header-logo header-logo

Frustration of leases: it’s not all about the pandemic!

18 November 2020 / Anthony Tanney , Catherine Taskis
Issue: 7911 / Categories: Features , Property , Landlord&tenant
printer mail-detail
32368
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

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
back-to-top-scroll