The Defective Premises Act 1972: Landlord and Builder Duties Explained

Reviewed by Bradley Askew, Solicitor (non-practising), England & Wales. Reviewed 4 August 2026.

The Defective Premises Act 1972 does two separate jobs. Section 1 (and, since 2022, section 2A) makes builders, developers and anyone doing refurbishment work in the course of a business liable if a dwelling is not fit for habitation when the work is completed. Section 4 makes landlords liable in negligence — separately from any repairing covenant in the tenancy — if someone is injured or their property is damaged by a defect the landlord knew, or ought to have known, about. The two provisions are often run together in commentary, and that matters in one important respect: the Building Safety Act 2022's extended limitation periods (15 years prospective, 30 years retrospective, from 28 June 2022) apply to section 1 and section 2A claims against builders and developers — not to a landlord's section 4 duty of care, which keeps the ordinary tort time limits. This page explains both duties, the landlord's duty of care in full, what changed in 2022, and the practical compliance steps that follow.

Key takeaways

• Section 4 imposes a duty of care on a landlord whenever the tenancy gives them an obligation — or even just a right — to maintain or repair the premises. Because most residential tenancies carry an implied repairing obligation under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, this duty applies to almost every landlord in England and Wales.
• The duty is owed to "all persons who might reasonably be expected to be affected" by a defect — not just the tenant. It has been applied to household members, visitors and others affected by the state of the property.
• The duty only bites once the landlord has actual or constructive knowledge of the defect — knowledge is a precondition, not an afterthought.
• The Building Safety Act 2022's headline 15-year / 30-year extended limitation periods apply to section 1 and section 2A (builders, developers, refurbishment work) — not to section 4 landlord claims, which retain the ordinary Limitation Act 1980 periods (broadly six years for property damage, three years for personal injury). Conflating the two is a common and consequential mistake.
• A term in a tenancy agreement that tries to exclude or restrict Defective Premises Act liability is void under section 6(3) of the Act.
• Nothing in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 amends the Defective Premises Act 1972 directly; legislation.gov.uk records no outstanding changes to it as at this update.

What the Act does

The Defective Premises Act 1972 received Royal Assent on 29 June 1972 and came into force on 1 January 1974. It fills gaps the common law left in two related areas: the liability of those who build or alter dwellings for poor workmanship, and the liability of landlords for defects in property they let. The Act has seven operative sections, five of which matter for landlords and the wider building trade:

• Section 1 — duty to build dwellings properly.
• Section 2 — historic carve-out for dwellings covered by an approved warranty scheme (see below — currently of no practical effect).
• Section 2A — inserted by the Building Safety Act 2022; extends a similar duty to refurbishment and other work on existing dwellings.
• Section 3 — a builder's or contractor's duty of care in relation to work on premises is not switched off just because the premises are later sold or re-let.
• Section 4 — the landlord's duty of care, covered in detail below.

Despite its age, the Act remains one of the most important sources of landlord liability for personal injury and property damage in England and Wales, and it was substantially reinforced — for builders and developers — by the Building Safety Act 2022 following the Grenfell Tower fire.

Section 1 — the duty to build dwellings properly

Section 1 applies to "a person taking on work for or in connection with the provision of a dwelling" — whether the dwelling is created by new construction, or by converting or enlarging an existing building. This catches not only the main contractor but sub-contractors, architects, surveyors and developers who arrange for the work.

The duty is to do the work "in a workmanlike or, as the case may be, professional manner, with proper materials" so that the dwelling is fit for habitation when the work is completed. It is owed to two groups: the person who ordered the dwelling, and every subsequent person who acquires a legal or equitable interest in it — so a buyer several owners down the chain can still sue the original builder if the statutory conditions are met.

Building liability orders. Section 130 of the Building Safety Act 2022 gives the High Court power to make a "building liability order", attaching a company's Defective Premises Act liability to an associated company (broadly, one under common control) where it is just and equitable to do so. This closes a gap where the original contracting company had been wound up or stripped of assets, and is most relevant to group corporate developers rather than individual landlords.

