access to high cupboards

[justdoitviv]

I am a resident landlady. Licensed HMO. My ceilings are very high ranging from 9 ft to 11 ft. All the bedrooms have 10 to 12 ft wall to wall, floor to ceiling fitted mirror sliding wardrobes, with top cupboards. reading another thread on here about the legal delemma about supplying a step ladder, it seems as if i am dambed if i do and dambed if i dont supply a ladder and there is an accident while the lodger stores his suitcases in the top cupboard3. Am i reading too much into this. Do i have a problem or not. many thanks

[thesaint]

Do not supply a step ladder. That is all.

[MSaxp]

This country is really suffering with all the H&S hysteria. And i am not even british. In 20 years time you will only be allowed to let round bungalows with bubble wrapped walls and rubber floors.

You offer a chair, the tenant can sue because he jumped on it and fell. you supply stairs, the tenant slipped and fell. I dont see a landlord responsibility for offering everyday items to be used by adults. Offer a step and they should be ok.

If you offer nothing and they use something else to access the cupboards, they can sue because you had cupboards

[westminster]

There is no legal obligation to provide a step ladder.

[mind the gap]

Surely all that is needed is a rational conversation with the tenant when he or she moves in. The conversation could go like this:

LL : As you can see, there's lots of storage space, but some of it is above normal head height. It's probably not practical to be accessing those high cupboards on a daily basis, but if you want to use them to store stuff you rarely use, you might like to borrow my stepladders/step-up stool, or provide your own. Is that OK?

T : Yes, that's fine, thanks.

or

T : Actually, I don't really need to use them anyway.

If the tenant has mobility difficulties or is frail, then you would offer to put/help put their stuff in there yourself (assuming you are able), on the understanding that you would not want to be doing that frequently.

If the cupboards are a spacious as OP makes them sound then the accessible lower half is probably enough for the average single resident of a room in an HMO anyway.

Your only other practical option if you are really worried about being sued is to fit locks to the upper cupboards and not allow them to be used. Seem a bit ridiculous though.