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Occupier's Liability Act


Published: 1969-10-01

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OCCUPIERS’ LIABlLlTY 1

THE OCCUPIERS’ LIABILITY ACT Ad
7.4 of 1969.

[Isr October, 1969.1

1. This Act may be cited as the Occupiers’ Liability Act. Shorttitle.

Liability in tort

2.-(1) The rules enacted by sections 3 and 4 shall have Rulesof
common effect, in place of the rules of the common law, to regulate law

the duty which an occupier of premises owes to his visitors
in respect of dangers due to the state of the premises or
to things done or omitted to be done on them.

(2) The rules so enacted shall regulate the nature of
the duty imposed by law in consequence of a person’s occu-
pation or control of premises and of any invitation or
permission he gives (or is to be treated as giving) to another
to enter or use the premises, but they shall not alter the
rules of the common law as to the persons on whom a duty
is so imposed or to whom it is owed; and accordingly, for
the purpose of the rules so enacted, the persons who are to
be treated as an occupier and as his visitors are the same
as the persons who would at common law be treated as an
occupier and as his invitees or licensees.

(3) The rules so enacted in relation to an occupier of
premises and his visitors shall also apply, in like manner
and to the same extent as the principles applicable at
common law to an occupier of premises and his invitees or
licensees would apply, to regulate-

(a) the obligations of a person occupying or having
control over any fixed or moveable structure, in-
cluding any vessel, vehicle or aircraft; and

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2 OCCUPIERS’ LIABILITY

(6) the obligations of a person occupying or having
control over any premises or structure in respect
of damage to property, including property of per-
sons who are not themselves his visitors.

Extent of

ordmary

3.-(1) An occupier of premises owes the same duty (in
this Act referred to as the “common duty of care”) to all
his visitors, except in so far as he is free to and does extend,
restrict, modify or exclude his duty to any visitor by agree-
ment or otherwise.

(2) The common duty of care is the duty to take such
care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to
see that the visitor will be reasonably safe in using the
premises for the purposes for which he is invited or per-
mitted by the occupier to be there.

(3) The circumstances relevant for the present pur-
pose include the degree of care and of want of care, which
would ordinarily be looked for in such a visitor and so, in
proper cases, and without prejudice to tkie generality of the
foregoing-

(a) an occupier must be prepared for children to be
less careful than adults;

(b ) an occupier may expect that a person, in the
exercise of his calling, will appreciate and guard
against any special risks ordinarily incident to it,
so far as the occupier leaves him free to do so.

(4) In determining whether the occupier of premises
has discharged the common duty of care to a visitor, regard
is to be had to all the circumstances.

(5) Where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger
of which he had been warned by the occupier, the warning
is not to be treated without more as absolving the occupier
from liability, unless in all the circumstances it was enough
to enable the visitor to be reasonably safe.

occupier’s

duty.

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OCCUPIERS' LlABlLlTY 3

(6) Where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger
due to the faulty execution of any work of construction,
maintenance or repair by an independent contractor, the
occupier is not to be treated without more as answerable
for the danger if in all the circumstances he had acted rea-
sonably in entrusting the work to an independent contractor
and had taken such steps, if any, as he reasonably ought in
order to satisfy himself that the contractor was competent
and that the work had been properly done.

(7) The common duty of care does not impose on an
occupier any obligation to a visitor in respect of risks will-
ingly accepted as his by the visitor (the question whether a
risk was so accepted to be decided on the same principles as
in other cases in which one person owes a duty of care to
another).

(8) For the purposes of this section, persons who
enter premises for any purpose in the exercise of a right
conferred by law are to be treated as permitted by the
occupier to be there for that purpose, whether they in fact
have his permission or not.

4.-(1) Where an occupier of premises is bound by con- EfIectof
tract to permit persons who are strangers to the contract to r$g:y
enter or use the premises, the duty of care which he owes toy.
to them as his visitors cannot be restricted or excluded by
that contract, but (subject to any provision of the contract
to the contrary) shall include the duty to perform his obli-
gations under the contract, whether undertaken for their
protection or not, in so far as those obligations go beyond
the obligations otherwise involved in that duty.

(2) A contract shall not by virtue of this section have
the effect, unless it expressly so provides, of making an
occupier who has taken all reasonable care answerable to
strangers to the contract for dangers due to the faulty exe-

'

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4 OCCUPIERS LIABILITY

Landlord’s
liability in
virtue of
obligation
to repair.

cution of any work of construction, maintenance or repair
or other like operation by persons other than himself, his
servants and persons acting under his direction or control.