Section 2 — the (now largely spent) approved-scheme exclusion. Section 2 originally meant that no section 1 claim could be brought where a dwelling was covered by a warranty scheme the Secretary of State had approved — the NHBC's Buildmark scheme was approved on this basis when the Act came into force. That approval lapsed on 31 March 1979, and no scheme has been approved under section 2 since. In practice, an NHBC or other new-build warranty today provides valuable contractual protection but no longer blocks a section 1 statutory claim.

Section 2A — refurbishment and other work (added 2022)

Section 2A, inserted by section 134 of the Building Safety Act 2022 with effect from 28 June 2022, closed a long-standing gap: section 1 only ever covered the initial provision of a dwelling, not later work on an existing one. Section 2A now imposes an equivalent duty on anyone who, in the course of a business, takes on work on any part of a "relevant building" (a building consisting of or containing one or more dwellings) — refurbishment, re-fitting, and similar work — where that work leaves the dwelling not fit for habitation when completed. It is owed to the person who commissioned the work and to anyone who later acquires an interest in the dwelling. It does not apply to work that is itself "providing" the dwelling (that stays under section 1) or where the space is expected to stop being a dwelling once the work is finished.

For a landlord who carries out (or commissions) a significant refurbishment as a business activity — for example, a portfolio landlord converting a property or carrying out a major renovation between lettings — section 2A is a potential additional exposure separate from the ongoing section 4 duty covered below.

Section 3 — a builder's duty survives disposal

Section 3 confirms that a duty of care owed because of construction, repair, maintenance or demolition work is not extinguished simply because the person who did the work later sells or otherwise disposes of the premises. This provision is aimed at contractors and those doing the physical work, not at the landlord's own separate section 4 duty (below), though the two can overlap where the landlord has also carried out the defective work themselves.

Section 4 — the landlord's duty of care

Section 4 is the provision landlords most need to understand, and it is worth reading closely because its structure — obligation, right, knowledge, "relevant defect" — is doing real legal work in each phrase.

When the duty arises. The duty applies "where premises are let under a tenancy which puts on the landlord an obligation to the tenant for the maintenance or repair of the premises." Crucially, section 4(4) extends this to a tenancy that merely gives the landlord a right to enter and repair, even without an express obligation — so a landlord cannot escape the duty just because their tenancy agreement is silent on repairs; if they have the right to enter and fix something, they are treated as if they had the obligation for the purposes of section 4.

Who is owed the duty. The landlord owes a duty "to all persons who might reasonably be expected to be affected by defects in the state of the premises" — not solely the tenant. On the ordinary wording of the section this reasonably extends to household members (including children), visitors and guests, and others lawfully affected by the condition of the property.

The standard of care. The landlord must "take such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances to see that they are reasonably safe from personal injury or from damage to their property caused by a relevant defect." This is a negligence-style, fault-based standard — not strict liability. What is "reasonable" depends on the nature and severity of the defect, the risk it poses, how practicable and costly it would have been to fix, and what the landlord actually knew or should have found out.

Knowledge is a precondition. Section 4(2) says the duty is owed only if the landlord "knows (whether as the result of being notified by the tenant or otherwise) or if he ought in all the circumstances to have known of the relevant defect." A landlord is not liable for a defect they had no reasonable way of discovering; equally, a landlord cannot rely on genuinely not knowing where reasonable inspection, or acting on a tenant's report, would have revealed the problem.

"Relevant defect" defined. Section 4(3) defines a relevant defect narrowly: it must be a defect existing at or after "the material time" and arising from — or continuing because of — an act or omission by the landlord that constitutes (or would, with notice, have constituted) a failure to carry out their maintenance or repair obligation. "The material time" is fixed by reference to when the tenancy started, when the tenancy agreement was entered into, or when possession was taken — whichever is earliest, for tenancies granted after the Act commenced.

No contracting out. Section 6(3) makes void any term of an agreement that purports to exclude or restrict the operation of the Act, or any liability arising under it. A clause disclaiming responsibility for the state of the property has no effect against a section 4 claim.

Who is typically covered

• The tenant — the most obvious claimant, for injury or property damage caused by a defect the landlord knew about but failed to address.
• Household members, including children living with the tenant.
• Visitors and guests lawfully on the property.
• Others reasonably affected, such as neighbours or passers-by injured by a defect in a part of the structure the landlord is responsible for (a collapsing boundary wall or a dangerous external staircase, for example).

