Promoting and enhancing best practice and technical expertise

Focus on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954

Six problem areas in lease renewal practice

If you are involved in lease renewal negotiations, whether as surveyor, investor or occupier, you cannot afford to miss this course.

Start Date Venue Price  
12 July 2017 Reading    

Note: All prices are to be paid in GBP and are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate

Event duration: Day Event (4 hours 30 minutes CPD) (Lunch Included).
Registration from: 9:30. Event starts at: 10:00. Event finishes at: 16:15.

Learning points

By the end of the course you will be able to:

  • Recognise where the nature of the tenant’s occupation may mean there is no right to renew
  • Know how to disentangle chains of tenancies and sub-tenancies to identify the ‘competent landlord’
  • Understand the difficulties and complexities of dealing with implied periodic tenancies
  • Identify how to structure settlements so as to avoid difficulties arising under the 1954 Act
  • Avoid becoming unintentionally bound by terms offered in negotiations, or in formal documents such as notices
  • Understand the options available to the tenant who needs to avoid committing, while retaining the ability to terminate their rental commitment at the earliest date
  • Recognise and avoid key problems in opposing the renewal of leases.

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The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is the single most important piece of legislation affecting the commercial property market – but how much do you really understand it? It is a highly technical piece of legislation, with many traps for the unwary, and many little-known byways.

This course identifies particular problem areas for surveyors dealing with lease renewals, where improved awareness and understanding can not only mean avoiding mistakes (potentially very expensive ones), but also adding value in delivering an expert service to the client.

Speakers

  • Mark Shelton, Commercial Property Management Law Trainer, CPM Law Training Limited and Author of 'A Practical Guide to the Law of Dilapidations' and 'A Practical Guide to Applications for Landlords' Consent and Variation of Leases'

Programme

Session 1

Problems with business occupation

  • Tenants whose business is sub-letting – can they be in occupation?
  • Shop-and-flat leases – which scheme of security applies, and can it change?
  • Franchise arrangements – who is in occupation?
  • Breaks in occupation and the ‘thread of continuity’

Session 2

Landlords: immediate, superior, and ‘competent’

  • Which landlord is the relevant one for the renewal process?
  • Correct practice in serving notices up or down the chain
  • Obtaining reliable information
  • Can an s.25 notice ever be withdrawn?

Session 3

Regularising implied periodic tenancies

  • Why periodic tenancies are special
  • Calculating length of notice, and getting the notices right
  • Must a periodic tenant have been in occupation for 12 months to have security of tenure?
  • Can a periodic tenancy be contracted out?

Session 4

Pitfalls in agreeing renewal terms

  • The s.28 trap – beware the unintended contracting-out
  • Can you be held to terms offered in negotiations?
  • What about terms stated in notices or court documents?
  • Issues to be aware of in reaching settlements

Session 5

How tenants can keep their options open

  • Mastering the notices framework
  • Termination by going out of occupation – pros and cons
  • Ending the tenancy once proceedings have been issued
  • Is it any different if the landlord issued the court application?

Session 6

Key issues in opposed lease renewals

  • What discretion does the court have where the tenant is in breach?
  • The misrepresentation trap
  • How much is it possible to control the amount of statutory compensation?
  • Tactics and timing