Question

England | Landlord Responsibility for Repairs and Maintenance (England) | Responsibilities and Liabilities (England)

Material change of property

7 Dec 2020 | 2 comments

Hello Guild,

We have a landlord who recently replaced a window in lower ground flat.

The original window was fully transparent (as per a normal window) the replacement is however obscured (Satin).

The tenant has stated it is effecting the natural light in to the bedroom (It is the only window in what is a basement level room). She claims the window should have been replaced with something similar in style/type.

The landlord however disagrees?

Am of the opinion that fundamental material change such as this should have been agreed with the tenant prior 0r similar opacity window should have been installed?

Thanks

Answer

2 Comments

  1. guildy
    guildy on 07/12/2020 at 1:34 pm

    In all honesty, no idea!

    Our immediate thinking is that it should be okay and is “similar” enough.

    But, we take your point too.

    We can’t think of any guidance or previous case law which could help us with this one so it will be down to an opinion whether it’s sufficiently similar to what was there before.

  2. ips
    ips on 07/12/2020 at 2:21 pm

    I should add that the window (due to inaccurate measurements) was about 3 inches smaller in length and 1 inch in width?

Submit a Comment

View your previously asked questions. (Will only show questions from August 2020)

Back to Topic Page

(Link above back to topic only works for questions added after end of August 2020)