Tag Archive for 'Leasehold and shared ownership'

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Unreasonable refusal to assign

By Francis Davey on 23/02/2009. 1 Comment

A case appearing on my radar, though one that may not excite many readers is Landlord Protect Limited v St Anselm Development Company Limited [2009] EWCA Civ 99. A case concerning whether a landlord has imposed an unreasonable condition for a consent to assign.

The relevant covenant in the lease was as follows:

…not to assign part or parts only of the demised premises and not to underlet or part with possession or assign the whole of the demised premises without the consent in writing of the Landlord first had and obtained but such consent shall not be unreasonably withheld in the case of a respectable and responsible assignee or

… Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership. Tags: , .

What is a service charge?

By J on 11/12/2008. 9 Comments

Morshead Mansions Ltd v Leon Di Marco [2008] EWCA Civ 1371

Service charges. Much more interesting than tolerated trespassers. Honestly.

Sections 18 – 30 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 contain a detailed regulatory framework for service charges in residential property. In broad terms, leaseholders can dispute their service charges if they are said to be unreasonable in some way. (For those of you who want a detailed discussion of this area, see Davey & Bates Leasehold Disputes, 2nd Edition, April 2008).

What, however, is a service charge? By s.18 of the 1995 Act, a service charge is “an amount payable by a tenant of a dwelling as part of … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership. Tags: , , .

Accepting "part" of a cheque without waiving forfeiture

By Francis Davey on 25/11/2008. 0 Comments

Osibanjo v Seahive Investments Limited [2008] EWCA Civ 1282 (Court of Appeal)

Are there circumstances in which a landlord can accept only part of a cheque offered by a tenant and thereby avoid waiving its right to forfeit? It would appear that there are, according to the Court of Appeal in this case which raises interesting questions about the thorny issue of waiver of forfeiture.

The trial judge found that the tenant had breached numerous covenants in the lease (against alterations, change of use, parting with possession, and keeping the business premises — a public house — open).  Rent arrears built up in 2005 and the landlord (Seahive) served a … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership. Tags: , , , .

Shared Ownership – Midland Heart with benefit of transcript

By NL on 24/09/2008. 20 Comments

The earlier post on this shared ownership possession case, Richardson v Midland Heart Ltd, (November 2007 Birmingham) attracted a lot of comment, some of it excitable and ill-informed (and much of that from me). Nearly Legal now has a copy of the judgment, and the benefit of time and reflection to go on.

Before we start, this was a County Court case, and apparently the appeal in this case is due to be heard on 5 & 6 November 2008. Also, apparently Midland Heart has not made the ‘voluntary payment’ of initial premium less arrears and costs (so not a lot) that was touted in previous press reports. (Thanks … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, FLW case note, Housing law - All, Leasehold and shared ownership and Possession. Tags: , , , , .

Lack of ownership in shared ownership

By NL on 12/09/2008. 19 Comments

[Edit 15/09/08. It now looks like the following judgment is a) being appealed shortly and b) may only have been a County Court judgment, not High Court - this latter point is not clear but reliable sources say County Court]

[Edit 18/09/08.  In the comments to this post, a few people, mostly being me, were wondering why any lender would touch shared ownership if their security could vanish this way. I've had a look at a few shared ownership leases now. They typically carry a clause requiring the landlord to notify the lender of any forthcoming possession/forfeiture proceedings for rent arrears. So the lender has the opportunity to pay off … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, Housing law - All, Leasehold and shared ownership and Possession. Tags: , , , , .

Hey! That's my window.

By Francis Davey on 01/09/2008. 0 Comments

Sheffield City Council v Hazel St Clare Oliver LRX/146/2007 [links to PDF]

This is a case which touches on an issue familiar to those involved with right to buy leases: replacement of windows by the landlord.

The landlord council wished to replace metal framed windows with new uPVC in the leaseholder’s block. The terms of the demise in the lease were clear: the windows were part of the leaseholder’s property. Consistent with that, the leaseholder’s covenant to repair required her to keep the windows in repair. The covenant to repair looked like this:

“(3) To keep the demised premises and every part thereof (except those parts of the demised premises

… Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All, Leasehold and shared ownership and right-to-buy. Tags: , , , .

Enforcing positive covenants

By NL on 03/08/2008. 7 Comments

Cantrell v Wycombe District Council [2008] EWCA Civ 866 concerns enforcement of positive covenants by a Local Authority.

In return for funds towards the purchase of another property, a housing association had granted the Council nomination rights to six properties, including the one at issue, the agreement was said to be made pursuant to s.609 Housing Act 1985. Clause 3 of the agreement stated that the covenants would be:

enforceable without any limit of time against any body or person deriving title from the original covenantor in respect of its interest in the properties and any person deriving title under it in respect of any lesser interest in the properties

… Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership. Tags: , , .
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