Property Law

The recent case of R3 Products Ltd v James R Salt [2014] UKUT 0333 (LC) acts as a reminder for all tenants to carefully consider their liability for business rates before they take occupation of a commercial property and not make the assumption that they will not be liable for business rates until such time […]

The buy to let market was once just for the professional landlords and very few other people. With house prices crashing during the recession, along with interest rates at a record low and smaller pension returns, many people have been looking into investing into this area as part of retirement planning. The increase in people […]

At the expiry of a contracted-out lease1relating to commercial premises, the tenant has no automatic right to remain in situ. Whereas, if the provisions have not been excluded then the tenant will be entitled to remain unless one of the parties has sought to determine the tenancy by a prescribed method. For the purposes of […]

What is reinstatement? The connotations of the word ‘reinstatement’ suggest it is something to be dealt with at the end of the lease term. And to some extent it is. Reinstatement concerns the ‘putting right’ of a property at the end of the term into the state and condition required by the tenant covenants in […]

What are Dilapidations? Dilapidations are often defined as being “items in need of repair to comply with a tenant’s obligations both to repair the property and to return the property to the landlord in accordance with the lease”. Most commercial leases will describe this as a requirement to keep the property in good repair and […]

Whenever a guarantor is party to a lease, it is critical that any subsequent changes to the lease are correctly documented and the guarantor has signed up to any such variations. In the recent well reported case of Topland Portfolio No. 1 Ltd v Smiths News Trading Ltd [2014]the Court of Appeal held that a guarantor had […]

In the recent case of Marks & Spencer Plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Co (Jersey) Ltd [2014], the Court of Appeal has just made a ruling that may leave commercial tenants feeling short-changed. The claim arose following the successful exercise by M&S of the break options in leases of an office block in […]

A squatter has won a landmark victory for “squatters’ rights” after applying for possession of a property in Ilford, East London, on the basis that he had been in “adverse possession” for a period of 10 years ending on the date he made his application. Facts of the Case The property belonged to Doris Curtis, […]

Flooding is a growing risk for British properties. According to Environment Agency statistics, 5.5 million homes (that’s one in six) are at risk of flooding from all types of flood in England and Wales. Climate change projections indicate that rising sea levels and increasing severe and frequent rainstorms will increase those risks. It is not always […]

Many leaseholders have a right of renewal over their leasehold title for a term equal to the unexpired residue of the existing lease plus 90 years. Do you have the right to make an application for a lease extension? You must be able to satisfy the following: The lease must be a long lease exceeding […]

For many, Capital Allowance is no more than a section within the preliminary commercial property standard enquiries and, assuming that the response from the other side is as innocuous as is regularly the case, nothing further will arise. In a nutshell, Capital Allowance is a tax concession which allows businesses that own commercial property the […]

A decision has been handed down from the Court of Appeal in the case of Game Station (Jervis v Pillar Denton). The decision granted landlords Land Securities, British Land, Hammerson and Intu the right to recover rent from administrators that operated a retail business as a going concern whilst a buyer was sought despite the […]