For a fixed term Flashcards
What must the lease fulfil
The need for prospective certainty. A lease must have a date of commencement (even if in the past) and a fixed maximum duration.
Lace v Chantler
There must be a fixed term and certain duration
Facts of Lace
lease’s duration was set to ‘the duration of the war’ (World War II). There was no valid lease as the duration of the war was uncertain, and no criteria was set for judging when the war could be deemed to have ended. The concept of the war ending was uncertain and involved conceptual difficulties.
Retrospective
Ashburn v Ansalt - attempted to rectify this certainty issue, providing that retrospective certainty would be sufficient. There was an agreement for the sale of land but the leasor wanted to stay in the property until the seller wanted to sell. The CA held that although at the onset no one knew when this would happen, both parties would know when notice was given.
Where was Ansalt rejected
Prudential Assurance v London Residuary Body, which instead proposed that whilst prospective certainty would be required, the maximum duration need only be theoretical, and a lease could be shortened as required.
A lease for life
Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Co-operative: found that where a lease’s duration was set at ‘life’, a 90-year maximum term would be implied under s 149(6) LPA 1925
A lease fixed term with periodic tenancy
- Maximum durations are not an issue in periodic tenancies, as the period will be set by the rental payment period.
Issue with periodic tenancy
However, certainty of duration includes certainty in either party’s ability to give notice to end such a lease.
Re Midlands Railways
it was agreed that the maximum duration of a periodic tenancy will always be uncertain, but that the giving of notice could be conditional (a requirement that the landlord show that he needed the land for his own business purposes).
Where was Re Midlands Railway rejected
inCentaploy v Matlodge, which said that the right to give notice mist always be unconditional, irrespective of what the parties intended.
Facts of Centraploy
Here a purported weekly tenancy was ‘to continue until determined by the tenant’ which meant the landlord had no right to terminate. The Court held that a tenancy which is only determinable by the tenant was repugnant to the very nature of a periodic tenancy.
Where was centrally approved
Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Co-operative
What else does Berrisford v Mexfield deal with
SC found that an uncertain term should be treated as lease for life but only where there has been a formal grant. Limited in application therefore would not apply to an oral agreement between the parties.