Extended limitation periods: what the Building Safety Act 2022 actually changed

This is the point where the law is most often misstated, so it is worth being precise. Section 135 of the Building Safety Act 2022 inserted a new section 4B into the Limitation Act 1980, creating a special time limit for a defined set of "relevant provisions":

• Section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 (the builder's/developer's duty), and
• Section 2A of the Defective Premises Act 1972 (the refurbishment duty, also inserted by the 2022 Act), and
• Section 38 of the Building Act 1984 (breach of building regulations).

For those provisions, section 4B sets:

Claim accrual	Limitation period	Applies to
After 28 June 2022 (prospective)	15 years from the date of the breach	Section 1, section 2A, Building Act 1984 s.38 claims
Before 28 June 2022 (retrospective)	30 years from the date of the breach, reviving claims that would otherwise be time-barred	Section 1 claims only

Section 4 — the landlord's duty of care — is not a "relevant provision" under section 4B and is not extended. A claim under section 4 keeps the ordinary Limitation Act 1980 periods that apply to tort claims generally: broadly six years from the date the cause of action accrued for property damage (Limitation Act 1980, section 2), and three years for personal injury claims (Limitation Act 1980, section 11), running from the later of the date of injury or the claimant's date of knowledge, with the court retaining a discretion under section 33 to allow a personal injury claim to proceed outside that period where it is equitable to do so.

The retrospective 30-year extension has been tested at the highest level: in URS Corporation Ltd v BDW Trading Ltd [2025] UKSC 21, the Supreme Court confirmed (among other things) that the retrospective extension under section 135 applies not only to direct section 1 claims but to related contribution and negligence claims arising from the same underlying defect. The case concerned a developer's claim against its structural engineer, not a landlord's section 4 duty, but it is the leading authority on how far the 2022 extension reaches — and it reinforces, rather than blurs, the line between section 1/2A claims (extended) and section 4 claims (not extended).

Why this distinction matters practically. A landlord who assumes their section 4 exposure now runs for up to 30 years, by analogy with headline Building Safety Act coverage, is working from the wrong premise — and so is a tenant or visitor assuming they have decades to bring a personal injury claim. Get specific dates and the correct provision checked rather than relying on general "Building Safety Act extended limitation" commentary that does not distinguish between the sections.

Damages available under section 4

A successful section 4 claim can recover:

• Personal injury damages — pain, suffering and loss of amenity, loss of earnings, medical and rehabilitation costs, and (in the most serious cases) damages running into six figures.
• Property damage — the cost of repairing or replacing the claimant's damaged possessions.
• Consequential losses flowing from the injury or damage — for example, the cost of alternative accommodation where the defect made the property unsafe to occupy.

There is no fixed tariff; damages are assessed on ordinary tort principles by reference to the severity and duration of the harm.

How the Renters' Rights Act 2025 fits in

The Defective Premises Act 1972 has not been amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 — legislation.gov.uk records no outstanding effects on the 1972 Act as at this update, and none of its provisions feature in the Renters' Rights Act's amendment schedules. What changed on 1 May 2026 is the tenancy structure surrounding it: existing assured shorthold tenancies converted to periodic assured tenancies with no fixed end date, and Section 21 no-fault eviction was abolished. The section 4 duty of care attaches to the tenancy regardless of that structure — an assured shorthold tenancy, a periodic assured tenancy, and a fixed-term tenancy pre-dating either reform are all "a tenancy" for section 4 purposes.

Two related developments are worth tracking rather than treating as settled:

• Awaab's Law for the private rented sector. The government has committed, through the Renters' Rights Act 2025, to extending Awaab's Law-style fixed timescales for investigating and fixing serious hazards (which took effect for social housing from 27 October 2025) to private landlords. As of this update, the government's own implementation roadmap lists the private rented sector extension as subject to further consultation, with no confirmed commencement date. When it does commence, it will sit alongside — not replace — the section 4 duty of care.
• Landlord conduct in possession proceedings. Courts assessing discretionary possession grounds under the post-reform Section 8 framework can take a landlord's conduct into account, and a documented pattern of ignored repair requests is unhelpful to a landlord seeking possession on discretionary grounds — a practical, rather than a direct statutory, connection to Defective Premises Act compliance.

