Repairing Obligations: Whether a Landlord Was Entitled to Undertake Repairs Using a System Which Required Additional Apparatus (Triplark Ltd v Calvert and others – 2024)

Where a heating system maintained by individual leaseholders required repair, was the landlord entitled to action the repair using additional apparatus to the existing system?

The background

In Triplark Ltd v Calvert and others [2024], a block of 194 flats in London contained residential units held by long leaseholders. A common heating and hot water system served all flats within the building. The landlord wished to change the system to one which required additional new heat exchanger units.

Defendant leaseholders resisted the change in system, arguing that it altered the terms of their leases, specifically the repairing obligations placed upon them. The landlord’s predecessor had previously installed a new communal system, which was delivering heating and hot water to around 180 flats. The landlord sought a determination that it was entitled to install the new system and additional apparatus, even though this differed to the original installation.

The decision

The High Court found that the installation of the additional apparatus proposed by the landlord resulted in a change to the leaseholders’ repairing obligations that was sufficient to constitute an additional burden not intended by the original parties to the leases.

The Court considered whether or not the landlord was entitled to renew the common heating and hot water system, connecting this new system to individual flats which then resulted in different repairing obligations for leaseholders. It found that the terms of the leases did not extend to permit the landlord to install additional apparatus such as that proposed, finding it to be exorbitant to then expect leaseholders to assume responsibility for the repair of additional apparatus.

Lease terms did not allow for ‘reasonable’ additions. By adding heat exchanger units to the communal system, the way the leases operated changed in a way that resulted in an additional burden placed on the leaseholders. The landlord’s application was refused.

Advice and action for landlords

The terms of the leases did not permit the landlord in this case to make additions to the communal heating and hot water system such that the repairing obligations on individual leaseholders were fundamentally altered.

It could not be expected that the landlord could make alterations as it wished and then expect leaseholders to repair and maintain the new system in the same way as the system contained in the original demise. Even if the landlord could argue that alterations were ‘reasonable’, allowance for this was not contemplated in the lease terms.

Landlords are advised that, where they wish to upgrade systems for which leaseholders are responsible, lease terms must be closely checked to ensure the new systems do not alter the way the lease provisions work, or place additional burden on leaseholders.