Who must pay the repairs in a rented home the tenant or the owner?

A quick answer on the question on who pays every repair is as follows: "as a rule, the owner pays those expenditures related  to basic items to home habitability: pipelines, earths or walls, whereas, tenant has to repair : taps, cisterns or  paint deffects." An element that also generates doubts is the boiler. In case of have to change the whole boiler, the risponsible is the owner. On the contrary, the single pieces has to be changed by the tenant. 

Now we must focus on what is foreseen on Spanish  Horizontal Property Law. At its article 21 HPL establishes the duties of the owner and tenant regarding the "conservation of the house":

'1. The owner is obliged, without being able to elevate the hire price, to make all the necessary repairs to maintain the habitability of the house' (...).

2. If the execution of a work of conservation and can not differ at the time the tenant is obliged to 'resist' the inconvinients that stem from the reparation works.

3. Tenant must communicate at the owner, as soon as possible, the necessity to make conservation repairs  at the flat (...) The owner will have to verify this need.  the owner always will be able to realise reparations to conserve the previous house state.

4. Tenants will have to make the small daily reparations'.

At the article  is implicit that the legislator considers the conservation of the house like a superior well. We remind you the obligation of having certificate of occupancy in force. 

From the habitability mandate it derives the following point: tenant have 'to resist' the inconvenients caused in order to guarantee the habitability and the third which establishes that the owner was empowered to do manteinance works with a previous communication to the tenant. 

The forth point,  is controversial. Firstly, because it can be difficult to establish that the cause which has affected the performance stems from the use and what means small 'reparation'? There are 3 criteria according to the jurisprudence determine of which type of reparation we are talking:

1. The time elapsed since the occupancy/entered of the tenant at the house

2. The cost of the reparation 

3. The kind of good which has to be fixed: again the habitability (or his absence) is the key point when you have to determine if we are talking about a small reparation. 

Baring in mind the law complexity  at Feliu we always recommend two things. Firstly, tenant and owner ought to write a contract in which has to be established who will assume the cost for a determinate redress. Secondly, once signed the hire contract and during all the hire you should have a fluent communication. 

A different aspect is like acting in front of a flat that hand us with an occult vice. The Law 38/1999 makes possible to demand previous harms at the entrance at the flat rented. 

We trust to have helped you by solving doubts