In a recent case, the courts had to consider the legality of a commercial arrangement undertaken by a bank with a company, the effect of which was to allow the company to ‘stand in its shoes’ with regard to a commercial lease. At issue was...

If a landlord has concealed or misrepresented facts, it can be ordered to pay a departing commercial tenant compensation for any damages or loss sustained by the tenant that arise as a result of having to quit the premises. The legislation bringing this...

A recent case illustrates how complex building disputes can become when there are changes ‘on the fly’ to the work being carried out and the related paperwork does not keep pace. In the case in point, a contractor’s contract to fit out a...

Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA), a tenant normally has the right to renewal of a lease on commercial premises unless the landlord requires occupation of the premises for its own purposes, which may include the purpose of redeveloping the site....

A recent case shows how important the wording of a planning consent is. It concerned a quarrying company which was engaged in the extraction of limestone from a quarry in the Peak District. There was opposition to the quarrying which led to a review of the...

With times being tough, unexpected traps in agreements are coming to light with greater regularity. A recent landlord and tenant case shows the sort of thing that can happen if insufficient attention is paid in negotiation to clauses that might seem...

Landlords seeking to recover service charges in circumstances which require that a notice be served on the tenants should make sure they serve the relevant notice correctly! In a recent case, a landlord had to do works on a building and sought to recover the...

The 2007 case involving Persimmon Homes and landowner Chartbrook Ltd. has now been decided in the House of Lords. The case turned on the meaning of an agreement which contained a ‘grammatical ambiguity’, which applied to a formula used to...

The widow of a man who died as a result of being exposed to asbestos while working at an oil refinery many years earlier has been awarded more than £300,000 in compensation in the High Court. Frances Streets’ husband began his career working for...

Occupiers of business premises are reminded that appeals against the rateable values of their premises (based on the 1 April 2008 valuation)  must be made by the end of this week. That valuation will affect your rates bill from April 2010. The...

A man who fell from a London bus and suffered severe head injuries has been awarded a seven-figure compensation settlement. Vincenzo Bollito, a 36-year-old designer, was between the doors of the bus when the driver closed them and accelerated down the road....

It is common that where a lease is sublet or where the lease is to a company, a guarantee arrangement will be put in place whereby the former tenant or a director of the lessee company guarantees performance of the lease. In the event that the tenant fails...

According to statistics provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), asbestos is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK. Every year 1,000 people who have been involved in carrying out building maintenance and repair work die as a...

Sometimes, the courts are called upon to decide matters which are so obvious that the mind boggles as to how a case was brought in the first place. A recent case involving a local council is just such a puzzle. The council was concerned that the dilapidated...

It is common for the licence of managed premises to be held in the name of the owner of the premises (such as a brewery) rather than that of the tenant, since it makes it administratively more simple if the tenant changes. However, if the tenant then...

When a developer bought a piece of land, intending to build an office block, it was in for a shock. The land benefited from an easement granting access over adjacent land (the garden of a house). This allowed the right of passage of utility companies over...

It is common for leases to stipulate that, if a dispute arises, the matter should be referred to arbitration. However, the decision of the arbitrator can be overturned in some circumstances. If the arbitrator’s decision is seriously flawed – for...

It is normal for there to be a procedure by which a contract can be ‘determined’ (brought to an end) if a contractor who is undertaking a project fails to meet the agreed milestones.  In a recent case, a council sought to...

Many tenants are looking to terminate commercial leases which, as a result of the recession, are no longer economically viable. Break clauses have therefore probably received more attention from tenants during the past year or so than they have since...

The Court of Appeal has recently heard a case dealing with the right to light, a subject which has been a frequent cause of disputes in the past. It concerned a company that owned a piece of land and which made an agreement with a developer that...

Firms dealing with gypsum waste, such as plasterboard and plaster, should be aware of changes to the law regarding its disposal. The disposal of gypsum waste and other waste with a high sulphate content to landfill together with biodegradable waste has been...

In a case that will be of interest to employers considering making redundancies, the Court of Appeal has dismissed, by a two to one majority, Rolls Royce’s appeal against a decision of the High Court ( Rolls Royce plc v Unite the Union ). Rolls...

According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice, the number of property repossessions for mortgage and rent arrears fell sharply in the first quarter of 2009 compared with 2008. The drop was more than 40 per cent and was far larger than anticipated....

Planning permissions granted do not have infinite duration and, to avoid the lapse of the permission, it is necessary to commence development work (a ‘material operation’ in the terms used in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 ) within the...

A developer which revised a plan for a housing development and then found the revised plan too expensive was left to rue the decision after the court ruled that despite the fact that a planning inspector’s comments about the viability of the new plan...