Option to determine lease after 10 years — Notice given to terminate lease — Whether notice valid — Whether commencement of term was immediately after midnight on first specified date — High Court holding that words of lease to be given their natural meaning
By a lease dated February 15 1985 the plaintiff let to the defendant the third and fourth floors of Sitwell House, Babington Lane, Derby. There was an option to determine the lease after 10 years, the 10-year term commencing on June 24 1984. Clause 4(1) of the lease provided: “If the tenant shall desire to determine the term … at the expiration of the first ten years thereof and shall give to the landlord six months’ previous notice in writing of such its desire and shall up to the time of such determination pay the rent and perform and observe the covenants on its part herein-before reserved and contained then immediately on the expiration of such ten years the present demise and everything herein contained shall cease and be void but without prejudice to the rights and remedies of either party against the other in respect of any antecedent claim or breach of covenant.”
The plaintiff claimed that on the true construction of the lease the term of 10 years commenced immediately after midnight on June 24 1994. It made an application to the court for a declaration that on the true construction of clause 4(1) of the lease a notice exercising the defendant’s option to determine the lease had to be given for June 24 1994 if it was to be valid and effective; and that a notice of December 24 1993 signed by the defendant, which purported to determine the lease on June 23 1994, was not valid and effective to determine it having been given for a date earlier than that on which it could be validly determined pursuant to clause 4(l).
Held The application was dismissed.
1. In the absence of any express indication to the contrary the words of lease were to be given their ordinary English meaning. The term of 10 years stated to commence on June 24 1984 started on that day and terminated at the last moment of June 23 1994.
2. Accordingly, the notice given by the defendants was valid to determine the lease on June 23 1994.
Benjamin Levy (instructed by Nabarro Nathanson) appeared for the plaintiff; Michael Barnes QC (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the Secretary of State for the Environment.
