My landlord wrote on my tenancy,”tenants responsible for gas safety certificate/checks”. can he do this?
Actually it depends on where you live. State tenant/landlord laws vary and so you may very well be responsible for the repairs. This is what happens when people don’t take the time to read the fine print. Take it to a real estate attorney if you can and if not call the county district attorney in your state.
A landlord cannot absolve himself / herself of the legal duty to make the premises livable. It sounds as if the landlord snuck that clause into your lease because things like the boiler was a KNOWN ISSUE to the landlord, but NOT a KNOWN ISSUE to you. As it was likely a known issue, and because you could not have known, no judge on the planet is going to say that you assumed the risk and make such a clause in the lease binding. Many states have a law that allows you to report deficiencies to the landlord, and if the landlord doesn’t respond in a timely fashion (30 days) then you pay for repairs yourself and take it out of your rent. If your state has such a statute, then THE STATUTE WOULD MAKE THE CLAUSE IN THE LEASE VOID!!! The reasoning — such a statute is designed to ***protect*** renters like you from slimeballs like your landlords. A landlord cannot “override” such a statute with terms in a lease. Get to digging… it may be state law, or city ordinances, but you need some ammunit
