Landlord’s Duty of Care

Sykes v Harry and Another (CA TLR 27 February)

The claimant tenant had been found unconscious and suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by emissions from a gas fire due to various defects that would have been found and rectified had the fire ever been serviced. Section 4(1) of the Defective Premises Act 1972, merely required a claimant to show a failure on the part of the landlord to take such care as reasonable in all the circumstances to see that the claimant was reasonably safe from personal injury. Unlike s11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, it was not necessary in establishing a breach of duty under s4 of the Defective Premises Act to demonstrate that the landlord had notice of the actual defect giving rise to the injury. By failing to repair or maintain the gas fire over a substantial period to the date of the claimant’s injury, and in the light of his knowledge that the tenant was not having it serviced, the defendant was in breach of his duty under s4.