Repairs and Services When Renting

Do make sure you have your landlord’s name, phone number, and address before you have a problem. Don’t expect to be reimbursed for repairs you do yourself unless your landlord agrees to it in writing.

Landlord and tenant responsibilities

The landlord’s responsibilities

The law says a landlord must keep a place healthy, safe and “suitable for occupation”. Your landlord has to make any repairs that are needed for your health and safety.

Your landlord is responsible for repairing:

• heating
• plumbing
• electricity
• locks
• walls, floors and ceilings (including water leaks or holes)
• fire doors and fire escapes
• intercoms
• elevators

Anything included in your rent must also be maintained. For example, your landlord is responsible for repairing:

• fridge and stove
• laundry facilities
• furniture included in your rent
• garages and storage sheds

If something needs to be repaired, tell your landlord right away even if the repair is not important to you. Do it in writing and keep a copy for yourself. If you don't tell your landlord about the problem and it gets worse, you could be held responsible.

Your responsibilities

As a tenant, you have to keep your place clean and notify the landlord of any repairs that need to be done, or of any other problems such as mice, cockroaches, or bedbugs. You are also responsible for any damage you or your guests do even if it is an accident. You are not responsible for reasonable wear and tear. Reasonable wear and tear is what happens to a place over time with normal use, such as the wearing out of carpets.

Getting repairs done or services back

If a repair is needed

If there’s a repair needed and it’s not an emergency, tell your manager or landlord right away (see Emergency Repairs later on this page for information about what you can do in an emergency). Write down the date when you talked to your landlord and what they said. Don’t wait until a small problem becomes a big problem.

If a service is taken away

The Residential Tenancy Act allows a landlord to restrict services or facilities as long as you are given at least 30 days written notice and are compensated with a rent reduction that is equal to the reduction in value of your tenancy agreement. Your landlord cannot take away services or facilities which are considered “essential” to your tenancy. However, what you consider essential may not be what your landlord or what an arbitrator consider essential. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you have a written tenancy agreement that says what services and facilities are material terms of your tenancy agreement. For example, if laundry is included in your agreement make sure your written agreement states that laundry is included. A material term is a term that is so important that without that term you wouldn’t have entered into the agreement.

In law, something that is relevant or important. A material fact, for example, is a fact relevant to a claim or a defence to a claim. See "claim," "evidence" and "fact."