If a tenant refuses to allow their landlord entry to their property to carry out inspections, repairs and safety checks, a recent County Court judgment has concluded that the court cannot grant the landlord permission to force entry to the property.
Landlords of residential tenants will inevitably require access to their properties to carry out inspections, repairs and safety checks.
Those inspections are often a legal requirement, and failure to carry them out could not only risk putting the landlord in breach of statutory regulations but also endanger the health and safety of the tenant and other occupiers.
In Southern Housing v James Emmanuel, the landlord sought access to the property to carry out a gas safety inspection, as required by law. The tenant refused access, and the landlord obtained an injunction ordering the tenant to allow access. However, the tenant ignored the injunction.
The landlord therefore asked the court to vary the terms of the injunction to include an order permitting the landlord to force access.
Dismissing the landlord's application, the judge concluded that the court had no power to make an order permitting a landlord to force entry to a tenant's home. For such a power to exist, the judge said, Parliament would need to change the law.
Instead, the lawful options available for the landlord when faced with a tenant who refuses to comply with an access injunction are to:
- evict the tenant from his home; or
- pursue an action against the tenant for contempt of court, for failure to comply with the injunction – the penalty for which could be a fine or imprisonment (although this option does not achieve the landlord's primary aim of facilitating access).
The courts have previously been inconsistent on this issue. While this County Court decision is not binding authority, the judge's detailed analysis of the relevant statute and case law provides useful and persuasive guidance: the courts cannot permit forced entry to a tenant's home, even when access is required to carry out inspections which are required to ensure the health and safety of the tenant.
