Landlord Won’t Fix or Replace Your Oven: UK Renter’s Options

First, the thing nobody tells you

Your oven has died. You’ve messaged the landlord twice, had one reply, and you’re on day nine of cereal for dinner. His problem or yours?

It depends on who owns the oven and what your tenancy agreement says — there’s no general rule that landlords must keep you supplied with a working cooker. Here’s what the law says, then what to do tonight.

What the law actually says about a broken oven

England: section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 implies a covenant requiring your landlord to keep the structure and exterior in repair, the installations for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation in repair and proper working order, and the same for space heating and heating water.

Then comes the sentence that decides most oven arguments. Section 11(1)(b) covers the electricity installation “but not other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water, gas or electricity.”

The socket and the circuit are the installation. The oven is an appliance making use of the supply. It’s excluded.

Shelter’s legal guidance says it plainly: “Installations do not include appliances for making use of the supply of gas, water and electricity. For example, ovens or washing machines. A landlord is only responsible for repairing these if it is specified in the tenancy agreement.”

So in England, in a private let:

• Agreement names the appliances as the landlord’s — they must maintain them. That’s a contractual promise you can hold them to.
• Agreement silent, oven is theirs — section 11 alone usually won’t force a repair.
• Oven is yours — it’s yours.
• Fault is in the socket or wiring — that’s the installation, and it is their job.

That last point matters: the fixed installation must also be inspected by a qualified person at least every 5 years under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 — regulation 3(2)(a). We cover that in renting a flat with no cooker switch.

The “fit for human habitation” angle — real, but a high bar

Since the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, section 9A of the same Act implies a covenant that a dwelling in England stays fit for human habitation. The list of what makes a home unfit is in section 10(1), and it includes “facilities for preparation and cooking of food.”

That sounds like it settles it. It doesn’t. Section 10(1) only bites if the home is “so far defective… that it is not reasonably suitable for occupation”. A decent flat with one dead oven won’t clear that bar. A flat with no means of cooking at all will.

Wales: the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016

Section 91 requires the landlord to ensure the dwelling is fit for human habitation from the occupation date and for the duration of the contract — a fundamental provision, so automatically part of it. Section 92 requires the structure and exterior kept in repair and the service installations in repair and proper working order; s.92(4) defines a service installation as one for the supply of water, gas or electricity, for sanitation, for space heating or for heating water.

Same result as England: the supply is covered, the appliance using it isn’t.

Scotland: genuinely different, and better for tenants

Most English-written articles get this wrong. In Scotland the test is the repairing standard in section 13 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. A house meets the standard if, among other things:

• (c) the installations for the supply of water, gas, electricity and sanitation, and for space heating and heating water, are in reasonable repair and proper working order; and
• (d) “any fixtures, fittings and appliances provided by the landlord under the tenancy are in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order.”

Paragraph (d) is the difference. If your landlord supplied the oven in Scotland, it has to work — it isn’t carved out as an appliance the way it is in England and Wales. The duty is in section 14, and section 22 lets you apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) after telling the landlord that work is needed. Citizens Advice Scotland: “If your landlord doesn’t meet the repairing standard, despite having been told about any problems, you can complain to the First-tier Tribunal.”

If you’re in Scotland, lead with section 13(1)(d).

Does a landlord have to provide a cooker?

No — not in an unfurnished let, and often not in a furnished one. No statute says every rented flat must contain a working oven. The law requires the property to be maintained and to have facilities for cooking food — that’s the premises, not one appliance.

• Unfurnished, no oven supplied: nothing to enforce. You’re buying your own.
• Unfurnished, landlord left an oven behind: read the agreement. If it lists the appliance as theirs, the maintenance clause is your argument.
• Furnished: appliances form part of what you’re renting, so the agreement almost always says the landlord maintains them.

How long is “reasonable”?

Shelter’s guidance says a landlord must carry out repairs “within a reasonable period of time once they have been notified of the problem” — then says the thing that matters most: “There is no statutory definition of reasonable time.”

There’s no number in the legislation — anyone quoting a fixed legal deadline is making it up. What Shelter says is relevant instead: the extent of the disrepair, availability of replacement parts, and whether the tenant is living in the property.

Our rule of thumb — a negotiating position, not law:

Clock-based statutory repair duties exist elsewhere: Awaab’s Law (section 10A of the same Act) sets remedy periods for prescribed hazards — but only in social housing, and a broken oven isn’t one. Don’t plan around a stopwatch you don’t have.

