Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
An article in Inside Housing explains how Sutton Council corrected the service charge proportions in the leases of an estate, where some tenants had been paying slightly different amounts of service charge, which became critical when the social landlord proposed refurbishing the estate. Before the 1987 Landlord and Tenant Act, the only way to correct a mistake was if someone had acted fraudulently or where the document did not give effect to what the parties had intended. Part 4 of the Act now allows either a landlord or a leaseholder to apply to a leasehold valuation tribunal to correct such problems by varying the lease and this is what Sutton Council did successfully.
Read the full article here
Saturday, June 8th, 2013 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Elisons has reported that, in Marks and Spencer plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Company (Jersey) Ltd and another [2013] EWHC 1279 (Ch), where the tenant exercised a break clause part-way through a quarter, having paid the rent for the full quarter, the High Court implied a term into the lease entitling the tenant to a repayment of the rent from the break date to the end of the quarter. This decision is a departure from the widely-accepted view that, in the absence of an express provision in the lease, a tenant will not be entitled to a refund of any rent paid that relates to the period after a break date.
Read the full article here
