Tenancy Law Legal Principles

Question: Discuss about theTenancy Law for Legal Principles. Answer: Introduction The main purpose of the assignment is to determine the course of action on which sally should have complied with before entering into the tenancy agreement. The purpose of the assignment is also to determine the responsibilities of the landlord towards sally with respect to the apartment provided for rent. The assignment would also determine the legal validity of the amount charged by landlord in relation to damage deposit. This would make the readers understand the rights and duties of a landlord and a tenant. Legal Principles Mostly all landlords ask for a damage deposit or security deposit from a tenant which is charged only once. This fee cannot legally be more than the total of one months rent (Hulse Milligan, 2014). According to section 20 (1) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2006 it is the responsibility of the landlord to maintain the premises provided for rent and ensure that the premises is suitable for proper habitation of the tenant. This responsibility of the landlord also exists even if the tenant was made aware of the existing problem at the time of entering into the agreement (LAW, 2015). A tenant must refer to the tenant checklist provided on page 20 before signing a tenancy agreement. A tenant must also inspect the inspection report in relation to the condition of the property which could be used to prove that they have not been involved in causing any damage to the property. All damages must be written down with respect to the property by the tenant upon inspection (Titman Twite 2013). Discussion and Conclusion In this case Sally had got into a tenancy agreement with respect to an apartment. Before signing the rental agreement sally must have inspected the property along with the landlord and kept a record of any existing damage to the property in written for future reference. It was also the duty of Sally to ensure that she carefully went through the tenant check list provided by the landlord. It was found that the premises was defective and was not heating up above 12C even when the heater was set to 25C. It was evidently due to the defect in the walls which the landlord stated that would not be a problem and she eventually believed it and accepted it. If she would have in this case written and recorded the defect and keep it as evidence she would have been able to force the land lord to do the repair work. it has to be noted in this case that sally has been charged a security deposit by the land lord which is illegally. As discussed above the security deposit should not be more than one moths rent which was $1000 but the landlord charged $2000 as security deposit. According to the Residential tenancy act it is the duty of the land lord to do repair work even if the tenant had knowledge about the defect therefore the landlord is liable to do the repair work with respect to the damaged premises. Thus the fees charged as security deposit is illegal and the landlord is liable to get the repair work done. Further Sally should have been more careful with respect to the documentation before getting into a rental agreement. References Hulse, K., Milligan, V. (2014). Secure occupancy: a new framework for analysing security in rental housing.Housing Studies,29(5), 638-656. LAW, C. (2015). Landlords Tenants. Residential Tenancies Act 2006 Titman, S., Twite, G. (2013). Urban density, law and the duration of real estate leases.Journal of Urban Economics,74, 99-112.