Saudi Arabia Landlord Maintenance Obligations

Under Saudi civil law, and as explicitly detailed in the standardized Ejar contract, landlords have a fundamental legal responsibility to provide and maintain a property in a condition fit for its intended residential use.

Implied Warranty of Habitability

The principle of fairness in Islamic Sharia trade dictates that an asset leased out must be capable of fulfilling its purpose. For a residential property, this translates to an implied warranty of habitability. A landlord must ensure that upon handover, the property is:

• Structurally sound.
• Safe for habitation.
• Equipped with functioning essential utilities (water pipelines, electrical wiring, A/C units).

Landlord vs. Tenant Maintenance Responsibilities

The Ejar standard contract draws a clear line between the responsibilities of the landlord and the tenant.

The Landlord is Responsible for:

• Major Structural Repairs: Fixing issues related to the building's foundation, load-bearing walls, and roof leaks.
• Core Systems: Complete failure of major electrical panels or main plumbing lines resulting from age or poor installation, not tenant abuse.
• Pre-Existing Appliance Failure: Major appliances (like built-in central A/C units or supplied refrigerators) that fail due to normal lifecycle span must be replaced or repaired by the landlord.
• Common Areas: In apartment complexes, the landlord is entirely responsible for maintaining hallways, elevators, exterior landscaping, and shared security systems.

The Tenant is Responsible for:

• Routine Servicing: Changing lightbulbs, cleaning A/C filters, minor plumbing unclogging, and everyday cleanliness.

• Tenant-Caused Damage: Repairing any damage to the property explicitly caused by the tenant's negligence or misuse (e.g., smashing a window, burning a cabinet, flushing inappropriate items down the toilet).
• Consumables: Paying their individual utility bills on time, unless the lease specifies utilities are included in the rent.

The Tenant's Remedies for Unmade Repairs

If a severe maintenance issue arises that renders the property partially or entirely uninhabitable (e.g., the primary A/C fails during summer in Riyadh, or a pipe bursts flooding a room), and the landlord fails to act:

1. Notification: The tenant must formally notify the landlord in writing (often through the Ejar platform or documented communication) detailing the needed repair.
2. Reasonable Timeframe: The landlord has a reasonable timeframe to initiate repairs.
3. Tenant Action: If the landlord ignores the request, REGA guidelines generally allow the tenant to either:

• File a dispute through Ejar/REGA seeking early termination of the lease without financial penalty because the landlord breached the habitability clause.
• Seek intervention from the courts to compel the landlord to fix the issue or to lower the rent corresponding to the loss of use.

Self-executed "repair and deduct" (where the tenant fixes it and subtracts the cost from the rent) without explicit landlord permission or court authorization is legally risky in Saudi Arabia, as it can technically qualify as the tenant shorting their Ejar rent payment—triggering enforcement actions against themselves.

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