Sections 9 and 10 of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 cover the apportionment of liability under covenants binding both the assignor and assignee of a tenancy or reversion and the procedure for making an apportionment bind another party to lease. The assignor and the assignee remain bound by covenants to pay rent or a service charge which is charged on the whole property, but they can agree between themselves how the liability is to be shared. The

It is very common that there will be an intermediate landlord between the occupational long leasehold tenants of a block of flats and the freeholder. The length of the intermediate lease will be greater, but often not much greater, than the length of the term of the occupational long leases (flat leases) of the individual flats. The normal arrangement is that there is a freeholder, then a head tenant, often a management company, of the whole block and then individual flat leases. There may also be cases where the intermediate

Section 20(3) of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA 2025) inserts new provisions into section 5 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 which allow a tenant to determine an assured tenancy by serving a maximum of two months’ notice or a shorter period of notice, if this is agreed by the landlord in writing. The question is whether a term of an

The correct procedure to adopt in ending a claim or counter-claim prior to trial will depend on the circumstances and in particular, what terms (if any) have been agreed between the parties. Ending proceedings through discontinuance It is open to a claimant and/or Part 20 claimant (the counter-claimant) to discontinue all, or part of their respective claims at any time so as to bring the claim to an end. For more information on discontinuance, see: • Practice Note: Discontinuance of a claim • Discontinuance and costs—overview By discontinuing a claim, a claimant will effectively be abandoning that claim. Pursuant to CPR 38.6, unless the court orders otherwise, a claimant who discontinues their claim will become liable for the defendant’s

The use of social media in legal proceedings has increased exponentially over the past decade. It is now commonplace for evidence to be harvested from Facebook, Twitter and other sites and used in court proceedings. This is particularly so in respect of private law disputes and personal injury claims. In re T (A child), Holman J noted that in a case where a person who should have been party to care proceedings (the birth mother) had not been located, the local authority (LA) and the guardian could have established a line of communication through Facebook. Counsel for the guardian at first indicated that the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

Security of tenure and rights of succession Leaving aside the issue of whether this may be a service tenancy or service occupancy (in respect of which see below), as the rent was one peppercorn per annum, the tenancy will, immediately prior to expiry of the contractual term, have fallen within the low rent exception to assured tenancy status, see Practice Note: Granting assured and assured shorthold tenancies—pre-Renters' Rights Act 2025 position under heading ‘Exceptions to AST status’. Furthermore, the tenancy will not fall within the protection for residential long leases at low rent because the term granted was less than 21 years, ie the protection under section 186 and Schedule 10 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (LGHA 1989) (which convert the tenancy into an assured tenancy (AT) on a non-shorthold

It is common for a party in financial remedy proceedings to receive their income on a self-employed basis as a sole trader. This means that rather than a separate legal personality, such as a company being the income-generating vehicle, with personal income received by way of salary and dividends, the individual trades under a style or their own name and pays personal income tax on their profits. Business expenses are deducted in the usual way and accounts are normally prepared for this purpose. Some sole traders will simply use their personal bank account for income and expenses; others will use a dedicated business account. In financial remedy proceedings the task of the court pursuant to section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 is to divide the assets between the parties in

STOP PRESS: From 6 April 2017, the Insolvency Rules 1986, SI 1986/1925 were revoked and replaced by the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (IR 2016), SI 2016/1024. The content in this Q&A may have been affected by this change. Bankruptcy and security When an individual is made bankrupt, their property—subject to some exceptions—vests automatically in the trustee in bankruptcy by virtue of section 306 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The trustee in bankruptcy does not gain better title than the bankrupt had, and so the property will be subject to the same mortgages and charges as before. In addition, if the bankrupt held the property on trust then the

Limitation in professional negligence claims Solicitors owe duties to their clients in both contract and tort. Under the Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980), the limitation period for both contract and tort claims is six years, but time starts to run: • in contract—from the date of breach • in negligence—from the occurrence of damage Damage is capable of occurring later than breach, with the effect that tort claims in negligence can sometimes provide a more generous limitation period than a corresponding claim in contract. For further information, including on the question as to when damage might be said to have been sustained in tort

This Q&A considers a situation where an intestate left two minor children. As such it would seem, in the absence of anyone of higher degree, they were entitled to take out letters of administration to the estate. In those circumstances, we assume that the grant was obtained by someone with parental responsibility (see Commentary: 62 Oath for administration by persons with parental responsibility pursuant to a residence order or child arrangements order for minor children jointly entitled to the whole of the estate: Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents [1609]) lasting until one of the children reaches 18 years of age. It is not clear whether

Dispute Resolution analysis: In a dispute over whether solicitors were in breach of an order to disclose their entire client file to their clients in proceedings under the Solicitors Act 1974 (SA 1974), Costs Judge Nagalingam held that the firm’s failure to disclose WhatsApp messages rendered it in breach. Any items of communication for which a charge had been made necessarily formed part of the file. This included messages sent via WhatsApp, for which systems should have been in place to extract and save their contents. Written by David Juckes, barrister at Hailsham Chambers.

Section 105 of the Law of Property Act 1925 sets out the order in which any surplus monies should be applied following the exercise of a mortgagee’s power of sale. Where there are subsequent incumbrancers, the surplus proceeds should be passed to them