Who pays for repairs in a rental

In most tenancies, anything that breaks through fair wear and tear is the landlord's to fix, and tenants end up paying for a surprising number of them anyway — not because they are liable, but because reporting it, chasing it and waiting in for somebody is work nobody wanted, so somebody quietly buys a new one instead.

Name the reporter before anything breaks

The job is not fixing things, it is being the person who emails the landlord and follows up. Households that assign it in week one report things; households that do not discover in month nine that everybody assumed somebody else had.

Small and shared, or large and reported

A useful line is a figure rather than a category. Below an agreed amount — a lightbulb, a plunger, a new shower curtain — the household just buys it and splits it, because chasing anybody is not worth the money. Above it, it gets reported and waited for.

Setting that figure in advance stops the recurring low-level irritation of one person always being the one who replaces things.

Damage caused by one person is not a shared cost

Obvious and worth stating, because the awkwardness of saying it in the moment means it frequently goes unsaid and then reappears as a deposit dispute a year later. Saying it once, as a general rule, before there is an incident, makes it much easier to apply when there is one.

What is the landlord's responsibility varies by state and by lease. This is what households tend to agree between themselves; your lease and local law outrank it.