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GDL Law Notes GDL Land Law Notes

Termination Of Leases And Business Tenancies Notes

Updated Termination Of Leases And Business Tenancies Notes

GDL Land Law Notes

GDL Land Law

Approximately 556 pages

A collection of the best GDL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through applications from top students and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of GDL notes available in the UK this year. This collection of GDL notes is fully updated for recent exams, also making them the most up-to-date GDL study materials ...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our GDL Land Law Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Termination of Leases: various means by which a lease can come to an end:

  • Effluxion of Time: usual common law way – although in some cases the tenant (T) may have security of tenure

  • Break Clause: there may be a provision in the lease allowing either party to serve notice

  • Surrender: handing back on the lease by the T to the landlord (L) with L’s permission

  • Merger: T acquires L’s interest and the lease is absorbed and the reversion destroyed

  • Enlargement

  • Notice to Quit

    • Application to periodic tenancies

    • Necessary proof of notice:

      • Yearly tenancy: either side must give at least a year’s notice to quit

      • Other periodic tenancies: must five a full period’s notice to expire at the end of a complete period

      • Dwelling houses: governed by rules in the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 (PFEA) (as amended by Housing Act 1988)

      • Tenancies at will: no period of notice necessary

  • Frustration: a theoretic possibility where the property is destroyed

  • Repudiation: may be possible for T to terminate the lease by repudiation

  • Forfeiture : the right for the L to terminate prematurely for breach of covenant

  • The right is never implied into a legal lease so there must be an express clause

    • Although in an equitable lease a right to forfeit for non-payment IS implied (Hodgkinson v Crowe)

  • Forfeiture clause also known as a non-entry clause, as the forfeiture clause creates a legal right of re-entry

    • L exercises right by peaceably re-entering or by obtaining a court order

    • For residential premises, the L must obtain a court order (S2 PFEA)

      • this includes where the premises are mixed residential and commercial (Patel v Pirabakaran)

    • For purely business premises, the landlord may forfeit by peaceable re-entry – physically entering, changing locks and putting up an unequivocal notice that he forfeiting

  • Waiver: L must not have waived the right to forfeit – this may have occurred if

  1. He is aware of the acts/omissions giving rise to the breach; and

  2. Has done some unequivocal act recognising the continued existence of the lease

    • E.g. accepting rent due after the breach despite knowing of the breach

      • Can take place inadvertently where the L’s agent demands rent where the L is aware of breach (Central Estates (Belgravia) Ltd v Woolgar

      • John Lewis v Viscount Chelsea: Where the L’s bankers had mistakenly accepted cheques from the T, there was no waiver as all parties knew it had been a mistake (obiter)

    • Continuing Breach: (e.g. failure to repair) – the waiver lasts until the next rent day at which point the L can then choose to reject the rent and forfeit

    • Non-Continuing Breach: waiver is permanent

      • N.B – although non-payment of rent is ‘non-continuing’ – the L can waive the right to forfeit by demanding the next months, and then still reject the next rent due after that, forfeiting at that point for previous arrears (if they are still outstanding)

    • Waiver only affects L’s right to forfeiture – retains other remedies

  • Different rules apply for non-payment and breaches of covenants other than non-payment of rent

    • Forfeiture for non-payment of rent

  1. L must make formal demand for the exact amount of rent owed on the day it becomes payable, upon the premises, between the hours of sunrise and sunset unless:

    • Expressly excluded by the lease

    • Common Law Procedure Act 1952 s210 which applies if the rent is at least 6 years in arrears and there are insufficient goods on the premises to seize by way of distress (obscure act)

  2. Non-payment of other payments due which are expressed as additional rent in the lease also give rise to the right of forfeiture for non-payment

  3. Once a formal demand has been made (or if unnecessary) the L can proceed with court order or peaceable re-entry

  4. T can apply for relief (court’s discretion to allow the lease to continue)

    • Relief from forfeiture for non-payment of rent:

      • Generally: court will allow the lease to continue on the condition that the T pays off the arrears – the court leans AGAINST a forfeiture

  1. Before the court order: s138 County Courts Act 1984; s212 Common Law Procedure Act 1852 (High Court)

  2. At or after the court order: relief granted on condition that arrears are paid – this is usually given unless circumstances are exceptional (Gill v Lewis) – e.g. where the property has already been lawfully let to a new T (Stanhope v Haworth) or where the non-payment is exceptional (Public Trustee v Westbrook - no payment for 22 years)

    • Application for relief must be made within 6 months of re-entry (s210 Common Law Procedure Act 1852 in the High Court) (ss138-140 County Courts Act 1984 in County Court)

  3. After re-entry: in a non-residential lease – court can grant relief after re-entry if the rent and L’s costs are paid and it is just and equitable to do so

  4. Sub-tenant: can apply for relief even where the head T cannot himself get relief

    • Forfeiture for beach of other covenants

      • Section 146 notice (LPA 1925) which:

  1. Specifies the breach

  2. If capable of remedy, requires it to be remedied

    • “Capable of remedy”

      • Modern view: Savva v Houssein (confirms Expert Clothing v Hillgate)most breaches are capable of remedy as long as the mischief can be remedied (even if negative covenant)

        • However a covenant against assigning or sub-letting without consent is still technically incapable of remedy: Scala House v Forbes

        • Immoral use is incapable of remedy because the stigma cannot be undone: Rugby School v Tannahill (prostitution); Hoffman v Fineberg (unlawful gaming) and Van Haarlam v Kasner (spying) – although in Kasner the L had waived the right to forfeit

          • However: moot point whether immoral use is always incapable of remedy (Harman J in Kasner thought it depends on the facts

          • Glass v Kencakes – breaches are capable of remedy if the lessee was unaware of immoral use by sub-tenant, as long as immediate steps are taken to stop the use once he knows

        • Unauthorised alterations may be capable of remedy (Billson v Residential Apartments Ltd) as our continuing breaches e.g. failure to...

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