Who's responsible for cleaning them; tenant or landlord?

The other half's place has blocked gutters. Thing is the roof is covered in moss so any cleaning attempt is likely to be short lived.

So if anyone knows definitely, and could point me at the relative legislation I'd be grateful.

Tenant.

It's not legislation, just like you don't need legislation to say the tenant should flush the toilet after use rather than expecting the landlord to come round and do it.

If the guttering is broken, then it is the landlord's job to fix it.

Depends what is written in the agreement. To me (who currently rents) would say that it is the landlords responsibility to sort out guttering. Ali_hire would be the man to tell you though

This.

However I have a rental property and personally I'd just pay to get them cleaned (or do it myself) rather than having a tenant faffing around near the roof.

This is it. Loads of differing opinion. I'd fall on the side of the tenant like Begbie. But equally I can see Emjay's point.

My thinking, using Emjay's example, is that a tenant wouldn't be responsible for rodding the sewage pipe if it became blocked. I'm hoping they wouldn't be anyway

Tenant. Your agreement will either have no mention of it or will state that it’s the tenant’s responsibility.

There’s no legislation covering this specific issue. The Landlord and Tenant Act imposes obligations on the Landlord to carry out certain repairs in the property but the legislation is 30 years old and can’t possibly cover every type of repair. Plus this isn’t really a repair, it’s essentially just part looking after a house.

Lord Denning coined the phrase Tenant-like manner back in the 1950s (I think). He pretty much laid out what a tenant might reasonably be expected to when renting a property – unblocking drains, changing light bulbs, replacing washers on taps, etc.

Okay, assuming responsibility for clearing the gutters, is it reasonable to ask for covers to be fitted? Otherwise she'll be paying again very shortly to clear them.

Where I work, the gutters are susceptible to leaves and moss and they have what looks like heavy-duty bottle brushes on wires laid in them.

Can't hurt to ask.

It might be worth speaking to the Landlord about this in any case. "I was planning to clear out the gutters but I don't have a ladder, do you have one I can borrow?" is not an uncommon conversation to be had and may lead to "Oh, don't be silly, we'll sort that out."

Many Landlords, like Wishy, are prepared to do things like this for their own peace of mind.

This assumes that you don't go through an agent, of course. In which case ask away, but expect nothing.

Consider a gutter hedgehog

The moss also wants removing really,it can only cause damage.

JC, Emjay, top suggestion!I've never come across those before, Only the mesh I mentioned.

Ali, it's an agent with previous for not dealing with problems so it could be a wasted discussion. But I definitely think your approach is the right one.

I'll raise the point and see if we can get those guards fitted. Hopefully save future problem. Given the amount of crap on the roof I think it's unreasonable to expect my other half to clean the gutters without some kind of future proofing put in place.

Cheers chaps!

I was present for the inspection so had a chat with the agent about that. The response is that they wouldn't clean it. That surely can't be our responsibility.

I cant imagine its your responsibility.
They are being very shortsighted by not doing it as it can reduce the tile life by at least 50%.
It only needs spraying and should degrade and wash away.

Well, a little update. It gets better. The guttering issue was raised during a periodic visit. During that I also raised a number of other issues ranging from leaking radiators to lights turning themselves off/flickering.

The girlfriend receives a phone call on the Friday gone saying that the landlord would like to visit over the weekend so he can see the issues. No problem, we wait all Sunday for the call with a time. It never happens and he doesn't appear. First thing Monday we put an email in to the agent and ask for his contact details. The reply reads "we can't provide contact details as the property is fully managed". So we ask if they can just send some people to sort the issues since the property is fully managed. Simple hey? Apparently not. He wants to sort the issues himself so the girlfriend just has to wait for him to turn up.

You can make a request to the agent, in writing, for the name and address of your Landlord and they must provide it within 21 days.

Once you have this you can write directly to him or look in the phone book and hope he's listed.

If you want it quicker you could search the Land Registry database which should give you your Landlord's home address. It'll cost you £3 but you can have it in minutes.

Thank you!