Who is responsible?
Tenant and landlord responsibilities are summarised as follows:
External works
The tenant is responsible for:
- care and upkeep of gardens and hedges
- cleaning of gully traps
The landlord is responsible for:
- repairs to garden paths, walls, fences and gates where installed by the landlord
- the replacement of wheely bins every seven years where replacement is deemed necessary
- replacement of rotary clothes driers
- maintenance of communal amenity areas, unless these are the responsibility of the local council
- outside repair work involving structural repairs to walls, outside doors, windows (but not replacement of glass), roofs, chimneys, valleys, gutters, downpipes and house drains (excluding cleaning of gullies)
- external paintwork
Internal decoration
The tenant is responsible for keeping the interior of the dwelling in reasonable decorative order.
Electrical repairs
The landlord is responsible for:
- electrical wiring
- repair to electrical appliances, fires and heaters where fitted by the landlord
- door entry systems to communal blocks
- ceiling roses, lamp holders and flexes
- socket outlets and switches
The tenant is responsible for:
- repair to electrical appliances, fires and heaters not installed by the landlord
- door bells (where not installed by the Housing Executive or housing association) and plug tops on appliances
- re-setting of trips and replacement of fuses, except main service fuses which are the responsibility of Northern Ireland Electricity
Cooking and heating appliances
The landlord is responsible for NIHE installed:
- repairs to defective solid fuel cookers and stoves
- solid fuel room heaters
- fire hearth and surrounds
- annual service of heating appliances where installed by NIHE
Plumbing
The landlord is responsible for:
- clearing blocked sewers, drains and external waste pipes other than gullies and waste pipes blocked through tenant misuse
- boilers and hot water cylinders
- pipe work, radiators, fittings and valves
The tenant is responsible for:
- stoppers and chains for baths, sinks and basins
- replacement of wash basins, wc bowls and wc seats (except where damaged or discoloured through fair wear and tear or by faulty installation)
- replacement of baths, sinks and drainers (except where damaged or discoloured through fair wear and tear or by faulty installation)
Doors and windows
The landlord is responsible for:
- window frames, sashes and window furniture
- repair of defective internal and external doors, saddles and door frames
- hinges, locks, handles, trapper bars and letter boxes on external doors
The tenant is responsible for:
- hinges, locks and handles to internal doors
- kitchen and bedroom unit doors, door hinges, handles and catches on drawers
- draught proofing of doors and windows
- replacement of broken glass
Structural and other repairs
The landlord is responsible for:
- walls, staircases and all structural timbers, roof, chimney and rainwater goods
- wall and floor tiling
- architraves, skirting boards, timber sills and other internal decorative woodwork
- airbricks and ventilators
- roofspace insulation (where the tenant has not been receiving grant aid)
- timber rot
The tenant is responsible for:
- sweeping chimneys and the cost of any work required because of the failure to sweep chimneys
- internal plaster cracks on walls and ceilings