#16685 - Alienation - Property Law and Practice

S.1 Landlord & Tenant Act 1988*

• Upon receipt of written request by T, imposes duty on L not to unreasonably delay in:

  • Giving T consent to assign/sublet; or

  • Giving reasonable grounds why T’s request for consent to assign/sublet is refused

Liability of Original Parties

Privity of contract

Ongoing Liability

• Privity of estate between L & T2

• Burden of T covenants

• Benefit of L covenants

• ONLY if covenants “touch and concern the land” (P & A Swift Investments)

  • Covenants must benefit covenantee only while he remains a L or T of the land

  • Covenants must affect mode of use, value, quality, or nature of the land

  • Benefit of covenants must not be expressed to be personal

• Ongoing liability through P-i-C

Ongoing Liability

• Upon assignment, T2 will have:

  • Burden of T covenants [s.3(2)(a)]

  • Benefit of L covenants [s.3(2)(b)]

  • Benefit of covenants must NOT be expressed to be personal [s.3(6)(a)]

  • Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995

• Original T automatically released from T covenants on assignment to T2 with the EXCEPTION OF AGAs

• Usual s.19(1A) LTA 1927 Conditions

  • Outgoing T to give L an AGA

  • Incoming T to provide a guarantor to L (if requested to do so)

• Usual s.19(1A) LTA 1927 Circumstances:

  • Outgoing T to owe no Rent or other monies to L under the Lease

Problems

From L’s point of view:

• If current T is in breach but cannot be found/ is bankrupt, although L can sue original T - if long time since GRANT of lease, original T may:

• no longer exist (business)

• not be traceable (individual)

From Original T’s point of view:

• Liability for any breaches hangs over them for entirety of lease

  • difficult to plan/budget (business)

  • suddenly face a huge unexpected bill (individual)