Most tenancy disagreements I hear about are not really about whether something is broken. They are about who pays to fix it. British Columbia answers that question through the Residential Tenancy Act, and the split is clearer than most landlords and tenants assume. As the handyman who ends up doing a lot of the landlord-side work across the Lower Mainland, I care about the line for a practical reason: it decides which repairs land on my schedule and how they need to be documented.
What the landlord is responsible for
Under the Act, the landlord carries the bulk of repair responsibility. The unit has to be kept to provincial health, safety, and housing standards for the whole tenancy, and that duty does not pause because a tenant is difficult or the rent is late. In practice, the landlord's list is the big-ticket, building-integrity side of the property.
- Structural elements: roof, walls, foundation, and windows
- Core systems: plumbing, heating, and electrical
- Included appliances kept in working order
- Anything worn out through normal use and aging
- Urgent and emergency repairs, such as major leaks or loss of heat
- Keeping the unit to health, safety, and housing standards
What the tenant is responsible for
The tenant's side is smaller but real. It centres on day-to-day care and on not causing damage. A tenant is not on the hook for a furnace that dies of old age, but they are on the hook for the window a guest broke or the trim a dog chewed through.
- Basic cleanliness and routine upkeep of the unit
- Reporting needed repairs promptly, in writing
- Repairing damage caused by the tenant, their guests, or their pets
- Replacing consumables such as light bulbs where the agreement says so
The line that causes the most argument is normal wear versus damage. Faded paint, worn carpet in a traffic path, and a tap washer that finally gives out are aging, and they are the landlord's cost. A cracked door from a slammed argument, a scorched countertop, or pet-chewed baseboards are damage, and they are the tenant's. When I document a repair for a landlord client, I note which side of that line the work falls on, because it is the detail that matters if the charge is ever questioned.
Put repair requests in writing
The single most useful habit for both sides is to keep repair requests in writing. An email, a letter, or even a text creates a dated record of when the problem was reported and what was asked for. Verbal requests evaporate; written ones do not. For the landlord, a written trail also establishes that an urgent repair was acted on quickly, which matters if a tenant later claims it was ignored.
When landlord and tenant disagree
Sometimes the two sides simply do not agree on who caused the damage or who should pay. When that happens, either party can apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch, or RTB, for dispute resolution, which is a form of arbitration that issues a binding decision. Good documentation is what carries those hearings: dated written requests, photos, and itemized invoices that show what was actually done. This is another reason I keep the paperwork tidy on every landlord job, whether or not anyone expects a dispute to arise.
Where a handyman fits into the landlord side
For a landlord or property manager, the value of a handyman on account is that most of the responsibility list above is exactly the work I do: appliance fixes, faucet and fixture repairs, drywall, doors, and the steady maintenance that keeps a unit to standard between tenants. Turnovers are where it all concentrates, and my tenant turnover punch list guide covers that scope in detail. The wider way I work with managers, from access notes to strata-ready invoicing, lives on the handyman for property managers page.