A high-end art dealer in Mayfair has secured a 20% reduction in its rent after it complained about the noise and disturbance caused by redevelopment work carried out by the landlord to the floors above its gallery.
Deputy judge Alan Steinfeld QC ruled that the Timothy Taylor gallery, in Carlos Place, Mayfair, should receive a 20% rebate on its £530,000 a year rent from 14 August 2014, the date when scaffolding first went up.
So far, that amounts to around £150,000 but, rather than impose an injunction against the landlord, Mayfair House Corporation, the judge ruled that the reduction should continue to apply until the work is completed.
The gallery, which occupies the ground and basement floors, had initially sought around £1m in damages, claiming that the ongoing redevelopment work being carried on the give floors of residential accommodation above had cost it more than £800,000 in lost profits up to the end of 2015.
But the judge said that figures showed that, during the time the works have been carried out, “It has not actually suffered any loss of profits.” In fact, he said, its sales had gone up.
However, he ruled that the landlord had been in breach of the tenant’s covenant for quiet enjoyment and implied covenant not to derogate from grant since the date the scaffolding was erected.
He said: “It seems to me that these building works are undoubtedly generating, at times, high levels of noise, which is bound to be disturbing to customers and staff in what is supposed to be a peaceful and quiet high-class art gallery in Mayfair.”
He added that what was “strikingly missing” in this case was any real liaison with the tenant over the likely duration and noise level of the works, which was “all the more essential” when dealing with such a tenant paying a very substantial rent.
Rather than ordering damages, he found that a rent rebate was a “more attractive way” to compensate the tenant, and concluded that a reduction of 20% was appropriate.
Applying the same figure to future rent, he said that an injunction in respect of ongoing work was “impracticable and probably unworkable”.
He rejected a counterclaim from the landlord that Timothy Taylor had unlawfully refused to grant access to its premises, as required by the lease.
The development work involves the creation of a west facing extension between 14 Carlos Place and the mews house at 7/48 Adams Row, with building work over 15 Carlos Place, the pushing out of the west-facing walls of the flats on the second, third and fourth floors and the rebuilding, within a mansard design structure, of the fifth floor to take advantage of the greater floor area available. This will increase the height of the roof and create a sunken roof garden.
