Howard De Walden Estates Ltd is challenging a Central London County Court declaration, given in May, that the leasehold owner of two London properties was entitled to acquire the freehold under Part I of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.
The company has refused to admit the tenant’s right to acquire on the basis that the properties, 11 and 12 Devonshire Mews South, London W1, did not constitute a “house” within the definition provided in section 2 of the Act.
In the county court, Judge Hallgarten QC ruled that, together, the two properties constituted a “house”.
On appeal, Judith Jackson QC, counsel for the company, argued that no attempt had been made to make the properties appear uniform and that they had retained two separate postal addresses.
She claimed that the only connection between the two houses was at a raised level between the rear of the garage of no 12 and the patio at the rear of no 11, and that there were no internal access arrangements. In the light of the recent House of Lords decision, Malekshad v Howard de Walden Estates Ltd [2002] 50 EG 114 (CS), she maintained that the vertical division between the two properties meant that, by virtue of section 2(1)(b), they could not constitute a single house.
Anthony Radevsky, counsel for the tenant, argued that the “property demised by the lease comprised a house arranged as: (i) no 11, the living accommodation of which consisted of the whole of no 11 and the ground floor of no 12; and (ii) a flat on the first floor of no 12”.
The hearing continues.
Collins v Howard De Walden Estates Ltd Court of Appeal (Aldous and Dyson LJJ) 28 March 2003.
Judith Jackson QC and Timothy Harry (instructed by Speechly Bircham) appeared for the appellant; Anthony Radevsky (instructed by Lawrence Graham) appeared for the respondent.
References: PLS News 31/3/03
