A surrender of a tenancy consists of yielding up the term of the tenancy to the immediate reversioner and can be effected by express agreement or by action inconsistent with the continued existence of the term. However it is made, the surrender must be between the owner of the term and the owner of the immediate reversion and the parties to the surrender must also have the capacity to make and accept the

A side letter documenting an agreed rent concession under a ‘new’ lease for the purpose of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 (LT(C)A 1995), which is not expressed to be personal, is likely to be binding on the landlord’s successors-in-title. That is because an assignee of the landlord’s interest becomes bound by the covenants of the tenancy (subject to certain exceptions, including where the covenant is personal), including a covenant in an agreement collateral to the tenancy (whether made before or after the tenancy itself). See Practice Note:

The type of remedies available will depend upon the extent of any express repairing obligations in their current lease. In the event that there are express repairing obligations, the tenant will have various options including bringing a claim for specific performance and/or for damages (measured according to normal common law principles. The general approach is that the tenant ought to be put in the position they should have been in had the landlord performed the covenant). For further reading,

The Rent Act 1977 (RA 1977) was previously the major statute conferring statutory protection on private residential tenancies, and is still in force for tenancies granted before 15 January 1989 and tenancies which succeed them. The basic mechanism of Rent Act protection is that if the contractual tenancy comes to an end, a Rent Act tenant is entitled to remain in occupation as statutory tenant 'if and so long as they occupy the dwelling-house as their residence', pursuant to RA 1977, s 2(1)(a). The landlord can only recover possession if they can establish one of the statutory

Statute limits a landlord’s right to forfeit a long residential lease for non-payment of service charge in a number of ways. For details, see Practice Note: Statutory limitations on the landlord’s right to forfeit a long residential lease, but, in summary: • a tenant will not be liable to pay demands of service charge unless the landlord has given the tenant an address in England and Wales at which notices (including notices in proceedings) may be served on the landlord.

This Q&A addresses whether a landlord can effect peaceable re-entry of a residential garage after a notice has been served under the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925) or whether instead, the landlord is required to obtain a court order in order to regain possession of the garage. For the purposes of this Q&A, it is to be assumed that the garage is unoccupied. Section 146 notices LPA 1925, s 146 stipulates that a lessor cannot re-enter a premise or forfeit a lease unless they have first served a notice on the lessee which does the following: • specifies the particular way in which the lessee has breached the lease • requires the lessee to remedy the breach (if it is a breach which is capable of being remedied), and • requires the lessee to pay the lessor monetary compensation for the breach LPA

The question is whether the landlord of commercial property can seek to recover the estimated costs of the replacement of the air-conditioning units in the building from the tenants by way of on account payments in relation to service charge or must actually incur the costs first and seek to recover the cost at the end of the year. The answer will depend mainly on the terms and proper construction of the service charge provisions contained in the leases of the office units. It is to be assumed that under the terms of

The security of tenure granted by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) applies to certain leases if the premises are occupied by the tenant for the purposes of its business, or for those and other purposes. It is therefore broad enough to cover business tenancies with a residential

Subject to the terms of the lease and any other agreement reached by the parties in respect of the position where service charges paid by a tenant exceed the amount properly due, the tenant’s remedies will include: • repayment of the overpaid sum under a restitutionary claim or a claim in unjust enrichment—see Kleinwort Benson LTD v Lincoln CC, where it was held that recognition should be given to a general right to recover money paid under a mistake, whether of fact or law, subject to the defences

In regard to residential premises, the landlord serving a s 146 notice is conditional on a court or First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), or arbitral tribunal having determined that a breach has occurred and accordingly the tenant should ensure that the procedure was followed, otherwise there will be another ground to argue that the forfeiture was unlawful. Practice Note: Statutory limitations on the landlord’s right to forfeit a long residential

We assume that the notice was served pursuant to section 5B of Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (LTA 1987) sale by auction. Where LTA 1987 applies, a landlord is prohibited from making certain disposals unless the following conditions have been satisfied: • the landlord has served a formal notice pursuant to LTA 1987, s 5 on the qualifying tenants of the property; and • the disposal is made in accordance with LTA 1987, ss 6–10 This Q&A does not go into further detail on what qualifying

Section 21 notices and assured shorthold tenancies Assured shorthold tenancies Assured shorthold tenancies (AST) have been created since 15 January 1989. ASTs can be either a fixed-term contract, for example six, 12, 18 months etc, or periodic from the start, that is, monthly, weekly or three-monthly etc, depending on what the agreement says and how often the rent payment is due. When the fixed term ends, if the tenant wishes to stay on, the tenancy can either lapse into a statutory periodic AST, which will be automatic if the parties do nothing, or be renewed for a new term if the parties sign a new agreement on the