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11 January 2007 / Stuart Bridge
Issue: 7255 / Categories: Features , Landlord&tenant , Property
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Ripe for reform

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The Law Commission wants to abolish the law of forfeiture for breach of covenant. Stuart Bridge explains why

In January 2004, the Law Commission’s (the commission’s) consultation paper, Termination of Tenancies for Tenant Default (Law Com No 174) (see 154 NLJ 7113, p 113), stated that the law of forfeiture was “complex…lacks coherence and…can lead to injustice”. It provisionally proposed that forfeiture should be replaced with a statutory scheme for the termination of tenancies. The scheme would make the law easier to understand, simpler to use, and would assist landlords and tenants to resolve disputes out of court. Responses to the consultation paper revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the current law and strong support for reform.

The commission has now published its final report (Law Com No 303) and the draft Landlord and Tenant (Termination of Tenancies) Bill. This article briefly sets out the main recommendations, which are largely of significance in relation to commercial tenancies and long residential tenancies.
Landlords will no longer be able to terminate a tenancy by using the law of

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