Who Pays For Repairs When Your Lease Is Silent?

Where the defaults come from

Section 108 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 sets out the rights and liabilities of the lessor and the lessee, in the absence of a contract or local usage to the contrary. It addresses matters including the lessor obligation to disclose material defects, to put the lessee in possession, and the lessee obligations regarding use of the property and returning it.

The qualifier matters as much as the content: these are defaults. A rent agreement that allocates repairs differently is doing so against this background, which is why an all-repairs-on-the-tenant clause is worth noticing rather than skimming.

The distinction worth drawing

Day-to-day upkeep, replacing bulbs, servicing appliances you use heavily, keeping the property clean, is ordinarily a tenant matter and few tenants dispute it.

Structural repairs and building systems are different in character. Seepage from a shared wall, a failing water tank, electrical rewiring, lift maintenance and external repairs relate to the fabric of the property rather than to your occupation of it. A clause pushing those onto a tenant on an eleven-month agreement is asking you to maintain an asset you do not own and will leave.

What to negotiate

• A split stated explicitly: minor repairs below a value threshold to the tenant, structural and systems repairs to the landlord.
• A value threshold in rupees, so the boundary is not argued each time.
• A response timeline for landlord repairs, with a right to carry out the work and deduct from rent if the timeline is missed.
• Clarity on appliances provided with the property, including who repairs and who replaces.
• For apartments, who bears maintenance charges and any special assessments levied by the association.

The deduct-from-rent clause

The most useful term a tenant can negotiate is a right, after written notice and a defined period, to carry out an urgent repair and deduct the documented cost from rent. Without it, a landlord who does not respond faces no consequence and the tenant has no remedy short of a dispute.

Where that right is not in the agreement, deducting unilaterally is risky and can be characterised as non-payment. If you are in that position with an unresponsive landlord, take advice before deducting rather than after.

Making a record

Report every repair in writing, even where you also call. A dated message describing the problem, and a follow-up noting the absence of response, is what turns a series of frustrating conversations into evidence.

That record matters twice: for the repair itself, and later, when the deposit is being settled and the landlord attributes damage to you that you reported months earlier.