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The Future Of Employment Law Under Our New Labour Government
The Labour Party's election manifesto proclaimed that employment law in Britain is no longer fit for the modern economy. In May 2024, Labour detailed its plans to "make work pay" by delivering a "new deal" for working people within the first 100...
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Residential Landlord Possession – What To Do If Your Tenant Refuses To Move Out
In most cases, a tenant will leave after the landlord has served a Section 8 Notice or a Section 21 Notice requiring the tenant to vacate the property. However, when the tenant fails to vacate, the landlord may be forced to proceed with Court...
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Can My Landlord Take Back Possession Of The Premises I am Operating A Business From?
The location of your premises is often crucial to your business's success, particularly in the hospitality and leisure sector. Relocating can be expensive and disruptive for you and your customers. This raises the question: Can a landlord take back...
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Break Clauses – Avoid the Pitfalls!
Break clauses are contractual provisions in a lease that allow either the landlord or tenant to bring the contractual term of the lease to an end early. On the face of it, a break notice appears to be a straightforward document, and it often looks...
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Should I Buy the Freehold to My House?
The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 (the 1967 act) gives leasehold tenants of houses the right to buy the freehold. The right to buy the freehold (and any intermediate leasehold interest, for example, the head lease) without the landlord's agreement is...
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Should I Extend My Lease?
Homeowners may be aware that the Government is making it easier and, in some cases, cheaper to extend a lease. However, we are unclear about when the reforms will take effect. Under the current rules, you can either proceed under the informal...
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A Guide To Navigating Restrictive Covenants
Restrictive covenants, as applied to freehold land, are agreements created by a deed that one party will limit the use of its land for the benefit of another party's land, such as by capping the number of buildings which can be built on a site...
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Service Charge Disputes: Your Questions Answered
A service charge is a sum that is paid in relation to maintenance, services and repairs. They are typically found in a lease, where it is agreed that a tenant will pay a landlord (or management company) a service charge to cover the service costs...
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Looking Ahead: 2024 Real Estate Considerations
As we welcome the new year, we are set for a busy twelve months ahead in the real estate industry. The following article from our Property Litigation experts addresses several considerations and predictions for the property sector in 2024.
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King’s Speech 2023: Real Estate Update
We have previously discussed the King’s Speech with regard to its proposal to introduce an independent football regulator. Under the tagline 'strengthening society’, the King's Speech 2023 also outlined two landmark bills introducing fundamental...
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Real Estate Litigation: Hospitality & Leisure Sector Update
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly having come to an end in recent times in the UK, uncertain times remain in the hospitality and leisure sector . However, this has led to an interesting property litigation trend in the landlord-tenant...
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Key Insights and Updates for the Building Safety Act
The Building Safety Act was introduced due to the Grenfell disaster in 2017. Having obtained Royal Assent in April 2022, the Act’s primary aim is to control building safety risks in order to secure the safety of people within or around buildings...
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Nature of Easements – Part 2
The second property litigation blog in our two-part series will consider what happens when an easement is interfered with and what constitutes excessive use of an easement. We also review some case law which demonstrates how the Courts may...
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Nature of Easements
Easements are a key consideration for landowners and developers, as a failure to consider their implications properly may severely inhibit a development scheme. Our blog identifies common easements, how they are created, and common forms of...
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Forfeiture – How Does It Affect Commercial Sub-Tenants?
With many commercial tenants feeling the impact of increased costs, pressure on rental payments is on the rise. During the pandemic, the landlord's right to forfeit (terminate) the lease was restricted, giving much-needed protection to tenants...
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Waiving the Right to Forfeit
A right to forfeit a tenant’s lease entitles the landlord to take back possession of the property (either by changing the locks or by issuing possession proceedings) and to treat the lease as having come to an end. This is subject to any rights the...
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Navigating the Complexities of Dilapidations in the Hospitality and Leisure Sector
Whether you have a lease of a pub, restaurant or coffee shop, dealing with disrepair is a major issue for landlords and tenants. Our Hospitality & Leisure solicitors are here to guide you. The term dilapidations refer to items of disrepair that are...
