Licence for alterations procedures are designed to be simple and straightforward. However, as with any procedures there can be bumps along the way, some bigger than others!
In a recent case, a freeholder who was a party to licence for alterations procedures found themselves at the scrutiny of the Supreme Court!
Duval v Randolph Crescent Ltd is a stark warning to both leaseholders and freeholders who are a party to leases that have an absolute covenant governing the alterations clause.
In this case, the landlord, Randolph Crescent Ltd gave one of their leaseholders consent for structural alterations works.
They gave the consent after going through the necessary pre works licence for alterations procedures, satisfying their surveying and legal checks and agreeing a licence for alterations. Great! So how did this end up in front of the Supreme Court?
Well, it was actually another leaseholder in the block, Duval, who held that their freeholder Randolph Crescent, didn’t have the right to depart from the lease wording and it was actually an instance where the freeholder had caused a breach to the terms of the lease.
The Supreme Court agreed with the leaseholder Duval and furthermore agreed that the landlord could not covenant out of what would be a breach of the lease.
Ultimately, this ruling is a significant ice berg in licence for alterations surveying procedures. It effectively sets a precedent for landlords who are or were willing to deviate from the archaic wording of the lease. This comes with a big warning that they should tread very carefully, if at all, as they are in effect breaching the terms of the which they don’t have the right to do.
The lesson to be learned from this, is that that any leaseholder whom is a party to a lease that has an absolute covenant, could find themselves in a position whereby even if their landlord wants to give them the right to do the work, they may still find themselves unable to proceed.
If you’d like to discuss your licence for alterations requirements with our team of surveyors, give us a call today and we will be happy to assist.
