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Paper 1 · Lesson 7 — Leases and Tenancies

Landlord tenant covenants

Express and implied covenants and the repairing obligation; privity of contract vs privity of estate.

2 questionsAnswers & explanations includedFree — no sign-up

Question 1

During a tenancy, the landlord takes to letting himself into the leased flat whenever he passes, to check on it and occasionally to show it to prospective buyers, without telling the tenant. The tenant objects. The landlord replies that, since the flat is still his, he may come and go as he likes, and that in any event the tenant sometimes plays loud music that disturbs him.

Which statement is correct?

  1. A. Neither is in breach, quiet enjoyment protecting landlord and tenant against each other alike.
  2. B. The landlord breaches the covenant of quiet enjoyment; the tenant's music does not excuse it.
  3. C. The tenant breaches quiet enjoyment by his music, and the landlord may enter in return.
  4. D. The landlord may enter freely, quiet enjoyment being displaced once the tenant himself makes noise.
Show the answer and full explanation

Answer: B

The rule. The covenant of quiet enjoyment runs one way: the landlord must not disturb the tenant's possession, and cannot enter the premises as and when he likes. The tenant's own conduct does not release the landlord from it.

Why B is correct. Letting himself in at will breaches the landlord's covenant of quiet enjoyment. The tenant's loud music, whatever else it may be, does not excuse that breach.

The other options.

  • A treats the covenant as mutual. It protects the tenant against the landlord, not the other way round.
  • C and D treat the tenant's noise as licensing the landlord's entry. The covenant is one-way; the tenant's conduct does not switch it off.

Exam note. Quiet enjoyment binds the landlord, not the tenant. The tenant's misbehaviour is a separate matter, not a defence to the landlord's entry.

The tenant's own conduct does not release the landlord from it →

Question 2

Madam Yeo rents out a fully furnished flat. On the day the tenant moves in, the flat is found to be badly infested with bedbugs, so that it cannot reasonably be lived in. The tenant, who had paid a deposit and the first month's rent and arranged to move his family in that weekend, complains that the flat was plainly not fit to be occupied when he took it, and asks what his position is and whether he must simply put up with it.

Which statement is correct?

  1. A. The tenant's only remedy is to clear the infestation himself and bear the cost, as the occupier of the flat.
  2. B. The tenant must simply live with the infestation, a landlord giving no assurance about the state of a let flat.
  3. C. The landlord breached the duty to deliver a fit furnished flat, so the tenant may claim constructive eviction.
  4. D. There is no breach, the duty of fitness applying only to unfurnished premises such as bare warehouses.
Show the answer and full explanation

Answer: C

The rule. A landlord letting furnished premises must deliver them fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy. Where they are not — for instance, badly infested — the tenant may treat himself as constructively evicted. The duty attaches to furnished lettings, not to bare premises such as warehouses.

Why C is correct. The flat was furnished and, being badly infested on day one, was not fit to be lived in. The landlord breached the duty of fitness, and the tenant may claim constructive eviction.

The other options.

  • B says the landlord gives no assurance. For furnished premises there is a duty of fitness at delivery.
  • A puts the cost on the tenant. The breach is the landlord's.
  • D confines the duty to unfurnished premises. It is the other way round — it applies to furnished ones.

Exam note. Furnished lettings must be fit to live in at handover. An infested furnished flat is a breach, and constructive eviction is open to the tenant.

Where they are not — for instance, badly infested — the tenant may treat himself as constructively evicted →

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