Mannai meaning

In this issue: Residential tenancies Repairing obligations and dilapidations Enforcing security and property insolvency Disputes and remedies Key developments and horizon scanning Additional Property Disputes updates LexTalk® Property Disputes: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Residential tenancies An end to unmeritorious tenancy deposit claims (Lowe v The Governors of Sutton’s Hospital in Charterhouse) The Court of Appeal in Lowe v The Governors of Sutton’s Hospital in Charterhouse [2025] EWCA Civ 857 upheld the refusal of a substantial claim under the tenancy deposit regime. The central question was whether a prescribed information certificate that, first, contained a mistake and, second, lacked a signature nevertheless complied with section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004) and the related 2007 Order. Applying the Mannai principle and adopting a purposive reading of the statutory scheme, the court held that the certificate was sufficient to meet those requirements. This...

In this issue Easements and covenants Key developments and horizon scanning Enforcing security and property insolvency Trespass and adverse possession Disputes and remedies Residential tenancies Repairing obligations and dilapidations Rent and rates Property Disputes in Scotland Additional Property Disputes updates Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q&As Easements and covenants Interference with rights to light—claimants receive a substantial award based on negotiating damages (Cooper v Ludgate House) It was no surprise that the court refused an injunction in Cooper v Ludgate House [2025] EWHC 1724 (Ch). The loss of light was not at the severe end of the spectrum, and the harm an injunction would inflict on the developer—and on the public interest, which both parties agreed was relevant—would have been wholly disproportionate. The High Court also reaffirmed that, despite One Step (Support) Ltd v Morris-Garner, negotiating damages remain...

H Stain Ltd v Richmond [2021] UKUT 66 (LC) What are the practical implications of this case? Courts have frequently grappled with whether notices are valid. On a quick reading, the rulings may appear inconsistent and perplexing. This judgment underlines that the lease’s language usually determines if small mistakes doom a notice. Crucially, were the express pre‑conditions for a valid notice satisfied? If they were not, the Mannai (Mannai Investment Co Ltd v Eagle Star Assurance Co Ltd [1997] AC 749) ‘reasonable recipient’ approach cannot rescue slight defects (in Mannai, a break notice served a day early survived as a reasonable recipient would grasp the intention to end the following day). The outcome matters to landlords, tenants, and those drafting demands or notices. Crisp, unequivocal lease drafting that removes doubt about what must be met before a demand gives rise to liability will reduce comparable rows. In H Stain Ltd v Richmond, a one‑month notice requirement was treated as a fundamental pre‑condition to a valid demand. The demand needed...

FORTHCOMING CHANGE The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 obtained Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. For guidance on the Act’s effect on residential tenancies in England, see Practice Note: Renters’ Rights Act 2025—key provisions. The Practice Note outlines, for both residential and commercial leases, what a break clause is, the circumstances in which it can be exercised—including construing typical deadlines for serving a break notice and the meanings of ‘year’, ‘month’ and the ‘corresponding date rule’—and the required form of a break notice. It also surveys case law on mistakes in meeting break notice requirements, with particular emphasis on the reasonable recipient test in Mannai, and how that principle applies to familiar categories of error. In addition, it addresses the application of Mannai to the service of statutory notices and the types of mistake frequently encountered, namely completion errors and errors of form...