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Opposing Lease Renewal on the Grounds of Redevelopment
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ( the Act ) was introduced after the end of World War 2 to provide business tenants with security of tenure. The Act provides business tenants with the right to continue in occupation of the premises after the end...
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Does Signing Heads of Terms Create a Binding Agreement?
The recent case of Pretoria Energy Company (Chittering) Ltd v Blankney Estates Ltd looks at whether heads of terms are sufficient to create a binding agreement between parties in the absence of a signed lease agreement. Background This case...
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Consent to Assign a Commercial Lease
Tenants of commercial properties may either want or need to divest themselves of their lease. Those reasons can be varied but often related to changing market conditions and pressures. Typically, if there is no break provision contained within the...
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Hudson v Hathway
The Court of Appeal decision in Hudson v Hathway [2022] shows how the law in relation to property ownership and trusts of land is adapting to reflect the ways in which people communicate in the modern world. In this case, Mr Hudson and Ms...
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The Dilapidations Pre-action Protocol
At the end of a commercial lease term , a landlord will want to consider any potential claim that they may have against the tenant for the tenant’s breach of the provisions relating to repair, decoration and reinstatement. Landlords should be aware...
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Dilapidations – How Are Damages Assessed?
Most commercial leases include obligations in relation to repair, decoration and yielding up at the end of the lease. Where a tenant is in breach of those obligations, the landlord will seek to bring a claim against the tenant for the losses which...
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Breaking Up Is Hard - Protected Tenancies and Landlord Redevelopment
The recent case of B&M Retail Limited v HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited highlights two important issues. Firstly, that entities must have secure procedures in place to avoid notices being missed. Secondly, that the Court will not interpret...
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Relief from Forfeiture of a Commercial Lease
The recent case of Chug & Anor v Dhaliwal & Anor provides a High Court example of when and how a Judge must weigh up factors for relief from forfeiture and why it is a bad idea to unlawfully sublet commercial premises. The Facts Mr Chug was a...
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Removal of No Fault Residential Evictions
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have confirmed plans to reform the private and social rented sector legislation. The Renters Reform Bill (the Bill) will provide the biggest change to renter’s law in a generation, improving...
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The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and “Reasonable Updating”
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 gives business tenants a statutory right to a new tenancy on the expiry of their existing tenancy and provides that a landlord can only recover possession where at least one of seven statutory grounds applies. The...
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Terminating Commercial Tenancies
Landlords and tenants within the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors continually have to adapt their portfolios and business on account of market pressures; for landlords, that may involve terminating commercial tenancies to carry out...
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Relief from Forfeiture
Forfeiture of a lease is a useful right for a landlord; however, a landlord should exercise caution and seek legal advice as the tenant can apply for relief from forfeiture. A lease will include tenants' covenants, amongst others, to pay the sums...
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What Are My Options to Enforce a Legal Charge?
We often have conversations with clients who ask what their options are to enforce a legal charge. Ordinarily, the client will have lent money to a third party, entered into a formal Facility Agreement concerning the loan and secured the loan by...
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Renters Reform Bill
In January 2023, we prepared a property litigation blog describing what legal changes we would likely see in 2023 in the property market . One of the biggest changes we are likely to see is concerning residential renting in England with the Renters...
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Rights of First Refusal – What is it and Why is it an Issue?
Part 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, as amended by the Housing Act 1996, introduced the concept of the residential tenants rights of first refusal. Rights of first refusal is where a landlord is proposing to sell his interest in a building...
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Evidencing Ground (f) in Opposed Lease Renewals
In the recent property litigation case of Man Limited v Back Inn Time Diner Limited, the Court considered the evidential burden on the landlord in opposing a lease renewal under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“the 1954 Act”). Under the 1954...
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A Guide To Enfranchisement
The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 gives leasehold tenants of houses the right to buy the freehold. This is what our Property Litigation solicitors will be exploring in this article. The right to buy the freehold (and any intermediate leasehold...
