Property Landlord advice: Frozen pipes, whose responsibility?

By Mike Edwards

Property Landlord advice: Frozen pipes, whose responsibility?

Doubtless we will suffer another bout of cold weather before this winter is finished, and indeed even as I write this the temperatures are dropping fast at night and hard frosts are a regular feature again.

So problems with frozen pipes and lack of water supply have in some areas created unprecedented calls for help (witness Northern Ireland’s woes in December) all of this has raised several important questions for Landlords.

Who arranges and pays for the Contractor?

Maintaining the supply of Water is the Landlord’s responsibility under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, so he should shoulder it all, including arranging contractors. The only possible exception might be tenant negligence but there is a court case where it was held that a tenant is not required to insulate pipes, just live in the property reasonably. If there is a power cut or as was the case during December the conditions are simply exceptional, this will not be the tenant’s problem.

What happens if the tenant says “We have no running water at all” (as opposed to no heating) and tries to go for temporary absence at the Landlord’s expense or possibly early release from the agreement with no penalty. There are no easy answers and it all depends very much on circumstances.

Pipes outside which are badly designed or poorly insulated (including roofs) have to be considered by the landlord. Be careful also with self condensing boilers where the small bore evaporation pipe is external to the property there have been a lot of problems with these freezing this winter. Yes they can be defrosted with a hair dryer in about five minutes but is it reasonable to expect the tenant to go out into a blizzard armed only with a hair dryer more than once in a winter?

Council viewpoint

But what happens if the Landlord has in effect done all they can and are as much a victim of extreme conditions as the tenant – except they are not living in the property of course!! Well courtesy of the current fitness standards as dictated by HHSRS a property with no water supply for whatever reason would be condemned as not fit for human habitation by almost any Council or Court.

If the tenant considers it necessary, they could speak to the local council who will then make a decision and if they consider them homeless, have the obligation to re-house them. Let the Council decide for you – but again beware as If faced with such an obligation and related costs the Council would almost certainly send in the Environmental Health inspectors to conduct an HHSRS examination of the entire property.

Who can claim and for what?

So the system is frozen and a leak expected, if a contractor is called in can any costs be claimed? Well not by the tenant as it would be under the buildings cover but not by the Landlord either as the only insurable peril is any subsequent leak and damage.

If there is subsequent damage, the word reasonable will keep cropping up. Did the landlord act reasonably and did the tenant act reasonably? If the answer to both is “yes” then in response to the original question it will be a landlord problem to solve

The other issue to be wary of especially with tenants trying to thaw out frozen pipes in an inappropriate manner is when pipes are known to be frozen making sure that the damage is strictly minimized. Otherwise in any subsequent damage claim the insurance may be able to wriggle if they say you did not take enough care to control damage during the defrosting of the pipes especially if a professional plumber was not involved.

To minimize the problem

The best advise has got to be take advise, especially from professionals who know the law and what would happen in these circumstances, bur remember, quick action and cooperation should always be looked for before freezing problems get out of hand!