The tenant had created a subletting which would attract the protection of the Rent Act. The landlord sought forfeiture.
Held: The court could envisage circumstances in which it might be unreasonable to refuse consent to an underletting, if the result would be that there was no way in which the tenant (the sublandlord) could reasonably exploit the premises except by creating a tenancy to which the Rent Act protection would apply, and which inevitably would affect the value of the landlord’s reversion.
O’Connor LJ said: ‘It must not be thought that, because the introduction of a Rent Act tenant inevitably has an adverse effect upon the value of the reversion, that that is a sufficient ground for the landlords to say that they can withhold consent and that the court will hold that that is reasonable.’ In this case however it was.
Judges:
Oliver, O’Connor LJJ
Citations:
[1984] 2 EGLR 54, (1983) 271 EG 279
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.245840