A landlord under a lease of commercial premises may use the procedure in Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (TCEA 2007) to recover from the tenant rent payable under the lease. It is referred to as commercial rent arrears recovery (CRAR) (TCEA 2007, s 72(1)). When TCEA 2007 came into force on 6 April 2014, CRAR replaced the common law right of the landlord to distrain, which was abolished from that date (TCEA 2007, s 71). TCEA 2007, therefore, contains a self-contained code setting out the extent of the landlord’s remedy when rent of commercial premises is in arrears. Where rent is unpaid by a tenant, the landlord

Section 5 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (LTA 1987) (section 5 notice) prevents a landlord from disposing of its interest without informing qualifying tenants of their rights under LTA 1987 and offering the tenants a right of first refusal. There are no strict requirements as to the form of a section 5 notice. However, a notice must be in writing (LTA 1987, s 54(1)) and served on qualifying tenants and the notice must contain certain information. Qualifying

This Q&A raises the means by which an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) may be brought to an end and the effect that it has upon the parties’ respective obligations. Although the question refers to an AST, the same consideration arises in the perhaps less frequently encountered assured tenancy. Both tenancies have the protection of the Housing Act 1988 (HA 1988) (see: ). HA 1988, s 5(1) sets out the nature of the security of tenure which an assured tenant enjoys. It states that ‘an assured tenancy cannot be brought to an end by the landlord except by (a) obtaining (i) an order of the court for possession of the dwelling house under

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 (TFA 2019) came into force on 1 June 2019. The purpose of TFA 2019 is to prevent the charging of fees to tenants by landlords or letting agents, save for those set out in TFA 2019, Sch 1. TFA 2019, Sch 1, para 2 provides that a payment of a tenancy deposit is a permitted payment, ‘tenancy deposit’ being defined as money intended to be held by a landlord or otherwise as security for the performance of any obligations of a tenant, or the discharge of any liability of a tenant, arising under or in connection with a tenancy. TFA 2019, Sch 1, para 2(3) provides however that if the amount of the tenancy deposit exceeds the amount of five weeks’

Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004) sets of the requirements for landlords who receive a deposit in connection with an assured shorthold tenancy. Any deposit must be dealt with in accordance with an authorised scheme (HA 2004, s 213(1)), the initial requirements of which must be complied with within the period of 30 days from its receipt (HA 2004, s 213(3)). By HA 2004, s 213(5), a landlord who has received such

The requirement to provide tenants with a gas safety record (often called a gas safety certificate) is a pre-condition to service of a valid notice under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 (HA 1988) to seek possession of an assured shorthold tenancy. See Practice Note: Terminating assured and assured shorthold tenancies—pre-Renters' Rights Act position, in particular: Section 21—pre-conditions to service. One of the obligations is to give the tenants a copy of the record of each safety inspection, which must take place at least every 12 months. The question posed here is whether providing the record of a check which is carried

Subject to the statutory limitations on a landlord's right to forfeit, the landlord may physically re-enter the property and bring the lease to an end without the need for court proceedings. Physical re-entry is effected by the landlord manifesting their intention to forfeit the lease, usually by changing the locks. If the lease consists of open land, the intention can be manifested by affixing chains across entrances and attaching notices of forfeiture. There are statutory restrictions in respect of peaceable re-entry which must be considered: • under section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 (CLA 1977) it is a criminal offence to threaten or use force to gain entry when someone is physically at the premises and opposes re-entry. Peaceable re-entry of commercial premises is best achieved out of normal

Since 1 September 1995, most tenancies of agricultural land will be farm business tenancies under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 (ATA 1995). This question raises the issue as to how a landlord might bring such a tenancy to an end in the case of co-owning tenants. See: Farm business tenancies—overview. A tenancy which meets the business conditions and either the agricultural condition or notice condition will be a farm business tenancy for the purposes of ATA 1995. Essentially, this means that the land has since the commencement of the tenancy been farmed for the purposes of a trade or business and that either the character of the tenancy is wholly or partially agricultural or the parties have served notice before entering into it to confirm that it would be such a tenancy.

This Q&A refers to a commercial service charge. A landlord cannot recover the cost of items which are not clearly included in the lease and which are of no benefit to the tenants. The list of services must be comprehensive, as 'sweeper' clauses are likely to be narrowly construed against the landlord and will not allow the landlord to recover an item of expenditure (eg a 10% management fee) that has clearly been omitted from the list set out in the lease. It will therefore depend on the wording of the relevant service charge clause in the lease. Many leases contain a clause relating

In answering this Q&A, it is assumed that: • the transfer of a registered estate is not completed until registration, until which point the transferor remains the proprietor of the legal interest, and • following execution of the transfer and payment of the purchase price, but before registration, the transferee becomes the owner in equity, and the transferor holds the land on trust for the transferee Under section 141(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925

This Q&A considers what actions administrators need to take to challenge an attempt by a landlord to forfeit a lease by peaceable re-entry in ignorance of the existence of an interim moratorium arising from the filing of a notice of intention to appoint administrators (NOI). A NOI should be filed by the directors or the company in anticipation of making an out of court an appointment under Schedule B1, paragraph 22 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986). This Q&A does not consider a scenario where the NOI has not been filed. When a company or its directors wish to appoint an administrator using the out of court process, they start by filing an NOI which gives rise

In regard to the procedure for removal of the trespassers, assuming that they have not at any point had permission to be on the land (ie they are not previous tenants or subtenants) then the squatters procedure under CPR Part 55 should be used. In particular, see Practice Note: Trespassers—possession proceedings. For further information on the Procedure for the removal of trespassers and licensees see Claims to the Possession of Land: A4 Procedure for the removal of trespassers and licensees. Direct physical possession is unlikely to be a viable option when the squatters are residing at the premises due to the risk of breaching s 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977. This