Legal Q&A

Commercial leases commonly bar tenants from carrying out alterations or enhancements to the let premises unless the landlord agrees. In addition, tenants are typically required, on expiry of the term, to hand back the property in the condition it was in at the outset. As a result, if consent for alterations is given, an obligation to reinstate will generally be imposed as a pre-condition. The Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 ( LTA 1927) sets out a number of provisions concerning improvements......

The answer on the contractual provisions in the tenancy agreement. On the face of it, the tenant must secure consent before commencing any works. Where that applies, the tenant cannot compel the landlord to grant consent after the fact for alterations, save where the landlord chooses to agree. Should the landlord decide to issue consent retrospectively for any alterations, the landlord will set out the conditions and requirements on which such consent is given. These may include timing, scope, reinstatement, and any associated costs......

Electronic Communications Code (the Code) It is taken that a headlease has been forfeited, with any sub-leases granted under it likewise brought to an end. The Electronic Communications Code (the Code) referenced is the version produced by the Law Commission in 2013. As the Q& A observes, the operator’s lease was terminated by forfeiture and, thereafter, it is assumed the freeholder required the equipment to be removed, so a paragraph 21 notice had to be served. Paragraph 21 of the Code states that, where no agreement is in place or it is shortly to come to an end, the freeholder requires an order authorising removal of the telecommunications apparatus located on the roof of the freeholder’s property......

If a monetary order in family proceedings remains unpaid, the judgment creditor may, in those circumstances, seek a judgment summons by applying to the court for enforcement. The process is regulated by the Family Procedure Rules 2010 ( FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, Pt 33, and if the court is persuaded that the debtor has defaulted on a debt and has, or has had since the order, the means to discharge the unpaid amount yet has refused or failed to do so, it may order the debtor’s committal to prison. This sanction applies where default relates to the ordered sum and endures despite the debtor’s means......

For this Q& A, it is taken that, during their joint lifetimes, both spouses were the registered legal owners. Following the first death, the surviving spouse became the legal title holder on trust, holding one half share for the late spouse and the other half share for themselves under that trust. By executing a deed of variation, the survivor then came to hold the legal title on trust so that a 50% beneficial share belonged to the deceased’s children, with the balance 50% beneficial share remaining with the survivor as their own interest. Only equitable beneficial interests can be severed. A legal estate can only subsist as a joint tenancy, pursuant to section 36(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925 ( LPA 1925)......

Private rights stand apart from the public rights vis-à-vis the highway. Consequently, the said private rights endure...

Electricity Act 1989 Section 10(1) of the Electricity Act 1989 ( EA 1989) sets out two routes for electricity supply companies (being licence holders under the EA 1989) to secure rights over land. One route is compulsory purchase of the requisite land or interests under EA 1989, Sch 3. The alternative is obtaining a ‘necessary wayleave’, in accordance with EA 1989, Sch 4. For additional guidance, see Practice Note: Statutory wayleaves and rights of access. Compulsory acquisition Schedule 3 draws in, subject to important modifications, provisions contained in Part I of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965......

This response considers whether there is a fixed period that a relationship needs to have lasted in order to fall within the definition of a relationship of ‘significant duration’ under section 62(3) of the Family Law Act 1996 ( FLA 1996). A court may issue a non-molestation order under FLA 1996, s 42 where an application is brought by a person ‘associated with the respondent’. Equally, in any family proceedings to which the respondent is a party, the court can decide that such an order should be made for the benefit of any other party to the case or any relevant child, despite no application having been submitted ( FLA 1996, s 42(2)). For more detailed guidance, see Practice Note: Non-molestation orders. The phrase ‘associated persons’ is defined in FLA 1996, s 62(3)......

Proportional representation of political groups Authorities and committees must apportion seats to mirror the proportional make-up of political groups. The issue is whether an independent member, meaning one not belonging to any party group, can be placed on the planning committee. The position depends in part on the facts and the authority’s constitution, but where the authority is organised into political groups and no statutory exceptions apply, an independent would need to form a group with at least one other member to gain representation and thus a seat on the planning committee. In some authorities, several independents join to create an independent group, sometimes called ‘the independents’, and are therefore entitled to representation on the planning committee. This rule does not extend to area committees, and authorities may disapply it if unanimously approved alternative arrangements are adopted. This all proceeds on the basis that the...

Compulsory acquisition of landlord’s interest by tenants of flats Under Part III of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 ( LTA 1987), qualifying long-lease flat owners may compel transfer of the landlord’s interest to a nominated person where: the landlord has breached duties to repair, maintain, insure or manage the building; or the building has been managed for at least two years by a manager appointed under LTA 1987, Part II. For criteria and procedure for an acquisition order, see Practice Note: Compulsory acquisition of landlord’s interest by tenants of flats. When deciding to bring an acquisition order as a standalone claim or within a defence and counterclaim, CPR 20.9 applies. The court considers whether to permit an additional claim, dismiss it, or require it be determined separately from the claimant’s claim. Factors may include: the connection between the additional claim and the claimant’s claim against the...

In financial remedy proceedings, it is usual for one party to earn on a self-employed footing as a sole trader in practice. Instead of using a separate legal personality, for example a company acting as the primary earning vehicle and paying salary and dividends, they trade in a chosen style or their own name and settle personal income tax on profits. Business costs are set off in the ordinary manner, and accounts are normally drawn up for this very purpose. Some sole traders simply run income and outgoings through a personal bank account, while others prefer to operate from a separate, dedicated business account......

