Court of Appeal rules on ability of competent landlord to agree terms of a new lease under the 1993 Act
In Kateb v Howard de Walden Estates Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 1176, decided on 29 November 2016, the Court of Appeal had to decide an important point of statutory construction in a new lease claim under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. They held that the freeholder, as competent landlord, could agree the terms of the new lease with the tenant, including the amount payable to the intermediate landlord, even where the intermediate landlord objected and where she had served a notice of separate representation. The Court rejected the tenant’s argument that, once a tribunal application had been made, the power to agree the intermediate landlord’s compensation could no longer be exercised by the freeholder. They also decided that there was no breach of the intermediate landlord’s human rights to a fair trial and/or to compensation for deprivation of property. The Act provided an aggrieved intermediate landlord with a remedy to make a claim against a freeholder in an appropriate case.
The judgment can be found here
Anthony Radevsky acted for the successful freeholder.
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