and if only part of it collapses, and that collapse is slight—causing the occupant no exposure of privacy, no loss of habitation, and no deprivation of benefit—the rent remains due from the tenant and the landlord is not liable for anything.
Should some of its rooms, or some of the amenities by which one customarily benefits, become unusable, the rent is reduced in proportion to the portion affected, provided the occupant consents. If he does not consent, the lease is dissolved between them—unless the repair can be completed in a very few days.
When the lease is dissolved, the two parties settle accounts. If the property is of the type that enjoys brisk demand during a certain season—such as inns or the houses of Mecca during the pilgrimage—then they calculate according to the number of days the tenant stayed during the season of demand and the season of stagnation.
Whoever rents a house for residence and then locks it up without living in it: if the owner is content with that, the arrangement is permissible and the rent remains binding on the tenant. If the owner is not content, he may compel the tenant either to occupy it or to pay the rent that a comparable tenant would pay, for keeping it closed for a long period hastens its ruin.
The tenant may not place in the house or shop anything that would damage them—such as oil, tar, tanning pits, or slaughterhouses—but whatever causes no harm may not be forbidden to him. Not all buildings are alike in this regard: new, plastered structures are judged differently from old, blackened ones.
If someone rents a house—or a well-site—whose latrine is empty, the landlord may stipulate that the tenant must clean the latrine. If it is not empty, the landlord may stipulate only a specified payment for each yearly or monthly cleaning.
The basic rule is that cleaning the latrine is the landlord’s responsibility, for it is one of the house’s utilities that he is obliged to deliver in usable condition. If, however, there is an undisputed local custom, that custom prevails. It is related from Mālik that cleaning latrines is upon the tenant, and some jurists have taken that view.