PI Claim by Tenant: SC Overules CA and Dowding & Reynolds - Ian Miller, 1 Chancery Lane
05/09/16. For years tenants have relied upon Brown v Liverpool Corporation [1969] 3 All ER 1345 when suing landlords for damages for personal injury caused by an accident on external steps or a front path leading to the front door of a house. In that case the Court of Appeal held that the steps were part of the exterior of the dwelling-house. In the case ofEdwards v Kumarasamy [2016] UKSC 40, the Supreme Court held that decision was wrong.
The case of Edwards involved a subtenant being injured when he tripped on an uneven paving stone on the paved area between the main entrance to the block of flats and a carpark. The subtenant brought proceedings against his landlord (the headlessee) claiming his injury was caused by his landlord’s failure to keep the paved area in repair in breach of the covenants implied into the subtenancy by section 11(1)(a) and 11(1A)(a) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Section 11(1)(a) of the 1985 Act implied a repairing obligation into the subtenancy “to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house…”. Section 11(1A)(a) required section 11(1)(a) to be read as if it required a landlord “to keep in repair the structure and exterior of any part of the building in which [he] has an estate or interest.”...
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