Who pays, and in what order you escalate

Keep a dated record of every message. Don’t pay for a repair yourself without written agreement — Shelter warns you then own the standard of the work. And get any rent reduction in writing first.

What to cook on tonight: the cheapest 13A set-up you keep

The fastest fix isn’t a legal argument. It’s about £35 and a plug socket.

Everything below plugs into a normal 13-amp socket, needs no permission, and comes with you when you move. Prices checked 13 September 2026.

Start here: one ring for under £35

The Daewoo 2200W portable single induction hob is £33.99, gives you a fast ring, and pulls about 9.6 A — so it won’t argue with anything else on the socket. It needs magnetic-base pans; if yours don’t stick to a magnet, buy a ceramic hob instead.

Daewoo 2200W portable single induction hob

Best value if you want an actual kitchen

The HOMCOM 36L countertop oven with two hotplates is the cheapest all-in-one we’d put in a rental. £74.99, 36 litres, a real grill and bake function, two usable hotplates — 2,600 W total, or 11.3 A, comfortably inside a 13 A fuse.

HOMCOM 36L countertop oven with 2 hotplates

Want a name you’ve heard of? The Russell Hobbs Compact Mini Kitchen 22780 is £109.40 — a 30 L fan-assisted oven at 1,600 W plus a 1,000 W and a 750 W hotplate. Add it up: oven plus both plates is 3,350 W, or 14.6 A. You can’t run the whole thing flat out at once on a 13 A plug.

Russell Hobbs Compact Mini Kitchen 22780

Or an air fryer, which is faster than the oven you lost

An air fryer won’t do a roast for four, but it does most of what one person actually cooked in the oven, in half the time. The Tower T17088 Vortx 9L dual-basket has two independent drawers, 2,600 W, £113.68. The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone AF300UK, 7.6 L across two drawers, is £148.99 and better built.

Tower T17088 Vortx 9L dual-basket air fryer · Ninja Foodi Dual Zone AF300UK air fryer

If you want one box that does everything

The Panasonic NN-CD88QSBPQ 34L 4-in-1 does microwave, convection oven, grill and air fry in one unit, for £349 — steep for a landlord’s problem, but if you’re staying put for years it’s the closest thing to a real oven that plugs in.

Panasonic NN-CD88QSBPQ 34L 4-in-1 combi microwave

The table

Two rules, since they share one 13-amp fuse. Don’t run two high-power appliances on the same socket at once. And check the cable reaches the socket before you order — you can’t safely extend these onto an extension lead at serious wattage.

If you’re replacing a dead freestanding cooker rather than working around it, the best 13-amp plug-in electric cookers roundup is next — the Beko and Indesit below take a 13 A plug and drop straight into the gap.

Beko 50 cm electric cooker, 13 A plug · Indesit 50 cm electric cooker, 13 A plug

See also our five ways to replace your oven with a plug-in appliance and the renter’s guide to cooking without a built-in cooker.

Can I claim the cost back if I buy one?

Usually not — but you can often get a contribution.

Shelter’s guidance is that if you arrange the work yourself you can ask whether you can pay less rent temporarily to cover it, but get permission for the work and any rent reduction in writing.

The framing that works:

“The oven is beyond repair. Rather than a formal complaint, I’ll buy a plug-in replacement and keep it when I leave. Would you contribute £X, or reduce the rent by £Y for three months?”

Landlords agree to this more often than you’d think: the alternative is a council inspection. And unlike a repair they pay for, a plug-in appliance you own leaves with you.

Don’t buy a full-size cooker expecting reimbursement: own the appliance and you own the problem. If the kitchen does need a cooker circuit, that’s their cost — our electric cooker installation costs guide has the 2026 numbers: roughly £80–£150 to connect to an existing circuit, £300–£600 for a new 32 A circuit.

The bottom line

• No general legal duty to provide or repair a cooker in England or Wales. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 covers the wiring, not the appliance.
• In Scotland there is, if the landlord supplied it — s.13(1)(d) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, enforced through the First-tier Tribunal.
• Your tenancy agreement can give you rights the statute doesn’t. Read it before you argue.
• “Reasonable time” has no statutory definition. Don’t accept a made-up deadline from either side.
• Don’t withhold rent. It turns your good case into their eviction.
• The fastest answer is usually £35 and a plug — and it travels with you.