The landlord had a right to recover damages from a tenant for breach of an obligation to keep and leave the premises in repair. The landlord entered into a fresh lease with a new tenant who paid the full economic rent and agreed to carry out the repairs in return for the landlord undertaking to reimburse the new tenant from the damages recovered from the old tenant.
Held: The fact that repairs to demised premises were necessary after the end of a lease was a fact from which damage to the reversion can be inferred. The Court of Appeal rejected the submission that the landlord could not recover damages from the old tenant because, as a result of the agreement with the new tenant, he had suffered no loss. Bargaining between the parties to resolve a dispute did not cause the associated right to be lost because the agreement is properly regarded as res inter alios acta.
Denning LJ, Somervell LJ
[1952] 2 QB 80, [1952] 1 All ER 463
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Latimer and Another v Carney and others CA 27-Oct-2006
The landlords appealed disissal of their request for relief against their tenants for non-repair of the premises. The judge had held that the landlord had not provided appropriate evidence of the damage and costs of repair which it claimed.
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 10 December 2021; Ref: scu.245777