Olive runs an organic garden that sells fresh vegetables to restaurants as well as donates fresh vegetables to local food banks and homeless shelters. Fred owns a large building beside the organic garden and Olive leases some space in this building to store tools and equipment and has her office in one of the rooms. Over the past months, there has been an ongoing problem with a leaking water pipe. Olive has asked Fred several times to fix this but he has not done so.
One day, when Olive goes into her office, she finds that the ceiling over her office space has collapsed. She receives advice that this is due to water damage from the leaking pipes. The ceiling collapse has seriously damaged various items of office equipment including her computer and a printer/scanner. Olive wants Fred to compensate her for the damaged office equipment. Fred says that he is not  liable for the damage. Clause 200 of the lease that Olive signed states in 8-point font The tenant (Olive) acknowledges that she has carried out her own inspection of the building and that Fred will not be  liable for any damage to property resulting from structural defects in the building. Fred says that this exclusion clause means that he is not liable for the damage to Olive's office equipment.
 

Apply the law to the facts and advise Olive whether Fred can rely on the exclusion clause to escape liability for the damage to the office equipment.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Legal Analysis The exclusion clause in Clause 200 of the lease agreement states that Fred the landlord will not be liable for any damage to property r... View the full answer