The UK experienced record-breaking temperatures in July, with some areas reaching over 40 degrees.
One of our members took to our forum during the hot weather spell, to ask whether they should provide electric fans for their tenants, to help keep the property and them cool in extreme hot weather.
The responses on our forum
The first user to respond to this thread said that in their opinion, landlords do not have a legal duty to provide equipment to cool properties. They said that in their rentals, all tenants bought their own fans to keep cool during the heatwave. This user did however recommend to the landlord that it could be a good idea for them to check up on tenants in future if another hot spell were to come along and if the tenants are particularly vulnerable.
Another user of our forum agreed that landlords are not obliged to provide fans to tenants, adding that most tenants can use their own methods to keep cool.
This frequent forum poster also said that in their rental properties, they have blackout curtains and blackout blind in all of the rooms as well as ceiling fans in bedrooms, which all help to keep the properties cooler.
Another landlord who contributed to the thread also agreed with the majority view, that landlords don’t need to provide fans to tenants. They did however also mention the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and questioned whether there was a requirement as part of HHSRS to keep the properties cool in the summer (as well as keeping properties heat enabled).
Our adviser then joined in on the thread and was able to clarify the position. They began by confirming that landlords are under no obligation to buy tenants fans to keep the property cool. While this may be a nice thing to do, as long as the risk of excess heat is managed as per the HHSRS regulations, then there is no extra obligation to do this unless something relating to the property itself makes it exceptionally hot.
- Read the original forum post here
- Read more about HHSRS in our guide for landlords here.