A landlord who has served a counter-notice, opposing a tenant's section 26 request, can begin proceedings to terminate the lease as soon as the counter-notice has been served—section 29(2)(b) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. The landlord should bear in mind that they will need to prove their grounds of

Where a tenant has served a section 26 request, the lease will come to an end on the day before the date specified in the notice for the start of the new lease, unless by that date (the end of the 'statutory period') either party has made an application to court, or the parties have agreed to extend time for doing so. See Practice Note: Time limits and extension of statutory period under LTA 1954. An initial agreement to extend the statutory period may be made under section 29B(1) of the Landlord and

The right to acquire a new lease Under section 42 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993), a leaseholder who wishes to acquire a new lease of their flat has to give notice to their landlord. The notice must contain certain information which is specified in LRHUDA 1993, s 42. That information includes the leaseholder’s name and the property address. LRHUDA 1993, s 45 makes provision for the landlord to give a counternotice in response, stating whether the landlord admits that the leaseholder has the right to acquire a new lease or not, and, if the landlord admits the right, whether the landlord accepts the leaseholder’s proposed terms for the new lease. Assignment of the lease and the section 42 notice Where the leaseholder who served

Section 39 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993) provides to qualifying tenants of flats the right to acquire a new lease (often referred to as a lease extension, but in fact being the grant of a new lease for a term of 90 years plus the existing term of the lease, at a peppercorn ground rent per LRHUDA 1993, s 56). The right is exercised by the tenant giving a notice under LRHUDA 1993, s 42 to the landlord and to any third party to the tenant's lease (LRHUDA 1993, s 42(2)). By LRHUDA 1993, s 40, 'the landlord' means the person who is the owner of that interest in the flat which, for the time being, is an interest in reversion expectant on

This question raises the means by which notice of seeking possession can be served on a tenant as a first step to obtaining a possession order in respect of a tenancy with the protection of the Housing Act 1988 (HA 1988). There is a power to dispense with this requirement if the court considers that it is just and equitable to so do. The requirement is to have ‘served on the tenant’ such a notice. No guidance is given as to the meaning of the word ‘served’. In some statutory regimes in the landlord sphere, section 23 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 (LTA 1927) applies, whereby it is provided that notice may be served by post. Where this is the case, section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 (IA 1978) applies

There is generally no difficulty with a party serving a second (or further) notice, without prejudice to the first, and then relying on both notices in the alternative. See Commentary: Notices served 'without prejudice' to a previous notice: Property Notices [3.38]. For a precedent, which would need to be adapted to the circumstances, see Precedent: Cover letter

The Authorised Guarantee Agreement (AGA) An authorised guarantee agreement (AGA) is frequently used when a lease is assigned from the original tenant to a new tenant. The outgoing tenant guarantees to the landlord the obligations and liabilities under the lease of the new tenant. Further information on AGAs can be found in Practice Note: Authorised guarantee agreements. The extent of the obligations that have been guaranteed by the predecessor tenant pursuant to the AGA will fall to be determined by the various clauses of the specific AGA that the parties have negotiated. Generally, if a guarantor guarantees the obligations of the tenant under the lease then in normal circumstances,

For the purpose of this Q&A, we have assumed that the parties are executing an agreement in physical form. There are two types of written agreement: • simple contracts, for which no particular formalities are required, however, there must be consideration • deeds, for which there is no legal definition but various formalities are required in accordance with section 1 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 Simple contracts Simple contracts must be executed by all the trustees. The manner of execution will depend on whether the trustee is an individual or a corporation. A trustee who is an individual can enter into a simple contract under signature. No witness is needed. The execution clause should state the names of the individuals and the capacity in which they are signing, ie as trustees of

The disclosure of information in relation to business sales of property are governed by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTs), SI 2008/1277, as amended, and require the provision of certain information including disputes. However, this will not ordinarily apply to a residential sale of a property as this will not be a business sale. If the solicitor is also acting as estate agent however, they may be caught by CPUTs. Assuming that CPUTs does not apply, the standard Form TA6 (the Property Information Form) includes information about any disputes with neighbours, among other things. Additionally

We have assumed that the chattels are not fixed to the building and have therefore not become part of the land for value added tax (VAT) purposes. The VAT treatment of chattels that are supplied together with a building depends on whether they are part of a single supply with the building. If there is a single supply, the chattels will have the same VAT liability as the building. HMRC guidance states that: ‘If

We have assumed that the contract between A and B is a business-to-business contract. Initial claim between A and B B’s claim against A in respect of the unsold stock will be a claim in damages and potentially also for lost profit. The extent to which these are recoverable will depend on the terms of the contract itself but bear in mind considerations such as section 4(1) of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 and section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. See Practice Note: Implied terms in contracts for goods and services. B may also wish to consider whether it has grounds for returning the unsold stock, which may depend on whether B has already ‘accepted’ the goods, see Practice Note: Goods—delivery and acceptance and the following Q&A: If in a business to business

The option to tax applies to the land 'specified in the option' (see paragraph 18 of Schedule 10 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994. The legislation does not state what happens if the description of the land in the option is ambiguous. As a practical matter, it may be advisable to clarify the position by writing to HMRC's Option to Tax Unit and asking for their agreement that the land covered by the option is as was intended by the seller. If it can be evidenced that this was