Housing Law – Essay Question Answer
It has been suggested that the law relating to defective rented
accommodation is complex with a number of overlapping provisions and
that there is no single, universally applicable tenant’s right to a decent
home. Discuss the extent to which this statement is true.
It has been suggested that the law relating to defective rented accommodation is
complex with a number of overlapping provisions and that there is no single,
universally applicable tenant’s right to a decent home. In order to examine this
proposition, the essay will consider whether the law relating to defective rented
housing does provide adequate remedies and whether the nature of the defect
affects the remedies available to the tenant in order to determine the extent to which
the above statement is true.
Some critics claim that the law relating to defective rented accommodation is
complex due to its overlapping provisions. To some extent, this is true because
“historically neither contract nor tort gave protection to tenants”. 1 As Erle C.J said in
Robbins v Jones,2 previously the attitude of the law was: “fraud apart, there is no
law against letting a tumbledown house; and the tenant’s remedy is upon his
contract, if any”.3 Even if “the damage arose from the landlord’s mere neglect or from
the careless doing of works of maintenance or installation” 4 there was no liability in
tort. Nevertheless, due to growing dislike of the caveat lessee principle, 5 the law was
reformed in an attempt to give tenants further protection. However, it has been
criticised by the Law Commission as being “a body of law that lacked clarity and
where there was often an overlap of remedies”. 6 Arguably, this is true because unlike
before, there are now a wide range of remedies available to tenants. And depending
on the type of obligation that has been breached, landlord’s liabilities can arise in
tort, contract, criminal and even under the Human Rights Act 1998. Hence, this is
why the law in this area is complex, because other areas of the law such as tort and
1
Hughes, D. Davis, M. Matthew, V. and Jones, A. Text and Materials on Housing Law (Oxford: OUP, 2005) p.541
2
(1863) 15 CBNS 221
3
(1863) 15 CBNS 221 at 239
4
Hughes, D. Davis, M. Matthew, V. and Jones, A. op cit. p.541
5
Ibid.
6
Law Com No. 238 (1996) para 1.13
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