The Wellcome Trust is suing Beauchamp Hotels over a rent review of a hotel in Pont Street, London.
The dispute centres on whether the hotel has a sufficient fire escape. The Wellcome Trust contends that the rent review provisions include an assumption that all legal requirements in respect of the hotel, including the fire escape, will be met.
The hotel is let to Beauchamp, of Horsham, Sussex, under a 45.5-year lease dated June 1970. The lease permits use of the property only as a private residential hotel.
Wellcome Trust is seeking a declaration that, upon a true construction of the lease, the rent review provisions assume compliance with all legal preconditions for the use of the property as a private residential hotel. It says that the statutory provisions requiring sufficient means of escape in case of fire are subsumed under these conditions.
PLS News 7/8/01
