What are the rules when it comes to landlord repairs? While there are many different standards of property available for tenants within the private rental sector (PRS), the legal requirements are very clear when it comes to what is considered to be appropriate standards for any residence maintained by a landlord.
We are property experts, with many years of experience of managing properties in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, St Andrews and beyond, ensuring our tenants experience safe and comfortable homes. We are here to answer all of your questions about maintenance in your rented property.
What is the legal standard or repair for landlords?
By law, landlords must ensure that their rental property meets The Repairing Standard, contained in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, and health and safety requirements (gas and electrical), among other obligations.
What is The Repairing Standard?
The Repairing Standard is a basic level of repair that all private rented properties must meet.
Landlords are legally obligated to maintain the following areas of your home:
- The structure and exterior of your home, for example, the walls, roof, foundations, drains, guttering and external pipes, windows and external doors
- Basins, sinks, baths, toilets and their pipework
- Water and gas pipes, electrical wiring, water tanks, boilers, radiators, gas fires, fitted electric fires or fitted heaters.
- Fixtures, fittings or appliances provided by the landlord (like carpets, light fittings and household equipment) are in a reasonable state of repair
- Furnishings provided by the landlord can be used safely for the purpose they were designed
What is the tolerable standard for rented properties?
The tolerable standard is regarded as the basic level of repair your landlord should ensure your property meets. This ensures your property is a safe and welcoming home. If your property doesn’t meet the tolerable standard, the council can enforce works to make sure your property is fit for purpose.
How to know if a property meets the tolerable standard
Your property should be in a good state of general repair, this means:
- There are no issues with rising or penetrating damp
- No problems with structural stability (for example, it might be subsiding)
- The property should have suitable ventilation, natural and artificial light or heating
- The property should have acceptable fresh water supply, or a sink with hot and cold water
- The property should have an indoor toilet, a fixed bath or shower, and a wash basin with hot and cold water
- The property should have a good drainage and sewerage system
- The properties’ electric supply should be in good order and meet safety regulations
- The property should have a proper entrance
- There are adequate cooking facilities – this does not mean the landlord has to provide a cooker, but there must be somewhere suitable for a tenant to install their own
Does a landlord have to upkeep communal areas?
The answer is that this depends. For tenancies that began on or after 15 January 1989, these repair responsibilities extend to the common parts of a building too, for example, entrance halls, stairs and lifts. This applies to all modern tenancies by law, regardless of whether it is stated explicitly in a tenancy agreement.
What is landlord negligence?
Negligence is generally defined as your landlord causing you injury or damage as a result of careless or negligent behaviour. For example, by not upkeeping the minimum repair standard within a home.
Landlords are considered negligent if they didn’t do the required repair work after it has been flagged by a tenant, and injury or damaged belongings occurred as a result.
They could also be negligent if they did do the repair work, but did it carelessly or dangerously.
What if your property does not meet the standards?
If your property does not meet the Repairing Standard and a landlord refuses to do the repair work, a tenant can report them to the Housing and Property Chamber. Every landlord in Scotland must be registered, and their landlord registration can be accessed tin order to do so.
What makes Tay Letting different?
At Tay Letting, we take repairs, maintenance, and our tenants’ standard of living very seriously. In order to do this, we have implemented the FixFlo system for each of our tenancies, which allows our tenants to log maintenance issues quickly and easily. This way, our team of experts can manage the situation promptly and ensure that quality repair work is undertaken, if necessary.
What is FixFlo?
We have introduced a new online system called Fixflo, for tenants to accurately report
repairs, for contractors to submit quotations and receive work instructions and for landlords to approve works for their properties.
FixFlo is an online platform that allows landlords to see work instructed in their properties and track the progress through to completion. This gives both landlords and tenants peace of mind.
What makes FixFlo great?
- 24/7 online repair reporting – so easy that nothing gets missed
- Photos of the problem – allowing accurate assessment of the work required
- End-to-end management of repairs – nothing gets forgotten
- Full documentation and a complete audit trail – every step is tracked
How to access it:
You can access Fixflo here.
Once logged in you can view the reported issues at your properties as well as action any tasks required.
For a guide to using the system please click here.
What you need to do:
Nothing for now! Just keep an eye on your email and let us know if your email address changes.
If you have any questions about this email, please contact your Property Manager to discuss this further.
To find out more, head to our LinkedIn where we regularly update our followers with useful insights into the Scottish rental market.
