The Court of Appeal judgment in Courtney Lodge Management Ltd v Blake [2004] EWCA Civ 975 confirms that:
* failure to exercise a legal power to prevent a breach of covenant will constitute a breach of a covenant “not to permit or suffer” a particular state of affairs or “nuisance”
* a covenantor that has no legal power to prevent something, but who fails to exercise its influence to prevent it, might also be found to have “suffered” a nuisance if the exercise of that influence would have resolved the issue in question
* the courts are unlikely to excuse a tenant that is unable to seek an injunction against an undertenant because the terms of the underlease fail to reflect the terms set out in the tenant’s own lease
* a landlord serving a section 146 notice must allow its tenant time to remedy the breaches specified in the notice. Four working days’ notice to respond to a section 146 notice was not a reasonable period in this case.
Allyson Colby is a professional support lawyer at Wragge & Co LLP.
The Court of Appeal judgment in Courtney Lodge Management Ltd v Blake [2004] EWCA Civ 975 confirms that:
* failure to exercise a legal power to prevent a breach of covenant will constitute a breach of a covenant “not to permit or suffer” a particular state of affairs or “nuisance”
* a covenantor that has no legal power to prevent something, but who fails to exercise its influence to prevent it, might also be found to have “suffered” a nuisance if the exercise of that influence would have resolved the issue in question
* the courts are unlikely to excuse a tenant that is unable to seek an injunction against an undertenant because the terms of the underlease fail to reflect the terms set out in the tenant’s own lease
* a landlord serving a section 146 notice must allow its tenant time to remedy the breaches specified in the notice. Four working days’ notice to respond to a section 146 notice was not a reasonable period in this case.
Allyson Colby is a professional support lawyer at Wragge & Co LLP.
