ABSTRACT
If a landlord is to be liable to the tenant for the state and condition of the property, he must either undertake an express repairing covenant, or be subjected to a statutory obligation to keep in repair, or he must have given the tenant an express warranty as to the state and condition or the fitness and suitability of the premises for the tenant's purpose. This chapter examines the strength of the principle that the courts will ordinarily not imply any repairing obligations against a landlord, where the tenant cannot benefit from an express covenant or warranty from him, and the narrowness of the exceptions to it at common law. The implied obligations of a tenant who is not under an express covenant to repair depend on two sets of rules. The first set is to the effect that the tenant is - no matter what the length of the tenancy may be - bound not to commit voluntary waste.
