Garden maintenance is the responsibility of both property owners and tenants. Tenants are expected to maintain the garden by watering plants and weeding. This is to ensure that the garden looks the same once you give the keys back to the property owner. Property owners are responsible for ensuring health and safety standards are met by ensuring that trees are safe or carrying out repairs and replacements such as replacing boundary fences or walls. The responsibilities of the tenant and property owners would be mentioned in the tenancy agreement.  

Property owner’s garden maintenance responsibilities:  

It is a legal requirement for property owners to “keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house (including drains, gutters and external pipes),” as mentioned in Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. This means that property owners must maintain the exterior of the building including the garden and surrounding walls and fences unless the tenant has caused the damage themselves.  

Tenancy agreements and garden maintenance responsibilities: 

If you are unsure about your responsibilities and the property owner’s responsibilities, you should check the tenancy agreement as everything should be mentioned in there. Most tenancy agreements will include the following:  

• clearly state that the property (including the garden) should remain in the same condition as it was at the start of the tenancy 
• specify how the borders, lawn and paved areas should be maintained 
• clearly state that the tenant cannot make any changes to the property/garden without the property owner’s permission 

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