Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood today fended off a landlord’s bid to raise the rent for her flagship store in Mayfair by more than £100,000 a year.
While a judge gave a split decision on the issues in the complex case, her lawyers said that in practical terms she had succeeded and would be £500,000 better off as a result of a ruling that keeps her rent as it is until November 2019.
However, deputy judge Timothy Fancourt QC granted the landlord permission to appeal, meaning the battle may not yet be over.
The designer’s company, Vivienne Westwood Ltd, won a ruling that a “side letter” agreement to the lease of the premises, at 44 Conduit St, W1, remains in force, limiting the rent to £125,000 as from the first rent review date, November 2014.
Current landlord Conduit Street Development had claimed that the side agreement, made between Westwood and its predecessor, was terminated by late payment of rent in June 2015, entitling it to raise the rent from £125,000 pa to the market rent of £232,500 from November 2014.
But the judge said that the termination provision in the side letter is “penal in nature”, and so the purported termination was “unenforceable”.
He added: “The claimant remains liable and entitled to pay rent at the capped rate of £125,000 for so long as it satisfies the conditions in the side letter.”
The side letter applies until the next review date of 17 November 2019.
The dispute arose in respect of the 15-year lease granted to Vivienne Westwood Ltd in November 2009.
Though the judge agreed with Westwood on the side letter issue, he rejected her argument that a previous landlord had impliedly offered to settle the rent review at £125,000 pa and that Conduit Street should be bound by that.
The judge awarded Vivienne Westwood Ltd only 40% of its legal costs to reflect the fact that while it was successful, it was “not wholly successful” on the issues. He ordered Conduit Street to make an upfront payment of £40,000, ahead of assessment of the costs to be paid.