Landlord & tenant

The Chancery Division ruled on whether the first claimant tenant of a pub (a company in administration) had complied with its obligation, under a lease, to offer the defendant landlord an option to purchase the lease, prior to seeking consent to assign it to another party (the option clause). The court held that the application for consent to assign the lease, although made by the proposed assignee of that lease, should be treated as having been made by the tenant. However, it ruled that, notwithstanding that, a letter sent by the tenant’s administrators to the landlord on the previous day had not been adequate to trigger the landlord’s buy-back right under the option clause. The court held that that letter had not proffered a formal option, and, accordingly, could not comply with the pre-requisites to the tenant’s applying for a licence to assign the