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Leasehold Reforms: How to Extend the Lease on my Flat
The current rules state that if you are a leaseholder of a flat and have been occupying it for more than two years, you have the legal right to extend your lease for an additional 90 years with the ground rent becoming a peppercorn, i.e., nil. In...
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Leasehold Reform - The Current Position and Proposals
In December 2017, the Government announced plans to tackle the growing property litigation problem of new build houses being sold as leasehold rather than freehold and to limit the ground rents payable by tenants of leasehold properties. The...
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The Energy Crisis and the Hospitality and Leisure Sector
The energy crisis will continue to affect the hospitality and leisure sector. As a result of the increase in costs, many businesses have found it difficult to trade and pay their rent following the terms of their lease. In October, the National...
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Office Workspaces Post-Pandemic
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, many peoples working lives changed overnight. Working from home was introduced permanently, a notable change to the norm; for most companies working from home before the pandemic was relatively rare...
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Service Charge in Commercial Leases: The Pay Now, Argue Later Approach
The Supreme Court has handed down its decision in Sara and Hossein Asset Holdings Ltd (a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands) v Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd [2023] UKSC 2. In this property litigation case, the landlord brought a...
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Cost of Living Crisis: Do You Need to End Your Lease Early?
Many people across the county have felt the pinch of the cost-of-living increase, whether it be the rise in energy bills, food prices or other goods. The crisis presents a bigger problem for small and independent businesses on the high street. The...
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Rent Free or No Rent Free – That is the Question!
A flurry of recent cases will interest landlords and tenants negotiating rents on renewals under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“LTA 1954”). Under s.34 of the LTA 1954, the parties can ask the Courts to determine the rent to be paid under a...
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Right to a New Lease
Whether your tenant has a right to a new commercial lease depends on whether Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ( the Act ) applies to the tenancy or whether the lease has been contracted out of the security of tenure provisions of the...
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Looking Ahead in 2023: What to Expect in Property and Property Litigation
Now that 2022 has come to a close, it is time to look ahead and consider what legal changes we can expect to see in 2023 in the property market. In this blog, we have detailed a number of the changes we expect to take place. On 28th April 2022...
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New Police Powers for Trespassers
From 28 June 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022) ( the Act ) declares that in certain matters, trespassers who illegally ‘set up’ on other people’s land or in local communities could face up to three months in prison and or...
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Residential Possession
The landlord can enforce an order for possession by asking the court to issue a warrant of possession. The warrant of possession can be issued if the tenant fails to leave on the date set out in the order or breaches the terms of a suspended...
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What is the Process for Dealing With a Property When You Have Split From Your Partner?
When cohabiting couples separate , they often want to know what the process is for dealing with the property. The Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 ( ToLATA ) gives the court certain powers to resolve disputes about the ownership...
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Property Co-ownership: What happens when a relationship breaks down?
When a cohabiting couple separates, the parties often want to know what happens with the property. Are they able to sell it? How is the equity split between them? Ultimately, if the parties are unable to agree between themselves, then the Court...
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A Simple Guide to Trespass
What is Trespass? Trespass happens when someone enters a property without the permission of the person who is entitled to possession of the property. A trespasser may also be someone who has been allowed to enter the land but then the permission...
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Discharging Restrictive Covenants: A Win for Developers
Potential development sites are often blighted by restrictive covenants limiting the scale or type of development. Developers will therefore welcome the outcome of the recent case of HAE Developments Ltd v Croft Ealing Ltd and others [2022] UKUT...
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What Is Equitable Accounting?
If a jointly owned property is sold, once the net equity in the property has been split between the owners in accordance with their interest in the property, the court can be asked to undertake an "equitable accounting" exercise.
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Residential Possession: What Notice Should a Landlord Serve on a Tenant?
Residential properties are often let by a landlord to tenants on assured tenancies. There are other types of residential tenancies, but these are the most common. If a landlord wants to regain possession of their property that is let on an assured...
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Status of Occupation on Expiry of Lease Term
When a lease comes to an end, what should the parties do? Is the tenant still a tenant, or do they no longer have a right to occupy the premises? These questions require an analysis of the type of lease (if any) that was put in place documenting...
