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18 June 2020 / Andrew Francis
Issue: 7891 / Categories: Features , Property
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Compare & contrast: three lessons from the courts on covenants

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Why is the ability of a tenant to modify certain restrictive covenants in leases under s 84(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925 not better known, asks Andrew Francis
  • The decision in Edgware Road.
  • Comparisons withShaviram and Berkeley Square.
  • Practical suggestions.

At first sight there is not much in common between a vacant 1980s office building near Basingstoke Railway Station, a mid-eighteenth century Grade I townhouse and a Grade II mews house of the same period, on the west side of Berkeley Square in Mayfair and finally, part of a 1960s development (formerly used as offices) on the west side of the Edgware Road, less than half a mile north of Marble Arch. The tenant of each property wanted to modify the user covenant in its lease. While the locations and properties were different, the commercial and economic interests of the applicant tenants were aligned, as were the interests of the respondent landlords. In each application

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

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NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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