Liverpool City Council v Irwin
Terms can be implied in law into a whole category of contract, such as tenancies of flats in a tower block.
Facts
Mr and Mrs Irwin were tenants of a maisonette on the ninth and tenth floors of a 15 storey council tower block in Everton, Liverpool. The tenancy agreement, a document headed Conditions of Tenancy, set out the tenants' obligations but said nothing about any obligations of the landlord. The common parts of the building were in a very poor condition: the lifts frequently did not work, the stairs were unlit and the rubbish chutes were often blocked, partly because of vandalism. The tenants withheld rent in protest, and the council sought possession. The tenants counterclaimed that the council was in breach of an implied obligation to maintain the common parts.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held that there was an implied term that the landlord would take reasonable care to keep the common parts, the lifts, stairs, lighting and rubbish chutes, in reasonable repair and usability. This was a term implied in law, as a necessary incident of this kind of contractual relationship, because tenants of flats in a high rise block could not use the property without them. The test was necessity, not reasonableness. However, the obligation was only to take reasonable care, having regard to the tenants' own responsibilities, and on the facts the council had not breached it.
Related cases on terms of the contract
- Arnold v Britton [2015] UKSC 36, [2015] AC 1619
- Barton v Morris [2023] UKSC 3, [2023] AC 684
- Bettini v Gye (1876) 1 QBD 183
- Braganza v BP Shipping Ltd [2015] UKSC 17, [2015] 1 WLR 1661
- Bunge Corp v Tradax Export SA [1981] 1 WLR 711
- Chartbrook Ltd v Persimmon Homes Ltd [2009] UKHL 38, [2009] 1 AC 1101
- Dick Bentley Productions Ltd v Harold Smith (Motors) Ltd [1965] 1 WLR 623
- Hongkong Fir Shipping Co Ltd v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd [1962] 2 QB 26
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