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How to Deal With Terminal Dilapidations
Towards the end of a lease, the landlord will begin to think about the condition of the property and any breaches of the repair and maintenance covenants by the tenant. Typically a landlord will instruct a surveyor to inspect the property and...
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HMRC Finally Clarify VAT Treatment on Terminal Dilapidations Damages
On 7th February 2022, HMRC published Revenue & Customs Brief 2 (2022) , which is its updated guidance on early termination fees and compensation payments. Prior to 2020, HMRC guidance stated that when tenants paid sums to withdraw from agreements...
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Lease Considerations: Pandemic Clauses and Rent Suspension
Pandemic clauses The pandemic has had a significant impact on the hospitality and leisure sector. Many businesses were unable to trade fully or at all and had to close, which has had a devastating impact on them. In light of this, tenants are...
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Myerson Solicitors Real Estate Network Presents: The Annual Property Update
You can now watch a replay of the Annual Property Update, presented by Partner and Head of Commercial Property, Joanne Perritt , Partner within Property Litigation, Laura Pile , Partner and Head of Residential Property, Heather Adams and Senior...
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Rectifying a Mistake on a Transfer Deed
Ralph v Ralph [2021] EWCA Civ 1106 The Court of Appeal has held that an error made in a transfer deed could not be rectified as the parties to the deed never agreed on how the property in question should be held. The case of Ralph v Ralph [2021...
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Discharge of Restrictive Covenants
Modification and discharge of restrictive covenants The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has given a judgment on a case regarding the discharge of a restrictive covenant. In the case of Father’s Field Developments Limited v Namulas Pension Trustees...
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Interference With Rights of Way: Skene V Braveheart Hotels Ltd
Skene v Braveheart Hotels Ltd This case concerned a dispute over land known as 'Fouracres', owned by Mr Donald Skene, which benefitted from a right of vehicular and pedestrian access over private roads in the grounds of the neighbouring Fernie...
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Pandemic Clauses
Are pandemic clauses in commercial leases considered fair? Since the start of the Covid pandemic, many commercial leases are now being drafted with anticipation of another lockdown or future pandemic. Landlords and tenants alike are keen to...
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UK Fire Safety: The Fire Safety Act 2021 Becomes Law
The Fire Safety Act 2021 The Fire Safety Act 2021 has received Royal Assent, which means that it has become law after a controversial passage through Parliament. The Act amends the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and addresses concerns...
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Court of Appeal Restricts Ambit of Legal Advice Privilege
Legal Professional Privilege Legal professional privilege allows parties to freely consult with their lawyers regarding issues of law and receive advice without fear that their communications will have to be disclosed. It is divided into two...
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What Can You Do If Your Tenant Fails To Pay The Service Charge?
If a tenant fails to pay their service charge then this can have a huge effect on the landlord or management company, particularly if they have already incurred the costs. Therefore, it is important to take action quickly if there are arrears. If a...
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My Tenant Failed to Make Payments Under the Terms of the Lease. Can I Pursue a Former Tenant, Guarantor, or Tenant?
If you are a landlord of commercial premises and your tenant has failed to make a payment due under the terms of the lease; such as rent, insurance or service charge then in addition to pursuing your tenant for non-payment, you may also be able to...
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Residential Service Charges- Is Your Demand Valid?
The overriding principle when considering residential service charges are: A landlord or management company is not obliged to provide any service which are not expressly set out in the lease; and A landlord or management company cannot raise a...
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A Guide to Adverse Possession
Land: use it or lose it. That’s the basic premise behind the often controversial legal principle of adverse possession. Adverse possession is colloquially known as “squatters rights” and is based on an ancient philosophy requiring owners of land...
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Tenant liable to insurance claim for damage to the remainder of the building
The High Court has recently ruled that where a landlord is not obliged to insure the whole building on behalf of a tenant who has taken a lease of part of that building, the landlord’s insurers can make a claim against the tenant for loss and...
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