A landlord that was ordered to pay his tenant around £3,750 in damages for an injured knee has won permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, in a dispute over the implied repairing obligations in section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
In January, the tenant of a flat who tripped over an uneven paving stone outside his block, won his appeal against a ruling that he was not entitled to damages under the section because he had not notified his landlord of the defect.
Now Lords Neuberger, Sumption and Reed have granted landlord Baladas Kumarasamy permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Tenant Samuel Edwards was initially successful before District Judge Gilman, who awarded him £3,750 in damages. However, on appeal, Judge May QC found that Kumarasamy was not liable under the extended covenant implied into the tenancy by section 11 (1A) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Lewison LJ, at the Court of Appeal, allowed Edwards’ appeal and reinstated the award, ruling that it was not a precondition to liability under section 11 that notice of the defect had to be given.
Surveying the case law, he concluded that Kumarasamy’s liability was not conditional on notice having been given.
Edwards successfully argued that liability arose as soon as the disrepair existed and, referring to the common law, Lewison LJ said: “The general rule is that a covenant to keep premises in repair obliges the covenantor to keep them in repair at all times, so that there is a breach of the obligation immediately a defect occurs.”
Edwards v Kumarasamy Supreme Court (Lords Neuberger, Sumption and Reed)
