Does a Scout hut fall within LTA 1954 protection? Section 23 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) provides that a tenancy is within LTA 1954 if the whole or a part of the demised premises is occupied by the tenant for the purposes of its business or for those and other purposes. The expression ‘business’ includes any trade, profession or employment. It also includes any activity carried on by a body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporated. ‘Business’ is widely defined in LTA 1954 and encompasses a trade, profession or employment and includes any activity carried out by a body of persons. It would appear from case law, that where a business is carried on by an individual,

In this Q&A, there is just one lease in respect of this mixed used property, rather than two separate leases, and this Q&A has been drafted on that basis. As the property consists of residential parts, unless the landlord is completely certain that all residential occupiers have vacated, the lease of the whole premises will need to be forfeited by way of court proceedings, rather than by peaceably re-entering. Peaceably re-entering an occupied residential property would constitute a criminal offence pursuant to section 2 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 (PEA 1977). See Practice Note: Protection from eviction and protection from harassment. In Pirabakaran v Patel, the court considered

We have assumed in answering this Q&A that the lease does not contain any provision requiring the landlord to nominate an address in the UK for service. Tenant terminating a business tenancy under section 27 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 What is the tenant’s position where the lease has not expired? Where a tenant whose lease has not yet expired wishes to terminate, it can either: • serve as s 27(1) notice to prevent a statutory continuation tenancy arising under s 24, or • rely on s 27(1A) Section 27(1A) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) put into statutory form the conclusion reached by the court in Esselte v Pearl Assurance. No continuation tenancy can arise if the tenant has given up occupation when the tenancy expires. The tenant’s

Background Section 5(2)(a) of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 (LT(C)A 1995) provides that: '[if] the tenant assigns the whole of the premises demised to him, he is released from the tenant covenants of the tenancy... as from the assignment.' LT(C)A 1995, s 24(2) provides: '[where] immediately before the release another person is bound by a covenant of the tenancy imposing any liability or penalty in the event of a failure to comply with that tenant covenant, then, as from the release of the tenant,

Where an Authorised Guarantee Agreement (AGA) is required as a condition of the landlord’s consent to assign, the tenant must comply with this requirement. See Landlord's consent to assign or underlet for detail. However, a landlord is not allowed to enhance its position under the lease by refusing a particular guarantor if that guarantor meets the criteria set out in the lease. See Practice Note: Landlord's consent to assign or underlet. The

Fees Where a legal charge is registered at the Land Registry, there is a registration fee which applies for the registration process. The level of the fee is determined by the Land Registry and can be found on the Land Registry’s website. In essence, the level of the fee varies according to the value of the charge. However, where a lease provides that the tenant must, when registering a legal charge against the lease, pay a sum to the landlord, the situation is different. A lease is a contract and accordingly, in the case of a residential lease (where the tenant will be a consumer), consumer protection legislation will

The Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (LTA 1987) gives to tenants of residential flats contained in a building the right to first refusal of the acquisition of the landlord’s interest where a sale is proposed. The landlord is required to serve notices on the tenants informing them of the intention to dispose of an interest and providing time to consider a purchase at the offer price. The landlord cannot sell the property during that time, and breach is a criminal offence. The tenants are also able to force the new landlord to sell the property to them at the price they paid, if notice of the sale is not given to

Contracting out Contracting out procedures must be completed before the tenant is contractually bound to enter into the lease. The tenant will be contractually bound to enter into the new lease on exercising the option. The exclusion procedure must therefore take place before the option is exercised. It is therefore necessary to ensure that: • statutory procedure is carried out before the grant of the initial lease at the same time as the exclusion procedure for the initial lease, or • exercise of the option is conditional on the tenant informing the landlord of its intention to exercise the option and completion of the statutory exclusion procedure before exercising the option. From a tenant's perspective, the risk is that the

While the parties to a business lease renewal are free to negotiate and agree terms for the grant of a new lease which may include that the new lease is to be excluded from the security of tenure

Response assuming the lease is not compulsorily registrable In this first part of the Q&A we have assumed that the lease is not one which should have been registered at HM Land Registry and so the lack of registration is not in issue (although we discuss that further below where indicated). A deed of surrender must be in writing and to surrender a legal estate, the surrender must take effect by deed (unless the lease is for a term of less than three years) (sections 52(1) and 53(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925)). Any form of words which shows the intention of the parties to effect a surrender will be sufficient; and the words will be construed so as to give effect to that intention. For a discussion of this, see: Form of surrender: Halsbury's Laws of England [523]. Since a TR1 is a form of deed,

Relief from forfeiture Section 138 of the County Courts Acts (CCA 1984) makes provision for a lessee to avoid possession of property being ordered in favour of the lessor by way of forfeiture. It provides in CCA 1984, s 138(2) that if the lessee pays into court or to the lessor all outstanding arrears and the lessor’s costs not less than five days before the matter is listed for hearing in court, the lessor’s possession claim shall cease and the lessee shall be entitled to remain in possession of the land. If the claim does not cease by that mechanism, CCA 1984, s 138(3) provides that, when making a possession

This response raises the issue of the length of time a person has to be the tenant of a flat before becoming entitled to exercise rights under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993). It considers a scenario where between 2012 and 2016, a lease was held by H and then in 2016 it was transferred to H and W. It should be noted that at the time of writing, this is less than two years ago. LRHUDA 1993 confers the right upon a tenant of a flat to acquire a new lease of the flat