Before serving a break notice, carefully check all the provisions in the lease – not just those relating to the break clause itself.

The importance of this is illustrated by a recent case in which a lease break clause said ‘T may terminate the lease... by giving to L not less than nine months prior written notice’. But, elsewhere in the lease there was a clause relating to notices generally which read ‘during such period as the reversion to this lease is vested in the trustee of A, no notice will be deemed to be validly served on L unless a copy of the notice is also served on A’. Needless to say, T served the break notice on L (only), and L argued that it was invalid because a copy should also have been served on A. The court agreed. As such, therefore, it is a simple illustration of the importance of reading the whole lease, and not just the clause on which you are relying. Hotgroup v RBS [2010] EWHC 1241 (Ch) (access free at www.practicalconveyancing.co.uk).