Practical compliance for landlords

1. Inspect periodically, and document it. A six-monthly internal and external inspection, with dated notes or photographs, is the clearest evidence that a defect was not something the landlord "ought to have known" about before that point — or, if it was visible, that it was addressed promptly once found.
2. Respond promptly to tenant reports. Section 4(2) makes actual notification one of the two routes to landlord knowledge. A slow or ignored response to a repair report is the single most common fact pattern in a successful section 4 claim.
3. Keep records of everything — inspection notes, contractor reports, correspondence with the tenant, and any works carried out. In a dispute, contemporaneous records of what the landlord knew and did are decisive.
4. Don't overlook external and communal hazards. Boundary walls, gates, external steps, communal lighting and paths are commonly missed because they are outside the let space itself, but they fall within section 4 where the landlord has the relevant obligation or right of repair.
5. Treat a right to repair as if it were an obligation. Because section 4(4) puts a landlord with a mere right to enter and repair in the same position as one with an express obligation, don't assume a loosely drafted tenancy agreement reduces exposure — check what rights of entry and repair it actually gives, not just what obligations it states.
6. Don't rely on a "no responsibility" clause. Any clause purporting to exclude or limit Defective Premises Act liability is void under section 6(3); it will not protect the landlord and may itself look bad in a dispute.
7. Maintain adequate liability insurance. Most standard landlord policies include at least £2 million of public/property owners' liability cover, with £5 million or more increasingly available and sometimes required for HMO licensing — confirm the actual figure and any relevant exclusions with your insurer rather than assuming a headline amount applies.
8. Keep the limitation position straight. If facing or considering a claim, identify which provision is actually in play — section 1/2A (extended 15/30-year periods, relevant to builders, developers and business refurbishment work) or section 4 (ordinary tort limitation periods, relevant to landlords) — before assuming how much time is available.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the Building Safety Act 2022's 15/30-year limitation periods protect (or expose) landlords under section 4. They do not apply to section 4 at all; they apply to section 1 and section 2A claims against builders, developers and those doing business refurbishment work.
• Treating the Defective Premises Act duty as identical to the section 11 repairing obligation. They overlap in practice but are legally distinct routes with different claimants, different triggers, and different remedies.
• Assuming no obligation to repair means no section 4 duty. A mere right to enter and repair is enough under section 4(4).
• Ignoring communal or external areas on the assumption the duty is confined to the interior of the let space.
• Believing an NHBC or new-build warranty blocks a statutory claim. The section 2 exclusion has had no practical effect since the NHBC scheme's approval lapsed in 1979.

Next step

This page explains the general law of England and Wales; it is legal information, not advice on your specific property, tenancy or claim, and reading it does not create a solicitor–client relationship. If you are a landlord dealing with a reported defect, or facing (or considering) a Defective Premises Act claim, get the facts — what was known, when, and what was done — documented promptly, and if the matter is disputed, high-value or time-critical, speak to a regulated, practising solicitor without delay. TenancyAgreementService.co.uk is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Authoritative sources

• Defective Premises Act 1972 — full text.
• Defective Premises Act 1972, s.1 — duty to build dwellings properly.
• Defective Premises Act 1972, s.2 — cases excluded from the remedy under section 1.
• Defective Premises Act 1972, s.2A — duties relating to work to dwellings etc.
• Defective Premises Act 1972, s.3 — duty of care not abated by disposal of premises.
• Defective Premises Act 1972, s.4 — landlord's duty of care.
• Defective Premises Act 1972, s.6 — supplemental.
• Building Safety Act 2022, s.130 — building liability orders.
• Building Safety Act 2022, s.134 — duties relating to work to dwellings.
• Building Safety Act 2022, s.135 — limitation periods.
• Limitation Act 1980, s.4B — special time limit for damage/defects in buildings.
• Limitation Act 1980, s.2 — time limit for actions founded on tort.
• Limitation Act 1980, s.11 — special time limit for personal injury actions.
• Limitation Act 1980, s.33 — court's discretion to override personal injury time limit.
• URS Corporation Ltd v BDW Trading Ltd [2025] UKSC 21.
• GOV.UK — Renting out your property: landlord responsibilities.
• Our Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 guide — for the related section 11 repairing obligation.
• Our Building Safety Act 2022 guide — for the higher-risk building regime and leaseholder protections.