The Contradiction Engine · For lawyers · Free

Whose roof is it?

The situation

You advise Corvin, who rents a ground-floor shop in an old building under a written lease. After heavy rain, water has come through the ceiling and spoiled some of his stock.

Corvin has not yet contacted the landlord. He asks you whether he must fix the roof himself, because one clause of the lease seems to say so and another seems to say the opposite.

The rules

Clause 1 (Definitions). ‘The premises’ means the interior of the ground-floor shop, excluding the structure and exterior of the building.
Clause 4.1 (Tenant). The tenant shall keep the premises in good repair.
Clause 5 (Landlord). The landlord shall keep in repair the structure and exterior of the building, including the roof, walls and foundations.
Clause 6 (Notice). The landlord’s duty under clause 5 arises once the tenant has given written notice of the defect.

Your task

Advise Corvin what he should do about the leak.

Everything you need is on this page: no outside law and no tools. All places, statutes and people are fictional (the Republic of Eastmark). More than one answer may be defensible: what matters is that your reasoning follows the rules shown.

Step 1 · What kind of conflict is this?

The conflict disappears once the rules are read together properly.A real conflict that the law tells the decision-maker to resolve by weighing.A real conflict that the law does not resolve: reasonable lawyers could differ.No real conflict: the two rules govern different things.

Professional skills training with fictional material. It is not legal advice and is not accredited by any court, regulator or professional body.