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18 November 2020 / Anthony Tanney , Catherine Taskis
Issue: 7911 / Categories: Features , Property , Landlord&tenant
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Frustration of leases: it’s not all about the pandemic!

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Anthony Tanney & Catherine Taskis assess some of the broader questions regarding frustration of leases & examine where the law might go next

In brief

  • Almost forty years on, there remains no reported instance of a lease having ever been terminated by frustration.
  • The effects of the supervening event must be sufficiently radical, in order for the contract to be discharged by frustration.

There can be few people who, several months into the current pandemic, are not suffering from some degree of ‘lockdown fatigue’. So we ought to begin by saying that while lockdown is the pretext for this article, the article is not actually about lockdown itself.

First, the pretext. In recent months there has been much discussion about when, if at all, lockdown might cause a lease to be discharged by frustration.

In particular, as everyone knows in National Carriers Ltd v Panaplina Northern Ltd [1981] AC 675, [1981] 1 All ER 161 the House of Lords decided that the contractual

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