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Variation of lease terms
Extent of power
Gianfrancesco v Haughton
Lands Tribunal, President
LRX/10/2007
Summary
The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal has power under s38 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 to vary a lease that fails to make satisfactory provisions with respect to one or more of the matters mentioned in s35. However, it will not do so merely because the lease is not in modern form.
Facts
T had a top floor flat in a mid-terrace house and was under an obligation to redecorate and maintain the exterior of the flat. This was difficult at the rear because access the whole of the rear garden was covered by a conservatory that belonged to the ground floor flat, occupied by L. L refused to help beyond allowing the tenant to remove the conservatory roof panels, at her own expense and risk. L sought to impose the obligation on the landlord and to introduce a service charge clause.
Decision
LVT refused to vary the lease terms and that decision was upheld on this appeal. Whether the lease fails to make satisfactory provision is one for the tribunal to judge in all the circumstances of the case. However, "a lease does not fail to make satisfactory provision simply because it could have been better or more explicitly drafted. For instance the need to imply a term is not necessarily, or even probably, an indication that the lease fails to make satisfactory provision for the matter in question." The LVT accepted that the system of covenants contained in the lease were not modern or conventional but they were satisfactory and workable.
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