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Compare & contrast: three lessons from the courts on covenants

18 June 2020 / Andrew Francis
Issue: 7891 / Categories: Features , Property
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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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