Oral lease and repair burden: landlord retained entitlement to statutory deduction for house property repairs.

An owner of house property let on an oral lease for use as a hotel remained entitled to the statutory one-sixth deduction for repairs because there was no reliable evidence that the tenant had assumed the repair burden. The tenant's separate allowance of repair expenditure in its own business assessment was irrelevant to the landlord's entitlement. In the absence of proof shifting the obligation to the tenant, the ordinary inference from the arrangement and surrounding facts was that the landlord continued to bear repair costs, so the deduction applied.

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Issues: Whether the assessee, the owner of house property let out on an oral lease for running a hotel, was entitled to the statutory deduction of one-sixth towards repairs.

Analysis: The lease was oral and there was no reliable evidence that the tenant had undertaken the obligation to carry out repairs. The fact that repair expenditure may have been allowed to the tenant in its own business assessment was held to be irrelevant to the landlord's entitlement. In the absence of proof shifting the repair burden to the tenant, the ordinary inference from the facts and circumstances was that the landlord continued to bear the cost of repairs.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to the one-sixth deduction towards repairs.

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