Terms & Conditions

[tim head]

Hi, I’d appreciate any views on this scenario.

We have a Supported Accommodation Housing Provider who primarily house LD tenants where the main care provider is commissioned by our Adult Social Care Commissioning Team.

Their repairs service charges are already very high (they’ve signed full repair and insure leases which doesn’t help). In addition the provider is asking tenants to pay large sums to complete repairs where they consider the damage to have been done by the tenant ‘deliberately’ and not carrying out the repairs until they pay up.

The question is who pays for repairs when a tenant damages the property?

My starting position is that, I would expect, where the damage is not done maliciously or the tenant does not have capacity, we would expect the landlord to fund these repairs through the rent, and that HB would be able to cover this. Essentially the higher responsive repair charges already in place are in recognition of the client group being more likely to cause damage and needing it fixed in a timely manner.

Does this sound about right? Is there any caselaw on what is ‘deliberate’ or when it’s reasonable to charge the tenant for repairs instead of using rent income to cover the costs? Thanks

[Jenni]

HI
I am interested in this too. Did you get any reply to your question?
thanks
Jenni

[tim head]

Hi Jenni

No, I’ve not had any replies. It’s still quite a grey area for us.

We have to co-ordinate between HB team, deputy and appointeeship team and adult commissioning to check if the provider is asking us all to pay for the same repair work.

Thanks Tim

[markg]

I would tend to agree with this:

‘My starting position is that, I would expect, where the damage is not done maliciously or the tenant does not have capacity, we would expect the landlord to fund these repairs through the rent, and that HB would be able to cover this. Essentially the higher responsive repair charges already in place are in recognition of the client group being more likely to cause damage and needing it fixed in a timely manner’.

And then the landlord has the option to review the responsive repair charge for the following year, if the charge levied in the current year does not cover the costs incurred.

Isn’t it as simple as that?

Sorry, I am not aware of any caselaw out there. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist though.

[leonardpayne]

markg wrote:

I would tend to agree with this:

‘My starting position is that, I would expect, where the damage is not done maliciously or the tenant does not have capacity, we would expect the landlord to fund these repairs through the rent, and that HB would be able to cover this. Essentially the higher responsive repair charges already in place are in recognition of the client group being more likely to cause damage and needing it fixed in a timely manner’.

And then the landlord has the option to review the responsive repair charge for the following year, if the charge levied in the current year does not cover the costs incurred.

Isn’t it as simple as that?

Sorry, I am not aware of any caselaw out there. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist though.

AGREE

[Author]

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