Q As owner of a number of flats still let on regulated tenancies, I am puzzled that rent officers are so concerned about the state of external repairs – a matter invariably raised by tenants when contesting a proposed rent increase. The point surely is that the tenants have the benefit of my repairing covenant, and can, if they think I am in breach, take me to court. Would you agree that any alleged breach of my covenant cannot be the business of the rent officer?
A Up to a point. The rent officer certainly has to take the benefit of your covenant into account, and clearly has no jurisdiction to introduce a compensatory element into his award. However, as a matter of valuation, he is entitled to assume that property A in disrepair would command a lower rent than an identical property B in good repair, regardless of the remedies potentially available against the owner of A: see the observations of the Court of Appeal in R (on the application of Haysport Properties Ltd) v Rent Officer of the West Sussex Registration Area [2001] EWCA Civ 237; [2001] 21 EG 168 and the further comments of Sandi Murdoch in It’s fair enough Estates Gazette 14 April 2001, p133.
