A landlord was found to have unreasonably refused his consent to an assignment even though the purpose of assignment was to frustrate the landlord’s development intentions.
Three grounds for withholding consent were advanced. Two of these were held to have been reasonable. The third was bad for two reasons, first, because it was not in the landlord’s mind at any relevant time and, secondly, because it was bad in law. Having considered various English authorities (some of the ex facie conflicting) Neuberger J said: ‘In my judgment where, as here, a refusal of consent to an assignment is based on a number of reasons, the fact that one of those reasons is bad will not normally render the refusal unreasonable, assuming that the other reasons are good. As the observation in [Berenyi v Watford Borough Council [1980] 2 EGLR 38] and British Bakeries suggests, it seems to me that, ultimately, it is a question of considering the covenant and the refusal of consent in each case. Thus, it may be clear that the bad reason is by far the most important reason, and that the purportedly good reasons were merely makeweights; or it may be that the existence of the bad reason infects or vitiates what would otherwise, in the absence of the bad reason, be a good reason. However, in the absence of such special factors, I consider that what was agreed in British Bakeries… represents, at any rate prior to 1988, the law in relation to most covenants not to do something without landlords’ consent, such consent not to be unreasonably withheld…’.
Judges:
Neuberger J
Citations:
Gazette 08-Jan-1998, [1998] 2 EGLR 182
Statutes:
Cited by:
Cited – No1 West India Quay (Residential) Ltd v East Tower Apartments Ltd ChD 6-Oct-2016
Consent to assignment – delay
Tenants under long residential leases challenged the refusal of the landlord to consent to particular assignments of apartments. The leases contained provisions saying that such consent was not to be unreasonably withheld. The landlord now appealed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 08 April 2022; Ref: scu.78716
