A notice was issued under s 14 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1881 in which the lessor alleged generally that the lessee had ‘broken the covenants for repairing the inside and outside’ of the demised premises, and required the lessee to repair ‘ in accordance with the said covenants. The lease was over six houses and the notice did not indicate in which of the houses the default was made.
Held: The notice was ineffective: I think the notice which is to be given under s 14 ought to be such a notice as will enable the tenant to understand with reasonable certainty what it is which he is required to do. I do not mean that the landlord need go through every room in a house and point out every defect. But the notice ought to be so distinct as to direct the attention of the tenant to the particular things of which the landlord complains, so that the tenant may have an opportunity of remedying them before an action to enforce a forfeiture of the lease is brought against him. In my opinion, the notice which the plaintiff has given to the defendant is not sufficiently specific. Sect. 14 says that it is to be a notice ‘specifying the particular breach complained of.’ I do not think that is met by a notice which simply says, ‘You have broken the covenants for repairing.’ The plaintiff has not condescended upon any details, and, in my opinion, the notice is not sufficient under s. 14.’
North J
[1897] 1 Ch 271
Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1881 14
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Fox v Jolly HL 1916
The House referred to a schedule of repair served on the tenant: ‘Now the schedule is attacked on several grounds. It is said that it does not tell the tenant what it is he ought to do in order to remedy the breach of which complaint is made. I am . .
Cited – John Lewis Properties PLC v Viscount Chelsea ChD 1993
Three Leases of the Peter Jones site to T’s predecessor in 1934 contained covenants by T to redevelop the site in two phases, the second of which related to the MackMurdo and Simon’s Street buildings and was to be completed by December 25 1987. In . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 July 2021; Ref: scu.185098