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LPC Law Notes Property Law and Practice Notes

Security Of Tenure Notes

Updated Security Of Tenure Notes

Property Law and Practice Notes

Property Law and Practice

Approximately 490 pages

A collection of the best LPC PLP notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LPC samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England 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 PLP notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams, a...

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

SECURITY OF TENURE

Governed by Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

Landlord Tenant
Determine the contractual end date of the lease.

Is the tenancy protected under s.23 L&TA 1954? [use flowchart]

  1. Lease or licence?

    • Street v Mountford [1985]: A lease must grant exclusive possession of the property for a fixed or periodic term at a rent.

    • Look at the effect of the written agreement, not its label.

  2. In occupation

    • Occupation can be by the tenant personally, or through the medium of an agent or manager, or by a company owned by the tenant.

    • This can be partial occupation.

  3. Business use

    • Business’ is widely defined and includes ‘a trade, profession or employment and in the case of a ‘body of persons’ any activity carried on by them.

    • ‘Any activity’ means just that; it need not be a business or commercial activity.

  4. Term of tenancy

    • The tenancy be for a fixed term of 6 months or more.

    • OR the tenant must in occupation for 12 months or more if in periodic tenancies of under 6 months.

  5. Excluded tenancies

    • Fixed term tenancies not exceeding 6 months

    • Service tenancies

    • Tenancies at will

    • Tenancies of agriculture holding

    • Mining leases

  6. Contracting out

    • Check in lease for reference to the serving of the required s.38A Notice

    • If no reference, then not contracted out of L&TA 1954, Part II

Effect of L&TA 1954:

  • Lease will not expire at end of contractual term – the tenancy holds over indefinitely.

  • The tenancy can only be ended in one the ways specified in the Act.

*

S.25 Notice (prescribed form)

Purpose:

  • Renegotiate lease

  • Stop T obtaining new lease

S.26 Request (prescribed form)

Purpose:

  • T seeking new Lease

  • T serves on L to trigger process

  • Fixed term must be 1 year or more

Procedure:

  • L must state proposed termination date of existing lease [and if they want T to leave at that point]

  • Proposed end date cannot be earlier than contractual end date

  • S.30(1) grounds of opposition to T being given a new lease**

  • Notice must be served in the prescribed form

  • T or L may apply to Court for a new Lease OR L can apply to Court to end the existing lease

Procedure:

  • T must state proposed start date of new lease

  • Proposed start date cannot be earlier than the day after contractual end date

  • T may give new terms of lease

  • L may serve a Counter-Notice on T; this must include grounds of opposition

  • T or L may apply to Court for a new Lease OR L can apply to Court to end the existing lease

Time Limits***:

  • Notice to be served on T not more than 12 or less than 6 months before proposed end date

  • Application to Court must take place before end date specified in Notice

Time Limits***:

  • Request to be served on L not more than 12 or less than 6 months before proposed start date

  • L’s counter-notice must be served within 2 months of T’s service of the s.26 Request

  • Application to Court must take place before start date specified in Request

Other methods of termination:

  1. Tenant’s notice under s.27 L&TA 1954 (‘S.27 Notice’)

    • Serve 3 months before contractual end of lease

    • OR T can just vacate by contractual end date

  2. Forfeiture: by landlord for breach of T covenants

  3. Surrender: agreement of both parties to terminate lease

** S.30(1) Grounds of Opposition:

...
Ground Discretionary Remedy Compensation Payable 5-Year Rule
a Repair
b Rent
c Other obligations
d Alternative accommodation
e L wants to let whole
f Demolition/Reconstruction

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