Will landlords be able to keep tenants on the hook and will leases continue even when tenants try to exercise a break right? In the current state of COVID-19 lockdown it could be more difficult for tenants to effectively break the term of a lease. Can a break right be validly exercised when a tenant … Continue Reading
There has been much commentary in the property press over the last few days reporting on the eagerly anticipated outcome of BNP Paribas’ appeal against the High Court’s ruling last year that allowed M&S (BNP’s tenant) to recover £1.1m of rent and other charges after exercising their break right. The Court of Appeal allowed the … Continue Reading
The recent trend in Court decisions on conditional break clauses has been in favour of landlords but we have just seen a significant case decided in favour of tenants so that after successfully exercising a conditional break Marks and Spencer (the tenant) were entitled to a refund of the proportion of the rent (paid in … Continue Reading
This post was written by Katherine Campbell and Siobhan Hayes. Do tenants who want to exercise a break part way through a quarter have to pay the whole quarter’s rent on the quarter day in order to validly exercise the break? You will know from our previous posting that there have been two cases in … Continue Reading
This post was written by Katherine Campbell and Siobhan Hayes. We have seen many cases deciding whether tenants have managed to break their leases during this economic downturn. Many tenants break rights are conditional on rent payment by the break date and the recent case of PCE Investors Limited v Cancer Research UK highlights another danger … Continue Reading
Break clauses are currently one of the hot topics in real estate litigation. This is unsurprising given the state of the market. A High Court case reported this week shows how difficult it can be for tenants to operate a conditional break clause in a lease. In this case, the lease contained a condition that … Continue Reading
A High Court case reported this week shows how difficult it can be for tenants to operate a conditional break clause in a lease. On the face of it, this looks like a good decision for landlords. In this case, around £130 of default rate interest was overdue at the break date. The lease was … Continue Reading
We have posted previously on the difficulties of operating break clauses effectively . Today the Court of Appeal (in a case where we were acting for the landlord) has considered the meaning of a break clause which was conditional on the tenant delivering up with vacant possession.… Continue Reading
Break clauses are often incorporated into leases as a way for the tenant and occasionally, but less frequently, the landlord to maintain flexibility. In the present market they are often exercised by tenants. But exercising break rights and even the clauses can cause problems for the unwary tenant and great care must be taken to … Continue Reading
Every Tenant’s worst nightmare is to miss a break date in a Lease of unwanted space! With rental demand currently weak, Landlords are likely to take any technical point they can to defeat a Tenant’s break notice and the rental void it would trigger. Often the decision to serve break notices is left until close … Continue Reading
Effecting a lease break can be vital to a tenant’s business plans. There are a vast number of reported cases on the question of whether notices have been validly served. There are many more property lawyers’ files where the operation of a break is challenged. Tenants need to take great care and seek legal advice … Continue Reading
