A landlord who engages a licensed, accredited real estate agent to manage residential premises and conduct routine inspections effectively delegates the duty of care in respect of obvious or visible defects to the agent. Where the agent fails to inspect and detect such defects, and the landlord has no independent reason to doubt the agent's performance, the agent must fully indemnify the landlord. Requiring the landlord personally to inspect the premises to confirm the agent is taking appropriate steps would impermissibly transform the delegable duty into a non-delegable one. The question whether a landlord retains a residual non-delegable duty in respect of latent defects arising from the age of premises was left open.
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