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Renewal lease - planning breaches |
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A recent case is of interest because it shows that serious planning breaches by T may be sufficient grounds for refusing to grant T a new lease (under LTA 1954).
In this particular case, T had ignored a planning Enforcement Notice (and had been convicted in the magistrate’s court); he had also had a Breach of Condition notice served on him. As a result, the vast majority of the activities carried out by T on the premises had been unauthorised, and therefore illegal. In the court’s view, T’s ‘appalling past record of breaches of planning control’ and ‘unreliability as a witness’ meant it was unlikely that ‘if he was granted a renewal of his tenancy, he would continue to act lawfully’. Accordingly, L’s opposition to the new tenancy was upheld, with T’s planning breaches coming within the scope of ‘any other reason connected with T’s use or management of the holding’ (under s30(1)(c) LTA 1954). It is not clear from the report whether T’s use of the premises was in breach of the user clause in the lease; if it was, then one would assume that L would be taken to have waived those breaches by continuing to accept rent. But, subject to that point, the case does illustrate that planning breaches can be relevant on a 1954 Act renewal.
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April 2009 |