It is quite usual, in many cases, for an intermediary landlord to sit between the occupational long-leasehold tenants of a block of flats and the freeholder. The term of the intermediate lease is longer, although often only a little longer, than the duration of the occupational long leases (flat leases) for the individual flats. The typical set-up is a freeholder at the top, then a head tenant, frequently a management company, for the whole block, and beneath that the individual flat leases......

This query asks whether the owner of the land (the servient owner) on which a septic tank currently sits, and across which a neighbour has acquired prescriptive drainage rights, is entitled to replace that tank with a modern treatment unit, and whether the neighbour benefiting from those rights (the dominant owner) can be obliged to contribute to the costs of installing and maintaining the replacement apparatus. Can the servient owner replace the tank? On the basis that the dominant owner holds a prescriptive right to drain into the septic tank (as stated), the initial issue is the servient owner’s entitlement to substitute the existing septic tank with a contemporary equivalent. Provided the works are organised so that the neighbour’s drainage rights are not hindered to an actionable extent, both during installation and thereafter, there is, in principle, no reason to object to the servient owner...

Section 57(1) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 ( LRHUDA 1993) Provides that the terms of any new lease must be conferred in line with LRHUDA 1993, s 56(1) as regards rent (a peppercorn) and the term (90 years after the existing lease’s term date), and, save for appropriate specified amendments, should otherwise reflect the provisions of the current lease. In addition, LRHUDA 1993, s 57(6) confirms that LRHUDA 1993, s 57(1) does not prevent the landlord and the tenant, in defined specified circumstances, from settling terms for the new lease which are not in accordance with the existing lease, in those specified circumstances. This applies in certain specified cases only......

Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ( LTA 1954) Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ( LTA 1954) affords security of tenure to business tenancies that have not opted out of its terms. In practical terms, a tenancy does not end on the contractual expiry date by effluxion of time; rather, it continues as a statutory tenancy. Either the landlord or the tenant may apply to the court seeking the grant of a new tenancy. By virtue of LTA 1954, s 25, the landlord may give notice to the tenant to terminate the tenancy. If the landlord wishes to oppose the grant of a new tenancy, they must identify one of the grounds set out in LTA 1954, s 30(1). If the landlord does not oppose the grant of a new lease, the landlord must set out the...

The changes brought about by the Deregulation Act 2015 Section 21A of the Housing Act 1988 ( HA 1988) was introduced by section 38 of the Deregulation Act 2015 ( DA 2015), and covers all tenancies created on or after 1 October 2015. Under HA 1988, s 21A, a landlord must satisfy the relevant ‘prescribed requirements’ before a notice can validly be served pursuant to HA 1988, s 21. Those ‘prescribed requirements’ are set out in the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements ( England) Regulations 2015 ( Prescribed Requirements Regs 2015), SI 2015/1646. In effect, the new HA 1988, s 21A states that a notice under subsections (1) or (4) of section 21 cannot be given in relation to an assured shorthold tenancy of a dwelling-house in England while the landlord is in breach of a prescribed...

On 19 June 2020, the version of section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 ( HA 1988) in force allowed the court to make a possession order for a dwelling house once satisfied that the tenant had been duly served with three months’ written notice. This was because paragraph 7 of Schedule 29 to the Coronavirus Act 2020 ( CA 2020) substitutes within HA 1988, s 21 the wording ‘three months’ for the usual ‘two months’. The prescribed form for a section 21 notice is found in the Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies ( Forms) ( England) Regulations 2015, SI 2015/620, Schedule, designated as form 6A......

We proceed on the basis that the company concerned is neither a right to manage ( RTM) vehicle administering property under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (an uncommon scenario, as such entities typically assume management separate from freehold ownership) nor a nominee company established to acquire the freehold collectively under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, where the obligations of individual qualifying tenants regarding payment can be governed by a participation agreement. See Practice Notes: Guide to the right to collective enfranchisement under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 and Quick guide to time limits for collective enfranchisement under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993......

This query raises the effect of a notice of claim to exercise the right to manage under Part 2 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 ( CLRA 2002) being withdrawn. Although the grounds for withdrawal are unknown, the parties’ rights and duties under CLRA 2002 remain unchanged. Under CLRA 2002, s 71(1), the right to manage the premises is conferred on a company incorporated for that function. Such an entity is termed a right to manage ( RTM) company ( CLRA 2002, s 73(1)). Only one RTM company may exist at a time, and where the freehold of the managed premises becomes vested in that company, it stops being an RTM company ( CLRA 2002, s 73(4)–(5)). Holders of long leases within the building may join the RTM company ( CLRA 2002, ss 74–75). These individuals are described as...

Retention Retention describes the portion of interim payments the employer withholds as security for the contractor’s future performance of its duties and to encourage the contractor to discharge those duties in full and properly. For further details, consult the Practice Note: Retention of payment in construction contracts. When retention is to be released to the contractor depends on the particular contract terms for the project. Typically, half of the retained sum is paid out at practical completion, with the balance thereafter following completion of any remedial works for defects reported within the defects liability period. Consequently, if these milestones are reached before the final certificate is issued, the contractor may have a right to seek payment of some or all of the retention......