Until a landlord provides its tenant with an address in England and Wales for service of notices on him as required under section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, any payments due from the tenant to the landlord are treated as not due. Only when the section is complied with does the rent become due.
The High Court considered the effect of section 48 in Sunset Ltd and another v Al-Hindi [2023] EWHC 2443 (Ch), dismissing a bankruptcy petition.
The bankruptcy petition was presented in June 2022 by the petitioners, Sunset Ltd and Morville Ltd, against the debtor, Abdulla Al-Hindi, based on failure to comply with statutory demands for unpaid rent of £248,750 due under four leases of properties in central London.
The debtor failed to comply with a direction to file evidence in answer and was late in complying with an unless order requiring him to do so. While he agreed the arrears, he disputed allegations of subletting in breach of the leases and challenged whether the petitioners were the landlords of the premises. His application for relief from sanctions was dismissed, and he was only permitted to pursue limited grounds of opposition, which included an argument that section 48 of the 1987 Act had not been complied with.
At the hearing in June 2023 the only issue was the effect of section 48 of the 1987 Act. The address for service given in the tenancy agreements was an address in Jersey and not in England and Wales. The proprietorship register at HM Land Registry also gave the Jersey address, as did the statutory demands. Rent statements served by a third party gave no address at all.
A communication address on the statutory demands could not meet the requirements of section 48. Neither could the address on headed notepaper of solicitors instructed in relation to the arrears or addresses for service in court documents. There was nothing to suggest that a course of dealings between the parties left the debtor in no doubt as to the position.
A notice compliant with section 48 was provided to the debtor on 6 February 2023, at which date the rent became due: see Dallhold Estates (UK) Pty Ltd v Lindsey Trading Properties Inc [1994] 1 EGLR 93. However, this was long after the petition was presented. Consequently, the debt could not be treated as due at the date the petition was presented. The statutory demands on which the petition was based were similarly defective so the court could not treat the petition as presented after 6 February 2023.
Louise Clark is a property law consultant and mediator
