Tenant vs Landlord: Who Pays for Repairs in India?

Before anything else: the rent agreement wins

Every general rule on this page is exactly that — general. The one document that actually governs who pays for a repair in your home is your rent agreement, and it beats any rule of thumb, including the ones here.

So before the dripping tap becomes an argument, do the boring thing and read the maintenance clause. Most agreements have one, and it usually does one of three things:

• Sets a rupee threshold. A very common arrangement: the tenant handles minor repairs up to a small monthly or per-repair limit, and anything above it is the landlord's. If yours does this, most of the argument is already settled — you just check which side of the line the repair falls on.
• Splits by type. "Structural and major repairs to the landlord; minor and consumable repairs to the tenant." This is the split this whole guide describes, written into the contract.
• Says nothing useful. Plenty of agreements are silent or vague. When that is the case, the common-practice split below is what most reasonable people fall back on — but it is a norm, not a rule you can enforce by pointing at a page.

If you are still signing the agreement, this is the moment to get the clause made explicit. A single clear sentence — who pays for what, and above what amount — prevents almost every repair dispute a tenancy can produce. It costs nothing to ask for and it is entirely normal.

What the landlord usually pays for

As a rule of thumb, the landlord — the owner of the asset — covers the things that are about the building itself, the major fixtures they provided, and the ordinary wear of time. None of these is the tenant's doing; they are the cost of owning property and renting it out. Typically this means:

• Structural repairs. Walls, ceilings, floors, the roof, the balcony — anything that is part of the fabric of the building.
• Seepage, dampness and waterproofing. A wall that is soaking from outside, a leaking terrace, rising damp — these come from the structure, not from how the tenant lives, and treating them is a landlord-side job as a rule.
• Major plumbing. A concealed pipe that has failed inside a wall, the main supply line, a burst or corroded pipe — the serious plumbing that is built into the property.
• Major electrical. The house wiring, the distribution board, an unsafe circuit. If the wiring itself is aged or failing, that is the owner's responsibility for the asset.
• The major fixtures the landlord installed and that fail from age. A geyser, a water pump, an overhead tank, sanitaryware — when these die of old age rather than misuse, replacing them is normally the owner's cost.
• Anything that makes the home unsafe or unfit to live in. A dangerous fault is the owner's to fix, quickly.

The thread running through all of these: the landlord is maintaining an asset they own and will keep after you leave. The repair adds to the life of their property.

What the tenant usually pays for

On the other side, the tenant — the person using the home day to day — typically covers the small, consumable repairs and anything they broke. These are minor, they come out of ordinary living, and they are usually cheaper to just handle than to argue about. As a rule of thumb:

• Minor, consumable fixes. A tap washer, a leaking flush valve, a blown fuse, a fused bulb or tube, a loose switch — the small everyday wear of the things you use constantly.
• Small blockages you caused. A kitchen sink or bathroom drain clogged by daily use is normally the tenant's to clear. A drain blocked by a structural fault in the concealed line is a different matter.
• Anything damaged through your use or negligence. A cracked washbasin, a broken window, a door you damaged, a tap snapped off — if it broke because of how it was used, the user pays. This is the clearest rule on the page and the one landlords enforce most firmly, usually through the deposit.
• Appliances that belong to you. Your own AC, fridge, washing machine or RO are yours to service and repair, wherever they came from.
• Consumables and routine upkeep. The things a home simply uses up while someone lives in it.

The thread here is the mirror image of the landlord's: the tenant pays for the small running costs of living in the home, and for the consequences of their own mistakes. Normal wear is the owner's; damage is the user's — and the line between "it wore out" and "it was broken" is where most disputes actually sit.

The grey areas — where wear and damage blur

Most real arguments are not about the obvious cases. They are about the repairs that sit on the line, where "it wore out" and "you broke it" are both arguable. A few of the common ones, and the sensible way to think about them:

Notice the pattern in every row: age and structure lean landlord; misuse and damage lean tenant. That single test resolves most grey cases faster than any list can. And where a repair genuinely could go either way, the cheapest outcome for everyone is usually to split it or to agree the answer before the work starts — not to fight about it after the bill arrives.

How to handle a repair without it becoming a fight

Whichever side you are on, the process is what keeps a repair from turning into a deposit dispute. Four habits do almost all the work:

• Tell the other party before you fix it — in writing. A tenant who quietly gets a big repair done and then hands the landlord a bill is inviting a "no". A landlord who is told about a fault and ignores it loses the moral high ground. A WhatsApp message describing the problem, ideally with a photo, is enough — and it creates the record that settles the argument later. Silence is what turns a repair into a dispute.
• Document it with photos. Photograph the fault before the work and the result after. If it is a damage question, the photo is what decides whether it was fair wear or something broken. This protects both sides equally.
• Get the quote in writing, first. Whoever ends up paying, agree the price before any work starts and get it in a message — the job, the labour, whether materials are included. This is the single most effective way to avoid being overcharged, and it is covered in full in how to hire without being overcharged.
• Agree who pays before the work, not after. The worst time to settle liability is once the bill is in someone's hand and the job is done. Sort it in the same message that describes the fault: "there's a leak under the sink, here's a photo — is this yours or mine?" Ninety seconds now saves a deposit fight later.

And a word on the security deposit, since it is where most of this lands: the deposit is meant to cover damage and unpaid dues, not fair wear and tear. A landlord deducting for a faded wall after three years, or for a fixture that died of age, is usually reaching beyond what the deposit is for. A tenant who broke a washbasin should expect it to come out. Keeping the photos and the messages is what lets either side make that case calmly.

Once you have settled who pays, getting it fixed

The liability question and the repair question are separate, and it helps to keep them that way. Once you have agreed who is paying — landlord, tenant, or split — the actual fix is just an ordinary home repair, and the same rules apply that apply to any of them: get the quote in writing first, know whether materials are included, sanity-check it against a normal market range, and never pay in full before the work is done and tested.

Our cost guides publish indicative Delhi NCR market ranges for exactly this, job by job, so whoever is paying can tell a fair quote from a high one:

• Plumber charges in Delhi NCR — taps, leaks, drains, tanks
• Electrician charges in Delhi NCR — fuses, switches, wiring, boards
• Wall seepage and waterproofing cost — the classic landlord-side job

These are indicative market ranges — not prices we set. We do not decide what any professional charges and we never charge you anything. The professional is independent and ID-verified, quotes you free, and is paid directly by whoever the two of you agreed is liable.