(3) In this section “stranger to the contract” means a
person not for the time being entitled to the benefit of the
contract as a party to it or as the successor by assignment
or otherwise of a party to it, and accordingly includes a
party to the contract who has ceased to be so entitled.

(4) Where by the terms or conditions governing any
tenancy (including a statutory tenancy which does not in
law amount to a tenancy) either the landlord or the tenant
is bound, though not by contract, to permit persons to enter
or use premises of which he is the occupier, this section
shall apply as if the tenancy were a contract between the
landlord and tenant.

( 5 ) This section, in so far as it prevents the common
duty of care from being restricted or excluded, applies to
contracts and tenancies created before the commencement
of this Act, as well as those entered into or created after its
commencement; but, in so far as it enlarges the duty owed
by an occupier beyond the common duty of care, it shall
have effect only in relation to obligations which are under-
taken after the commencement of this Act or which are
renewed by agreement (whether express or implied) after
its commencement.

5.-(1) Where premises are occupied by any person under
a tenancy which puts on the landlord an obligation to that
person for the maintenance or repair of the premises, the
landlord shall owe to all persons who or whose goods may
from time to time be lawfully on the premises the same
duty, in respect of dangers arising from any default by him
in carrying out that obligation, as if he were an occupier of

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OCCUPIERS LIABILITY 5

the premises and those persons or goods were there by his
invitation or permission (but without any contract).

(2) Where premises are occupied under a sub-tenancy,
subsection (1) shall apply to any landlord of the premises
(whether the immediate or a superior landlord) on whom
an obligation to the occupier for the maintenance or repair
of the premises is put by the sub-tenancy, and for that pur-
pose any obligation to the occupier which the sub-tenancy
puts on a mesne landlord of the premises, or is treated by
virtue of this provision as putting on a mesne landlord,
shall be treated as put by it also on any landlord on whom
the mesne landlord’s tenancy puts the like obligation
towards the mesne landlord.

(3) For the purposes of this section, where premises
comprised in a tenancy (whether occupied under that ten-
ancy or under a sub-tenancy) are put to a use not permitted
by the tenancy, and the landlord of whom they are held
under the tenancy is not debarred by his acquiescence or
otherwise from objecting or from enforcing his objection,
then no persons or goods whose presence on the premises is
due solely to that use of the premises shall be deemed to he
lawfully on the premises as regards that landlord or any
superior landlord of the premises, whether or not they are
lawfully there as regards an inferior landlord.

(4) For the purposes of this section, a landlord shall
not be deemed to have made default in carrying out any
obligation to the occupier of the premises unless his default
is such as to be actionable at the suit of the occupier or,
in the case of a superior landlord whose actual obligation is
to an inferior landlord, his default in carrying out that obli-
gation is actionable at the suit of the inferior landlord.

any duty which he is under apart from this section.
(5) Nothing in this section shall relieve a landlord of

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6 OCCUPIERS’ LJABILITY

(6) For the purposes of this section, obligations im-
posed by any enactment in virtue of a tenancy shall be
treated as imposed by the tenancy, and “tenancy” includes
a statutory tenancy which does not in law amount to a
tenancy, and includes also any contract conferring a right
of occupation, and “landlord” shall be construed
accordingly.

(7) This section applies to tenancies created before
the 1st October, 1%9, as well as to those created after
that date.

Liabili?y in contract

6.-(1) Where persons enter or use, or bring or send
goods to any premises in exercise of a right conferred by a
contract with a person occupying or having control of the
premises, the duty he owes them in respect of dangers due
to the state of the premises or to things done or omitted to
be done on them, in so far as the duty depends on a term to
be implied in the contract by reason of its conferring that
right, shall be the common duty of care.

(2) The foregoing subsection shall apply to 6xed and
moveable structures as it applies to premises.

(3) This section does not affect the obligations im-
posed on a person by or by virtue of any contract for hire
of, or for the carriage for reward of persons or goods in,
any vehicle, vessel, aircraft or other means of transport, or
by virtue of any contract of bailment.

(4) This section does not appIy to contracts entered
into before the 1st October, 1969.

Implied

contracts.
terms in

General

7. This Act shall bind the Crown, but as regards the
Crown’s liability in tort shall not bind the Crown further

Application
to Crown.

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1

OCCUPIERS LIABILITY I

than the Crown is made liable in tort by the Crown Pro-
ceedings Act, and that Act and in particular section 3 of it
shall apply in relation to duties under sections 3 to 5 of
this Act as statutory duties.

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