Please sign in with your existing account details.
Register to access exclusive content, sign up to receive our updates and personalise your experience on brownejacobson.com.
Privacy statement - Terms and conditions
Forgotten your password?
You have exceeded the maximum number of login attempts for this email address and your account has been locked. An email has been sent to member of Browne Jacobson's web team and some one will be contacting you over the next two working days with details of how to change your password.
Are you sure you want to remove this item from you pinned content?
The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision from last summer that a licence for alterations entered into without joining in a guarantor or obtaining its consent operated to release that guarantor.
This is based on the common law rule that a variation to a principal contract (without the guarantor’s consent) releases the guarantor unless it is self-evident that the variation was insubstantial or non-prejudicial to the guarantor.
The alterations covenant in this case was absolute (so no alterations were contemplated at the time the lease was granted). By giving consent to the tenant’s alterations, the landlord had potentially increased the burden on the guarantor (in particular, the alterations significantly increased the tenant’s repairing obligations). The guarantor had not consented to this and was therefore released from liability.
Whilst there is no new law here, the case is a useful reminder for landlords to ensure that they make guarantors a party to all licences, variations and supplemental lease documents.
One of the requirements for tenants to contract out of the security of tenure regime contained in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is that they make a simple or statutory declaration before entering into the lease.
View blog
Landlords should reconsider summary judgment if a Part 26A restructuring plan is pending.
A landlord’s claim for summary judgment to recover rent and service charge arrears accrued since the start of the pandemic against a non-essential retailer succeeded. Like London buses, a second such case has followed hot on its heels.
Whilst this decision may not be surprising, it will undoubtedly send a chill down the spine of retailers in a similar position to The Fragrance Shop.
Select which mailings you would like to receive from us.
Sign up