist in a shopping centre, you would not want a competitor to be allowed to take a lease nearby.

Special clauses about animals are sometimes put in agreements. It may state that the tenant must not keep a dog on the premises. A more reasonable clause would say that you should not keep a dog so as to be a nuisance or annoyance to other tenants.