We refer you to Practice Note: Exercising the right to enfranchise—houses which explains how a tenant wishing to claim the freehold or an extended lease of their house under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 may exercise the right to enfranchise. It covers the form and procedure for service of a notice of tenant’s claim, the landlord’s notice in response, and the provision for payment of costs. Case study A tenant intends to serve a notice under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 to acquire the freehold of their house. The prescribed form of the notice states that the tenant must include the premium paid for the grant of the lease. The tenant does not know the premium payable and, after investigation, this information is not available. If this part of the

In a business lease renewal, either party may apply for an interim rent payable while the tenancy is continuing by virtue of section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954). The right is set out in LTA 1954, s 24A(1). LTA 1954 fixes the date from which the interim rent is payable (LTA 1954, s 24B), but the date for payment of any arrears of interim rent is not addressed. In the Court of Appeal, Lawton LJ held, in Bloomfield v Ashwright, a case under the pre-2004 regime (the relevant parts of which were in similar, but not identical, terms), that where there was a transfer

This Q&A assumes that the letting is an assured or assured shorthold tenancy. Requirement for an EPC on a letting granted in October 2008 The Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 (EPC Regs 2012), SI 2012/3118, entered into force on 9 January 2013 and implemented the requirements of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU. Prior to the EPC Regs 2012, the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 (EPC Regs 2007), SI 2007/991 (revoked by the EPC Regs 2012) implemented the original Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2002/91/EC. EPC Regs 2007, SI 2007/991, reg

Case study: A landlord and tenant are in dispute about whether or not a rental property was advertised as furnished. The tenant subsequently purchased their own furniture and withheld the rent to the total amount of the furniture. When the tenancy came to an end and the tenant moved out, they took the furniture with them. The landlord disputes the fact the property was ever advertised as furnished so is trying to have the withheld rent (rent arrears) deducted from the tenant's deposit

The appointment of an LPA is a remedy available to a mortgagee seeking to recover sums due under the mortgage granted in their favour. The LPA receiver’s role will be to collect rent or other income from the mortgaged property and/or to manage the property generally, for example to deal with the management and maintenance of the property. The mortgagor (ie the landlord) will continue in existence throughout the appointment of the LPA receiver and the directors (assuming the

An application to court for an administration order gives rise to an interim moratorium in respect of claims against the relevant company (paragraph 44 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986)), except in circumstances where an administrative receiver is appointed. This prevents creditors from bringing insolvency proceedings or claims before the court, though permission can be granted by the court to proceed with a claim. When a company enters administration, the moratorium becomes permanent. Therefore, without the permission of the administrator or the court, a creditor cannot bring legal proceedings or exercise by a landlord of the right to re-enter,

Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) provides statutory protection to business tenants. This means that a protected lease does not expire by effluxion of time but continues unless the landlord serves notice under LTA 1954, s 25, stating whether or not they oppose the grant of a new tenancy under any of the specified grounds in LTA 1954, s 30(1). By LTA 1954, s 26, the tenant is entitled to request the grant

A right to forfeit a lease will be waived where, with knowledge of the breach, the landlord unequivocally recognises the breach and communicates that recognition to the tenant. While exercising rights under the lease will constitute a waiver, other acts in connection with the breach, including serving a notice under section 146 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925), and without prejudice communications, will not. For examples of conduct that will or will not amount to

An assured shorthold tenancy (AST) does not cease to exist on the death of the tenant. Instead, the tenancy continues and passes to the beneficiary or beneficiaries of the deceased under the terms of any Will or in the absence of a Will pursuant to section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 (AEA 1925) (commonly referred to as the Intestacy Rules). If there is a Will, it will vest in the executor of the estate (AEA 1925, s 1), and if there is an intestacy then pending the grant of letters of administration

As a very general rule, the services provided by a landlord (or a management body) to leaseholders over the course of a service charge year are usually paid in arrears. Accordingly, assuming a relatively even distribution of services over the year, the expenditure for any given year will tend to come later in the year. For this reason, service charge clauses invariably will require a leaseholder to make interim payments of service charge in advance. Such schemes will therefore, more or less, provide a landlord with sufficient funds to pay the cost of services during the year as they fall due. Although there may be others, one cost which does not always fit

The basic proposition is that where a lease has effectively excluded the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954), the tenant will have no right to claim a new lease at the end of the contractual term. However, a common scenario in such situations is the tenant ‘holding over’ after the expiry of the fixed term, that is to say, failing to leave. This may be for a number of reasons, such as ongoing negotiation between the parties as to the terms of a new lease or simply through inadvertently maintaining the status quo and treating the lease as continuing. Often, there will not be a written contract between the parties to stipulate the rights and legal status of the occupier during this period. Where there is no formalised

A claim for dilapidations is a claim against a tenant arising out of the state of premises, arising out of a covenant to maintain and repair. It is assumed for the purpose of this answer that such a covenant exists and as a result, there is the prospect of a claim for dilapidations. The basis of such a claim is to compensate the landlord by putting him back in the position that he would have been in but for the breach. As a result, the measure of damages is the cost of carrying out the works which the tenant was obliged pursuant to the terms of the tenancy to maintain and repair the property: Joyner v Weeks. This is subject to the statutory cap imposed by section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, which provides that the damages cannot exceed the value of